Sistas in Soul

I recently attended a musical show performed by the West coast Black Theater Troupe called “Sistas in Soul”. A wonderful trip down memory lane provided by four young black women who entertained us with songs made famous by their black sisters.

It was my first trip to this small, ambitious theater group and I was not disappointed. Their performance was electric. The selected songs honored the women who had come before them, many who had broken through racial barriers and endured hardships because of their race. The uniqueness of each singer was her ability to morph herself into her soul sister. Capturing the essence of the singer, and delivering her message through an intimate and personal desire to ensure her soul sister’s music was never forgotten.

In the bible there are many outstanding women. Women who broke through barriers and endured hardships. Women who lived their lives for God. Women who sacrificed for God, Sisters in Christ, Sistas in Soul. Voices from the past whose story needs to be told through us today. Are we singing their songs? Are we keeping their words alive today?

Do you have a biblical sister? One you admire, one you feel a kinship with? In her relationship with God what qualities does she exhibit that give you this kindred spirit with her? What trials and temptations did she experience that makes you respect her? How does she influence your life today? What is her name and what does it mean in Hebrew or Greek? Perhaps she is nameless like the Samaritan woman at the well, or the woman who was bleeding.

I must admit I don’t have a biblical soul sister. At best I have a causal relationship with these women of God. So you ask why I would write
of these women. After I left the performance I started to think about women whom I admired, women of today and women of not so long ago. I am familiar with those iconic women because so much has been written of them.

But the women of the bible are not afforded such an audience. They are rendered to remain only known to the Christian world. Is it not a shame that our daughters and grandchildren, are not told of Hannah, or others like her who bravely demonstrated their faith. We are familiar with the women’s movement of the sixties. We remember their slogans “Sisterhood is powerful”, Ban the Bra, and the popular song by Helen Reddy, I am woman hear me roar. But we are not familiar with Hanna’s promises to God if He would give her a child. The humiliation and fear that Mary experienced as an unwed mother in an age when stoning was away of life for women. We do not honor the women who first led a movement to change women’s roles when they dared to follow Jesus. A risk so great that being labeled an outcast was the least of their concerns, because death was most likely the results of such behavior.

I now have a list of names of women in the bible. I am intent on reading each woman’s story. Eventually selecting one whom I most feel a kinship with. A woman after my own heart so to speak, one of whom I can say, this is the kind of woman I would most like to pay tribute to. A woman whose values and principles I most admire. A woman whose devotion to God is so powerful that I need to share her story. I want to capture the essence of her through the same intimate and personal desire those four singers portrayed and to ensure my soul sista’s music is never forgotten.

Let us not let these women be our sung heroes. Join me today in seeking out your own biblical sister. Together we can be their voices, we can deliver their message, we can sing their songs. Our sisters in soul.