It's over, but not really

Funny how 7 weeks of challenges can stretch over an entire summer.  This was my second read of 7: an experimental mutiny against excess.  This past May I had just written a blog post about wrestling through some questions from the first chapter when I happened upon the blog hop for “Summer of 7.”  It seemed too convenient to be a mere coincidence, so I took the hint and jumped in, and just three months later, here I am at my final post.

This experience has been life-changing for me.   It came at a time when my heart was crying out, “I want to live more like Jesus.”  Which led me to the question, “How did Jesus actually live?” and motivated me to read through the gospels again.

If you want to have your heart wrenched out of your chest, I challenge you to do the same.  Start at Matthew.  Read a chapter a day.  Slowly, not like they’re the same words you’ve heard since you were a child.  Meditate on the words of Jesus.  Start letting Him guide you to actually live them.

I’m not saying that I have this all figured out or have the exclusive bead on what it means to live like Jesus.  But I am foolish enough to believe that I can change the world. And to try to accomplish just that.  I am fortunate to be a part of a church whose members already have the poor and hurting on their hearts, and who already reach out in so many different ways.  So I recruited the help of some of my dear friends, and here are some of the exciting things we’ve started:

Community Lunch- This month our small group teamed up with the Young Adults Small Group and the woman who does our Adopt-A-Block outreach to provide a meal for members of our body who are unemployed and underemployed.  We invited and brought people living in the run-down motels close to our church to come eat with us and worked on building relationships with them. 

We have as our example Jesus, who ate with the marginalized and the sinners.  He said to invite those who don’t have the means to repay you when you host a dinner.  (Luke 14:12-14) When you eat with someone, you share more than just a food.  You invite them to be a part of getting to know you and you them.  We loved it so much we’re going to keep doing it once a month.

Swap Meet- In just a couple of weeks our Women’s Council is hosting our very first Swap Meet to encourage people to purge their excess and share with others.  We are going beyond the traditional swap with friends and inviting all to participate whether or not they have stuff to share, using the early church as our example who shared with each other so that there was no one in need among them. (Acts 2:45)  Not only is this event reducing excess in the areas of possessions, spending, and waste, but is also another opportunity to show the tangible love of Christ to others.

I suggested the book to my friend who has hosted the Summer Book Clubs at our church, who in turn read it and forced encouraged others to read it.  She happens to make little girl’s dresses which are oh-so-adorable and an opportunity to serve others using her gifts fell into her lap.  (You can read more of her amazing 7 God story here.) Suffice to say that when I want to buy my girls new dresses, I will be calling her because that’s exactly the kind of person I want to support with my dollars.

Personally, I have made changes or am working through changes in all of the areas that Jen Hatmaker addresses in her book.  Not exactly the same way she did, but the way God is pulling and tugging at my heart to change.  I could probably make this post twice as long as it is right now, but let me sum up the rest for you.  Reading 7, reading the words of Jesus, and making a decision to actually do something about it has changed and is changing my life and the lives of my friends.  Because you know what, Jesus actually knew what He was talking about.

The Quiet

As of noon yesterday all of our children have left to go to their other parent’s. The quiet resounds. Time alone once anticipated now intrudes and bothers. Two whole hours and I can barely stand it. Sharing children is part of the unnatural aftermath of divorce, life oscillating between a roar and a whisper. 

I hide from the whisper. 

I long to fill the silence, to ignore its very existence, yet in the quiet is when the resolution comes. It’s when the Maker speaks His truth. 

What is there to be gained by filling it with meaninglessness? I know what He has for me, yet I push away instead of drawing closer. 

Do I fear what He might say? Do I not believe what He says? 

Or do I fear being alone and attempt to fill the silence to mask its existence? 

Trading the voice of Truth for a lie, I cling to the fear that I am abandoned. Unloved. Alone. In the quiet, I must face my own weakness. 

