Wonderful Words of Others: Maya Angelou's Phenomenal Woman

I had the delightful privilege to see Ms. Angelou recite this poem!

What a show!!

Phenomenal Woman

By Maya Angelou

Pretty women wonder where my secret lies,

I'm not cute or built to suit a fashion model's size

But when I start to tell them

They think I'm telling lies.

I say,

It's in the reach of my arms,

The span of my hips,

The stride of my step,

The curl of my lips.

I'm a woman

Phenomenally.

Phenomenal woman,

That's me.

I walk into a room

Just as cool as you please,

And to a man,

The fellows stand or

Fall down on their knees.

Then they swarm around me,

A hive of honey bees.

I say

It's the fire in my eyes,

And the flash of my teeth,

The swing in my waist,

And the joy in my feet.

I'm a woman

Phenomenally.

Phenomenal woman,

That's me.

Men themselves have wondered

What they see in me.

They try to much

But they can't touch

My inner mystery.

When I try to show them

They say they still can't see.

I say,

It's in the arch of my back,

The sun of my smile,

The ride of my breasts,

The grace of my style.

I'm a woman

Phenomenally

Phenomenal Woman,

That's me.

Now you understand

Just why my head's not bowed.

I don't shout or jump about

Or have to talk real loud.

When you see me passing

It ought to make you proud.

I say,

It's in the click of my heels,

The bend of my hair,

The palm of my hand,

The need for my care.

'Cause I'm a woman

Phenomenally.

Phenomenal woman,

That's me.

Eve And The Only Guy On The Planet

If she couldn’t get it right, what hope is there for the rest of us?

A Heart of Perfection
You know Eve. The girl with the apple. The one Adam pointed to when God said, “Hey! Whose idea was it to eat the forbidden fruit?!” The person who consistently bears the brunt of the blame for the whole Garden of Eden debacle. Most famously remembered as the woman who caved when Satan decided to tempt, Eve’s punishment has affected womanhood to this day: to forever bear children with intense pain and suffering and perpetually submit to man as their master.

On account of [Eve] even the Son of God had to die.
Tertullian

Salimbene, a 13th century Franciscan monk compiled a collection of popular views of his day on women. Eve was definitely not thought of positively: “Woman was evil from the beginnings, a gate of death, a disciple of the servant, the devil’s accomplice, a fount of deception, a dogstart to godly labours, rust corrupting the saints; whose perilous face hath overgrown such as had already become almost angels. Lo, woman is the head of sin, a weapon of the devil, expulsion from Paradise, mother of guilt, corruption of the ancient law.” Whoa. How’s that for a thorough insult?

Personally, I think Eve got a bum rap. Now, don’t get me wrong. I’m not here to offer excuses or place blame in another location. I simply wish that the whole person that Eve was, wasn’t defined by her famous moment of succumbing to temptation. (Look at it this way: How would you like to be remembered for your greatest personal disaster?)

The bottom line is that Eve was an ancestress of Christ. You and I can’t claim that. Nor can a lot of other women. She was unique, special, and chosen. At the time when God was recounting the consequences of both Eve and Adam’s poor choice, He also gave her a promise of redemption. She was the first person to be given the promise of the savior. It was her seed that was going to crush the head of the serpent, Satan. (Genesis 3:15)

Spend some time with me examining Eve, the person she was, and the guy she hooked up with. Take a peek into what it means to perfect. Maybe, if we try, we’ll learn something new about her and ourselves in the process. After all, haven’t you always wanted to achieve perfection?

Scripture References To Should Check Out: Genesis 1:26-31, Genesis 2-5

Question to ask yourself and answer before you read any further: What one thing would you like to change in your life that would ensure better circumstances for yourself?

What her name means: God given: “Adam” means “mankind” or “taken out of the earth” or “human being”
Adam given (while in The Garden): “Woman” means “man-ess” or “taken out of man”
Adam given (once they are thrown out of The Garden):“Eve” means “The Mother of All Who Have Life” or “Life-giving”

Connections: Even though Eve was perfect, lived in paradise, and was hooked up with a heaven-made match she had self doubts about herself. Her lack of self-confidence in herself and her God-given abilities left her open for Satan’s treachery causing disaster and misery for all.

