I’m continuing my series of posts on the ladies spoken about on Mother’s Day by several of our ladies.
Today is Lady #4: Lydia
What is it like to be successful? Further even: what is it like to be successful as a woman in a male-dominated society?
Hmmm. We could ask Lydia…if she was alive. 🙂 In Acts 16 we read of a woman named Lydia, a seller of purple goods (v.14). Industrious. Hard worker. A worshiper of God. Just being a seller of purple goods was enough to show her success. She also had servants. She had a house. She opened her home to Paul and Silas. After their release from the Philippian jail, they stopped at Lydia’s house on the way out of town to see her and the others who met at her house.
It takes a lot to be successful. Sure, there are those who are born with a silver spoon in their mouth, but not for a women, especially in that day. Lydia had to be industrious. She had to be innovative. She had to be unafraid. What is interesting to me is that she actually operated with a double whammy: she was female and a worshiper of God. One was bad enough, but with both of those “on her record”? Man or woman being a worshiper of God often meant isolation and loss of income.
One thing she cannot be accused of is being lazy. The Bible calls it sloth. Think of a sloth and the first thing which comes to mind is the animal that does everything in slow motion…very slow motion. But consider this: sloth doesn’t just mean sitting around all day watching TV and eating junk food. It also means indifference. Apathy. It’s like standing on a street corner and watching all things go by and not giving a rip.
We have too much of that going on in our society these days. If it doesn’t affect me and my circle, why should I care? An earthquake in Turkey or California? A tornado in Oklahoma or Texas? (Big difference when one lands in your own “back yard” as it did here less than 2 months ago). A flood in TN. A shooting in NYC (and elsewhere). If it doesn’t affect me it is “out of sight out of mind.”
It is too easy to get apathetic when it doesn’t involve us or people we love. Lydia shows us the importance of hard work. Her concern for others and their spiritual lives (see in Acts 16:15), and her concern for Paul and Silas show us how important it is not to be self-consumed. Let’s not forget who we are and how to serve others.
Then we must might learn what true success is all about.
