Kerri’s Blog

One day when I was trying to figure out who I was — in an existential sense, not literally, although now sometimes I even need help with that — I thought I would do something novel and look at the Bible instead of that DISC test churches give you when they are trying to get you to serve. So, of course I started off where any rational girl would start — at the beginning in Genesis. And to tell the truth, it really ticked me off. Because it was there, in Genesis 2:18-22 that I found out the purpose for which I was created. It was to be a “suitable helper” to a man. Or as the KJV so eloquently puts it, “an help meet.” As I look back now I can see that my initital reading of this passage was very shallow, but all the same I found myself getting a little angry.

In a moment of honesty with God, I said to Him, “Lord, this really frustrates me. Why did You make women for such a menial purpose? Why did you not make us first? Why did you create us only to be helpers? I feel like I have the capacity and the desire to lead. When I read this passage of Your word, I feel cheated at having been made a woman.” At that moment God asked me a simple question that totally changed my perspective. He said, “Kerri, do you know who else is also called The Helper?” At that question  I felt my heart come alive with joy, because I had just been studying John 14, and I remembered that the Holy Spirit was also called “The Helper.”

As I studied the ministry of the Holy Spirit I began to notice some very distinct qualities. I look to these qualities as a model of Christlike femininity. I don’t want to imply in any way whatsoever that I think the Holy Spirit could be a woman. This revelation is not about gender, but about function. Woman was created to be a helper. The Holy Spirit is identified by Jesus as “THE Helper” in John 14. (This is in the New American Standard Bible. Other versions use different words, but in the Greek it is the word Parakletos, a masculine noun which means, “one who is called alongside to help.”) If I want to be the very BEST helper I can be, if I want to fulfill my destiny at the highest level of excellence, I have an incredible role model in the person and ministry of the Holy Spirit!

What I now understand is that God does not place the role of “helper” in low postion. It is we who have made it into something undesirable. Injustice and oppression have warped our concepts of being a helper into something “less than.” But from God’s vantage point, the promised Holy Spirit came with Helper as one of His main titles and functions! Now when I remember that I am created to be a helper, I don’t feel cheated or second place. I feel empowered and valued. I know that as a woman I reflect the same aspects of God that are part of the function of the Holy Spirit’s ministry. That is my contribution, and it is no small thing!