What the Bible says about being Perfect:

• Regarding God and His Promises: Psalm 18:29-31


• Regarding Perfection: Psalm 119:96


• On Waiting For Perfection: Ecclesiastes 11:4


• On Our Own Personal Level of Perfection and What We Should Strive For: Matthew 5:47-48


• On Why We Cannot Judge What Is Perfect: 1 Corinthians 13:11-12


• Advice On How To Achieve It: Philippians 3:12-13


• Perfection On Earth: Hebrews 9:13-15


• What It’s All About: James 1:16-18
  

For all you Eves out there …
What lessons can you learn and apply to your life from the account of Eve and whom she hooked up with? First and foremost you must remember what Adam and Eve’s perfection was based on. Nothing external. It was all internal. Their perfection was gone in the blink of an eye the moment they both chose not to allow God and God alone to rule their hearts and minds.

Eve started out hooked up with God, but then fell away from that perfect direction. Blessed with her soul mate, Adam, she was able to get back on track and work towards getting back to the right relationship she needed to have with The One True God. We, as descendants of Adam and Eve, are creatures with the identical capacity for personal thought and childlike understanding. We also have the same God-given ability to choose to head toward perfection … or not.

I like the way the apostle Paul talked about perfection. “I don’t mean to say that I have already achieved these things or that I have already reached perfection. But I press on to possess that perfection for which Christ Jesus first possessed me. No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us.” (Philippians 3:12-14)
Forgetting the past …
Looking forward to what likes ahead …
Pressing on to reach … the heavenly prize …
Sounds like a plan, doesn’t it?

• Good Choices and Bad: Remember, Eve was wrong for her initial actions but Adam was just as wrong for saying nothing to stop her. Doing nothing is doing something. Not speaking up and voicing The Truth or not correcting a wrong when it is being committed makes you culpable. Culpable as in “deserving of blame or censure as being wrong, evil, improper, or injurious.” (Free Online Dictionary)

• Exemption: Being superior in appearance, position, or ability does not excuse our guilt. Just as God created the serpent to be cleverer than any of the other creatures that He had made, He also sentenced that same creature to eat dirt and die. Never, ever should any of us become complacent in our place within God’s plan. We are necessary for what we can do for His greater glory and design and nothing more. As soon as we step out towards our own agenda we are spectacularly and frighteningly alone and undefended.

• Focus: Being perfect does not guarantee that you won’t make any mistakes. In fact, it might actually blind you into a false sense of complacency so that when disaster sneaks up on you, you don’t even recognize it until after it’s way too late. Psalm 57:1-3 gives a good standard for how you should approach every step of your life:

• Recognize You Can’t Do It On Your Own:

Have mercy on me, O God, have mercy! I look to you for protection.
Know Where To Go In Times Of Trouble:
I will hide beneath the shadow of your wings until the danger passes by.
Know Who To Ask For Advice:
I cry out to God Most High, to God who will fulfill his purpose for me.
Recognize Where True Power Lies:
He will send help from heaven to rescue me, disgracing those who hound me.
Understand The Reasons Behind It All:
My God will send forth his unfailing love and faithfulness.

• Believe: The person that you are is exactly the person God needs you to be. You must believe that for what God needs you to do right this very minute: You. Are. Just. Perfect. Any flaw you perceive in yourself is only an excuse to not follow through with what God wants you to do. Rick Warren in his book A Purpose Driven Life says, “God never does anything accidentally, and He never makes mistakes.” Stop focusing on what you’re missing and concentrate on all you’ve got to offer.

• Forgive: Don’t. Keep. Score. Dwelling on past mistakes prevents you from forging ahead positively into the future. You must learn to let go of past failures of your own doing as well as your mate’s. God has forgotten your disasters as soon as you ask His forgiveness. Why can’t you? King David, an abject failure as a husband and father but also known as “the man after God’s own heart” sang about forgiveness in Psalm 32 (vs. 1-3 MSG): Count yourself lucky, how happy you must be - you get a fresh start, your slate's wiped clean. Count yourself lucky - God holds nothing against you and you're holding nothing back from Him.

• Trust: Just as Adam and Eve were provided with the perfect mate, you too have one out there somewhere in the world. And no, before you ask, I don’t believe you can find him or her on your own. That’s where faith comes in: believing in something that you can’t see or touch. Commit to pray for this person, commit to wait for this person, commit to believe that this person is doing the same for you, and commit to not settling for anything less than the very best. Trust me, it will be worth the wait in the end.
  

Be the change you want to see in the world.
Mahatma Gandhi

• Commit: Be determined to find the perfect heavenly-fashioned companion for yourself or create that sort of relationship with the person you are already with. He or she may not be as easily acquired as Adam found Eve and yet you have every reason to believe that God’s plan and desire for you is nothing less than “a perfect match”. Remember what Adam and Eve had in common that promoted their success: a like-minded spiritual focus, a similar passion for the environment in which they chose to live, an joint attitude of commitment, love and forgiveness, and a relationship rooted in innocence and purity.

