Desperate Housewives Need Theology

Desperate housewives. It’s a term with which most of us are familiar, even if we’ve never watched the show. For those of you who (like me) are among that group of the slightly confused, here’s Wikipedia’s summary:

“Desperate Housewives follows the lives of a group of women [who] work through domestic struggles and family life, while facing the secrets, crimes, and mysteries hidden behind the doors of their—on the surface—beautiful and seemingly perfect suburban neighborhood.”

While working through those domestic struggles these women commit adultery and fight for affection from…just about anyone apparently? That drive for attention fits the adjective in the show’s title: desperate.

And yet, even for those of us who are not desperately searching for love or attention, the term rings a bell, doesn’t it? We may all regularly feel like desperate housewives.

• If we work outside the home, we fear that our homes and families aren’t getting the care they deserve.
• If we stay at home with our families, we miss the recognition for accomplishments we received when still in the public workplace.
• When laundry piles up, our kids aren’t behaving, and we have to ask our husbands to pick up pizza for dinner again tonight, we feel like failures.
• When we keep the home fires burning while our husbands travel for business, we can feel trapped.

These realities are why desperate housewives LIKE US need theology.

Theology? Isn’t that the boring stuff they teach in seminary? I’ve heard so many people say they don’t want to hear about theology, they just want to really know God.

Smile. Theology means study of God. To know God, you have to study Him.

Did you know you already have a theology? Your theology may not be systematic, but years of words from friends, family, TV, radio, and maybe preachers have shaped it. Here’s a quote from the late Dr. R.C. Sproul about that:

“No Christian can avoid theology. Every Christian is a theologian. Perhaps not a theologian in the technical or professional sense, but a theologian nevertheless. The issue for Christians is not whether we are going to be theologians but whether we are going to be good theologians or bad ones.”

So the question is not really, “Do I need all that theology?” It’s, “Do I need to know God?” They are inseparable.

Why do we need to know God?

Because without Him, we ARE desperate. We are needy, fearful, grasping creatures who look to anything and everything for the attention we crave to make ourselves feel better. Do we want that? Or would we rather be the woman presented in Proverbs 31, who “laughs at the days to come.” Look at verses 25-30, describing a godly woman:

Strength and dignity are her clothing,
    and she laughs at the time to come.
She opens her mouth with wisdom,
    and the teaching of kindness is on her tongue.
She looks well to the ways of her household
    and does not eat the bread of idleness.

Her children rise up and call her blessed;
    her husband also, and he praises her:
“Many women have done excellently,
    but you surpass them all.”
 Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain,
    but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.

That kind of woman doesn’t just happen. That kind of woman is made. And we can’t do that for ourselves–we need God to make us into women of strength and dignity, women who choose kindness rather than backstabbing, women who are industrious and loving.

[clickToTweet tweet=”We need God to make us into women of strength and dignity, women who choose kindness rather than backstabbing, women who are industrious and loving. #truth #truthforwomen” quote=”We need God to make us into women of strength and dignity, women who choose kindness rather than backstabbing, women who are industrious and loving.”]

So, yes, desperate housewives need theology.

Desperate husbands need theology. Desperate singles need theology. Why?

Because we need God.

Take some time to study God’s Word, to really find out what He says about any given topic. Everything He says is vital. And you, yes, you the harried, desperate housewife, you need to know this information. Here’s some encouragement from II Peter 1:3:

“His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence…”

A Personal Note:

When I was in college, I realized that my “theology” was a slapdash mixture of hundreds of quotes, books, and random observations from so many church denominations that you can’t begin to imagine them all. I hadn’t ever taken time to go through important questions of life and death and ask, “What does God’s Word have to say about this subject?”

If you’re in that same position, I highly recommend that you work your way through some kind of systematic theology book. All that means is that someone has gathered together all the Scriptures that have to do with one topic in one place, along with pertinent thought about those Scriptures. The systematic theology that I chose to spend months working through was Wayne Grudem’s Systematic Theology. While you may not agree with every one of his positions (he’s honest about telling you where he personally stands, rather than trying to hide his bias), I think you’ll join me in thinking both that he is fair in his treatment of other convictions and that he gives great priority to God’s Word over the words of men. It reads more like a book of worship than a dry textbook.

Taking the time to think about what I believe about almost everything was one of the most personally beneficial things I have ever done in my life. I’m convinced that you’ll say the same thing if you also make time to study God and what He’s said about just about every aspect of life.