I commend to you our sister Phoebe, a deacon of the church in Cenchreae. I ask you to receive her in the Lord in a way worthy of his people and to give her any help she may need from you, for she has been the benefactor of many people, including me.
Romans 16:1-1 (NIV)

One of the things that has changed most dramatically in my spiritual worldview in my 40-plus years as a disciple of Jesus is my thoughts on women and their role within the Body of Christ. My early spiritual journey as a believer was among conservative, even fundamentalist, groups. They believed that the role of women was to be limited, and I didn’t think much about it at the time. I simply absorbed it as all young people tend to do when they are young.

Not surprisingly, it was in college that I first encountered pushed back on some of the things I’d been taught to believe about the role of women. Even more personally, I realized that some of my own personal thoughts and feelings about women were offensive, even hurtful, to women who I cared about and deeply respected.

Over subsequent years, I was led to serve in different flavors of denominations. They had different views on the role of women than the ones with which I was raised. I actually experienced having women serving right alongside me as elders, teachers, and pastors. What I experienced was good. Women brought wisdom and understanding that expanded conversations in healthy ways. I learned from their perspectives, which were different than male perspectives.

Then, of course, God saw fit to make me a Girl Dad of two amazing daughters, and God led me to a loving, female, spiritual force of nature named Wendy. The women in my life have taught me so much about female strengths and capabilities that teach me things the men in my life never could. I have witnessed them being treated unequally and experiencing discrimination. I have heard their stories and have walked with them in their pain. I became their champion, and it changed the way I think of all women.

Finally, there’s God’s Message. Along the 18 years I’ve been doing this chapter-a-day blog and podcast, I’ve often shared my experience of continually returning to the same books, chapters, and passages I’ve read countless times over 40 years. The text doesn’t change, but I have changed. I’m on a different waypoint on the road of life. I have grown and experienced new things since the last time I read and meditated on today’s chapter. It meets me in a different place and it has new things to teach me.

Healthy things grow. Growing things change.

Today’s final chapter of Romans is a standard list of personal greetings that Paul added to his letters that were meant to be read to all of the believers and circulated around. He begins by introducing them to the person who personally carried the letter to Rome and delivered it. A woman named Phoebe. He introduces her as a “deacon” within the church at Cenchreae as a “benefactor” of many, including himself. The reality is that we don’t know for certain where the Jesus Movement was in the process of establishing official roles of organization at this point in time. Nevertheless, Paul is certainly introducing her as a respected person of means and status to whom he has appointed a personally important task.

This stood out to me as I read it in the quiet this morning. Phoebe is one of a long list of women who played a critical role in Jesus’ ministry and in the early Jesus Movement. As I meditated on this woman, Phoebe, I wondered how many times over 40 years I’ve read this chapter and completely ignored the reality that was staring me right in the face? Here is a woman of status and means, potentially an official within the Jesus’ movement, to whom Paul had given the important task of delivering his letter to the believers in Rome. Paul speaks highly of her and tells the Romans to take good care of her. She is a respected and trusted spiritual colleague. I want to be surrounded by women like that in all areas of my life. Thank God, I am.

In the quiet this morning, I once again find myself meditating on how grateful I am for the women in my life. I couldn’t do the things I do without them. They support, enhance, and empower me. They challenge me and force me to consider new perspectives. They make me a better man, and a better human being.

“Hey Paul? Who do you trust to get this letter to the believers in Rome?”

“Send Phoebe.”

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.