• Remain Vigilant: Even the most perfect relationships must be nurtured and prized. Kind words never go out of fashion, loving expressions are always appreciated, and thoughtful signs of appreciation are never wasted. Even if your mate is not yet suitable for the “perfect” category, what areas are pretty close? Have you shared that with him or her lately? Temptation to become complacent is a danger we cannot afford. Temptation in and of itself is not wrong. Giving into temptation is where the problems start.

True freedom comes from obedience and knowing what not to do.
NLT

• Stay Faithful: Oswald Chambers says that, “Faith is the heroic effort of your life.” It’s pretty darn easy to be pleased with God when things are going well in your life and just as easy to blame God when things go down the tubes. You cannot be casual about your faith walk on the day to day existence of your life only to become intensely spiritual when things start to get rocky. Your relationship with God is either a committed, loving relationship or it is a casual acquaintance. You and only you must set the standards.

• Love: Remember that the dominating emotion that was the force behind the creation of this world was: love. Operating within that emotion towards yourself first and foremost and then towards all others redefines the world you live in.

How well do you know yourself? If you are unsure of what you want out of your life then you are on shaky ground trying to hook up with someone. You need to be The Expert regarding yourself spiritually, emotionally, socially, and physically. You need to think about who will compliment you best. What about your mate or the mate of your dreams? Do you know what you need? What you should be looking for? What qualities would ensure your success as a couple? Prayerfully and seriously consider these things. Don’t just reach into the dating basket, randomly choose someone and settle. Your choice of a mate should be based on what God has given you and what He would choose to be the best mate for you.


This is an excerpt from the chapter “Eve and The Only Guy On The Planet” from Sue's book: Biblical Women And Who They Hooked Up With available in print or electronic media at her http://www.lulu.com/ store: http://www.lulu.com/content/884852

You, Your Heart, and Your Life

The World vs. The Promise

The way of this world draws us in the opposite direction from God’s own heart.

The love of God pays no attention to the distinctions made by natural individuality.
Oswald ChambersIn fact, despite the apparent value of our heart, we seem to spend a significant part of our life trying to mask, ignore, or downright disobey it, don’t we? We are repeatedly embarrassed by personal qualities that make us unique from others. “I wish I wasn’t so outspoken …” We regularly don’t value our own worth and let others redefine it to their standards. “I thought it was a good idea, but everyone else …” We allow ourselves to become involved in situations that do not afford us the respect we deserve. “I knew it was a mistake when he invited me back to his apartment, but …” We doubt ourselves and what we know to be right. “I know it wasn’t the best thing to do, but …”

We ignore our heart and in doing so we distance ourselves from God.

We ignore our heart and in doing so we accumulate mistakes, failures, and missed opportunities that keep us from forging positively ahead into the future.

We ignore our heart and in doing so we loose sight of the person God wants us to be.

We ignore our heart and miss joyful experiences that we are meant to have.

We ignore our heart and in doing so do not fulfill the job that only we are capable of doing.

We ignore our heart and end up in a place that is sad, dark, lonely, and hopeless.

Our job here on this earth is to continually ‘shore up’ our heart: get it right, make it strong, start anew, and become improved … GROW. The Bible addresses that, too. “Becoming a new person” affords those of us with a past as bleak as a burned out forest the opportunity to get away from the smoke and ash. 2 Corinthians 5:17 states clearly, “Anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!”

God wants you beyond your resources so you have to depend on Him and His resources.
Rev. Dr. Todd Buurstra

We human beings just don’t appreciate the magnitude of this promise. We repeatedly don’t believe it nor do we take advantage of it. “My whole life is and always will be a disaster.” “I’ve got things in my past that are too big to forget.” “I’ve got bad luck.” “I don’t believe in fairy tales.” “I’ve got issues.” The first step to a changed heart is to step out on faith and believe. Eliminate “but” from your vocabulary. Give God the opportunity to show you what your life can be like.

Rationalize this for me: if God is willing to forgive and forget everything bad about you and your past, why can’t you? Usually it’s because forgiving and forgetting involves making conscious decisions to change for the better. It means becoming proactive towards your future and taking the necessary steps to ensure your success. What you must come to understand at some point along the way is that your refusal to let go of past disasters, the continuation over and over again to make the same mistakes, and your failure to accept the responsibility for your life becomes your very own … tombstone. (Sorry, but someone’s got to tell you.) Aside from prayer, reading, studying and applying the Word of God is the single most influential way towards becoming a person after “God’s own heart”.

The Bible and You

Besides the date, the Bible is chock full of the most private personal details of people who were just like us except for the lack of electricity and indoor plumbing. They’ve gone through it all and left behind a rather amazing account of how often and how gloriously they blew it. As well as, every now and then, how they got it right. All of their most private and personal mistakes, failures, sorrows, and bad deeds are spelled out for us in glorious back and white text to read, chuckle over, pompously shake our heads in disbelief, and … hopefully … learn from. Rick Warren said, “While it is wise to learn from experience, it is even wiser to learn from the experience of others.” Here’s a question for you: “How wise are you?”

Reading the Bible is like looking into your sister’s journal. It gives you the opportunity to live vicariously through another person’s life that is perhaps more exciting or appealing than our own. It allows us to see, up close and personal, what secrets some people have deep inside that they would never ever share with anyone. It permits us to see just how bad and just how good things can really be. It teaches us what should be important in our God given life and what should be ignored.

What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.
Ralph Waldo Emerson

For you see, the men and women of the Bible experienced all the same things we do today: stupidity, lust, jealousy, hatred, fear, loneliness, worthlessness, sorrow and true love. They also battled with the same internal and external pressures that we struggle with today: money troubles, poor self confidence, illness, doubt, bad people who wanted to do mean things to them … There is not one situation that we face today that someone hasn’t had to deal with already in the biblical journal account. Why not take the opportunity and learn from someone else’s mistakes as well as successes?

Which brings us full circle to my initial points. All relationships you have in your life – good or bad – are a direct window into you and your heart. What do you think about that comment?

The collection of people that surround you shout loud and clear the condition of your heart. People are often quick to give excuses as to why that statement isn’t accurate. But let’s face it; the people that you are attracted to (romantically and just as friends) are specifically linked to your very own individual make-up. Some people appeal, some do not, and what you are internally is what is the deciding factor.

How about this quote from the website Despair.com: “The only consistent feature of all your dissatisfying relationships is you.” How terrifying is that quote? The first time I read it, it struck me as quite funny. But then, after its brutal frankness began to sink in with me, I took a big gulp and rather hesitantly began to reflect back on my rather dismal personal track record of personal relationships over the years.

May this journey bring a blessing,
May I rise on wings of faith;
And at the end of my heart's testing,
With Your likeness let me wake.
Margaret Becker

What do people see when they look into your personality window? What do you say to others about yourself in the way you live your life? These are hard questions that whether you choose to face them or not, in then end will be the reality of what people think of you. You can ignore these questions but the impact of the answers will not go away.

The purpose of Biblical Women And Who They Hooked Up With is to give you the opportunity to peek into some very personal diary entries and read about all the disasters that would never be spoken about and maybe learning something in the process. Give your heart a thorough examination and …

• Apply some of the lessons.



• Do a little thoughtful introspection.



• Examine the quality of your heart.



• Realign your priorities.



• Fix what’s broken.



• Strengthen what’s weak.



• Find what’s lost.



• Make God smile a bit.

Come on, what have you got to loose? Or, better yet, what have you got to gain?

This is an excerpt from Sue's book: Biblical Women And Who They Hooked Up With available at her http://www.lulu.com/ store: http://www.lulu.com/content/884852

The Facts vs. The Reality

Every relationship in your life past, present, and future is directly related to the state of your heart. That means who you love and who you hate, who you are repulsed by and who you are drawn to, who you befriend and who you choose to call enemy is all wrapped up with the internal, invisible, mysterious part of you. There is no exception to this rule. We call this “core” of ourselves, our heart.

The state of your heart is the very essence of who you are as an individual. That means the reason people love you or hate you, seek you out or avoid you, trust or mistrust you is totally reliant on the person you project to the world. While other people’s hearts and the image they project to the world are also viable factors in any relationship, if you are almost always the one who is wronged, abandoned, angered, unloved, avoided, fired, accused, or left out then that is a pretty big personal message about you and the condition of your heart. Life is not about lousy coincidences or bad luck. There is no such thing.

I’m just an old chunk of coal,
But I’m going to be a diamond some day.
Billy Joe Shaver

Who you are as an individual is matchless, one of a kind. That means you’re priceless. Irreplaceable. It means that all the qualities that you have inside you from your ability to remember the exact words to every top forties song that’s ever been sung to your inability to understand even the rudimentary concepts of basic algebra are all part of the precious person that you are. It’s all necessary.

The unique person that you are is a precise design carefully and specifically created by God. That means that the way you are is the way God wants you to be. More than that, God planned for your existence and the very person you were born to be with all the precision that a rocket scientist puts into his or her life’s work. Not only are all your talents and foibles accurate, they were desired and planned for to make you the person God needed you to be today.

God does not make mistakes. That means that the very person that you are as you sit and read this is exactly the person God needs you to be. The person that gets pure enjoyment from spending hours upon hours being lost in the magic of painting a picture. The person who is poetry in motion cooking up a spur of the moment meal using just the leftovers in the family fridge. The person who can listen to a car engine and know exactly what is making that funny rattle. The person that needs to only hear a person’s name once and never forgets it. In addition, your weaknesses are the very areas in which God intends to show His greatest strengths. Your talents are the very tools in which God intends to show you your greatest joy. Your passions and loves are the directions in which God intends to lead you on this journey called life. You’ve got everything you need to succeed.

The heart has reasons that reason cannot know.
Blaise Pascal

So why are people so unhappy? While we spend precious parts of our life dreaming of what we wish we could be, we miss out on the greatness of what we are already. Why do so many people feel lost? It’s all about the state of our hearts. Our hearts lack faith, self-confidence, belief, trust, strength, commitment … We might talk the talk but we don’t always walk the walk. “I believe, it’s just …” “I know we’re supposed to have faith, but …” “I’m never good at …” “I have trouble sticking to …” More often than not we are more steadfast in our excuses as to why we can’t then why we can.

Our heart, when spoken of in the Bible, is the special thing that makes us unique and precious from all of God’s other creations. It is from “deep in your heart” where “true knowledge exists” (Joshua 23:14). According to Job, instinct comes from the mind but intuition comes from the heart (Job 38:36). The animal world is loaded with instinctual behaviors while we human beings are pretty helpless right from the start. But this ability to be intuitive – knowing or sensing or understanding something without being able to rationally explain it all - ratchets us right up there to the top of the earthly living population. Only we have the ability to function according to our own free will. In giving us the ability to choose how we live, God gave only us the ability to please or disappoint Him.

Only us.

Biblical author Amos said, “For the Lord is the one who shaped the mountains, stirs up the winds, and reveals his thoughts to mankind.” (Amos 4:13b). We’re the only creatures God talks to and reveals His thoughts to. Whispers His desires and plans. Gives His instructions and commands. He does this through the inside being that we are – our heart.

Only us.

It’s your inside person that God looks at and values. He could care less about your job title, your bank account balance, or the number of wrinkles you have on your face. The Bible talks about this inside and outside concept a lot. Samuel as he searched for Israel’s new king was told specifically not to judge by appearance alone.

People judge by outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.
I Samuel 16:7b

Isaiah states clearly that Christ will “not judge by appearance nor make a decision based on hearsay.” (Isaiah 11:3) The truth of whom you are inside is all that He cares about and it’s where all of the most important things that He has given you come from. Not only does God delight in your uniqueness, He specifically desires for you to be one of a kind. He doesn’t want you to be like anyone else because He already thinks you’re exactly the way He wants you.
This life we live is one gigantic testing ground where we fumble and grope to succeed. And whether we are born rich, handicapped, talented, intelligent, or disadvantaged I firmly believe that the course of a lifetime pretty much levels the playing field for all of us. For you see, the measure of a person’s true success is not determined by the world’s standards but by God’s. The promise of salvation through Christ is the great equalizer. Our success is not dependant on anything but the choice we make or don’t make to have Him at the center of … you guessed it … our heart.

Once we choose the correct spiritual path, the different tools we have in our spiritual toolbox helps us refine the person God needs us to be. Are we using our God-given talents for Him? Are we utilizing those things that we enjoy doing towards godly pursuits? Does the primary way that I spend my time have a God-related tone to it? Am I making God smile?

My worth to God in public is what I am in private.
Oswald Chambers

Sigh. The human race hasn’t done a very good job in the listening and pleasing department. Right off the bat when the evilness of mankind got so bad “that every inclination of the thoughts of mankind’s heart was only evil all the time” (Genesis 6:5) God regretted ever making mankind saying specifically, “it broke His heart”. (Genesis 6:6)

On the flip side, “heart’s desires” (Job 17:11) are the most precious things we could imagine having or achieving. Only those whose hearts are “true and right” are the ones whom God shields and protects (Psalm 7:10). Finally, a person “after God’s own heart” (I Samuel 13:14) is the epitome of mankind’s God directed goals.

Obviously, from the biblical perspective the heart is the definitive way to measure a person’s credibility and worthiness. So, I’ll ask you: How’re your insides? Or, more specifically, are you a person “after God’s own heart”?

This is an excerpt from Sue's book: Biblical Women And Who They Hooked Up With available at her http://www.lulu.com/ store: http://www.lulu.com/content/884852