But the Father is asks me to let go. Release the hurt, fears, pain, lies, and shortcomings and accept His identity—to trade my ashes for beauty, my fear for His strength. 

The LORD said, “Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the LORD, for the LORD is about to pass by.” Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake came a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper. When Elijah heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave. Then a voice said to him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” (I Kings 19:11-13) 

It’s in the quiet that he calls to us. 

Soccer practice, church meetings, work, club meetings, committee meetings, classes, social events—we pack every single minute of every single day full of noise and busyness. Filling the quiet is our specialty. Lulls in conversation create such discomfort, we grasp at straws to avoid the silence with questions as to the weather or one’s health. 

Maybe it’s because we’re afraid. We’re afraid to answer the question, “What are you doing here?” Maybe if we just keep filling up our emptiness with more and more busyness we can avoid having to answer that question. 

Yet it is our Creator who holds the answer to that question, “What are you doing here?” He is the one who tells us our story. And He urges us to rest, to pause from the busy schedule and all of our labors and the noise and stress that goes along with it. 

To listen. 

And to hear His voice. 

To pray and to worship. 

So we can be renewed.

Spending

A few years ago I read about something called The Compact.  Participants pledge to not buy anything new for a year except for food, underwear, and health and safety items.  While I haven't jumped on that bandwagon, it did make me start to think about how many items we buy new when a perfectly good (and sometimes even better quality) used item is available.

Fast forward to not too long ago, I came across an article about children being forced to work as slaves to harvest cocoa beans.  And later I discovered issues of human exploitation related to many products we buy including bananas, coffee, sugar, and cotton--not to mention child sweat shops we've heard about over and over again.

Such knowledge necessitates change lest the haunting reality of our own enjoyment on the backs of others' suffering begins to eat away at our souls.  

Or maybe it just turns to numb indifference.

I am not even going to begin to debate world economics.  I realize that standards of living our different in other countries.  I also understand that what is a fair wage here needs to be translated into what is a fair wage in other countries.  Yes, I've also heard the every country must go through it's own Industrial Revolution.  My concern with that argument is that one is assuming that all things (trade, funneling of profits, etc.) in these other countries is the same or similar to that of the U.S. during it's Industrial Revolution.  I don't know that to be the case.

This is what I know.  I can't go shopping just for fun anymore.  I don't wander the aisles of Target to find something I might "need" that I didn't even know existed before I walked in the store.  I want to know where my purchases came from.  And I don't want to support human slavery with my dollars.

I am definitely not saying this is an easy pill to swallow.  It has taken some working out what we believe and how to actually implement our beliefs, and sometimes there isn't a really good option.  

These are some practical ways our family tries to be conscientious consumers that may help you as well:

1. Reduce purchases overall.  Do we really need it? Can we borrow it?  Do we have something else we can use instead?

2. Look for it used.  (There are certain items like underwear and tennis shoes that I will not buy used. I also look for things that are in good condition or can be easily fixed.)

3. Look for it from an ethical source or local vendor.  My husband and I debated on the preference of used over responsible or known merchant.  Practically speaking, a lot of the more socially responsible companies are more expensive.  That being the case buying used in combination with buying from an ethical source for the items we either can't find or don't want to buy used works out better for our pocket book. (betterworldshopper.org is a good resource for finding out how companies rate on social and environmental practices.)

4. Do what you can.  If we've gone through the previous options and haven't found what we need then we buy from a less desirable source.

Maybe it seems odd to refer to "beliefs" in light of spending.  God calls us to serve Him and love Him in everything we do.  And our life choices--all of them--should be a reflection of His love in us.  

What is God calling you to do?

It's really his anyway

Blatantly ripping off the style in which Jen Hatmaker starts Month 6, here is my financial story in a nutshell:

Once upon a time there was a girl who thrived on thriftiness.  Then she got married and never was on the same page with her husband about finances.  Later they divorced.  And she was a single mom who survived on thriftiness.  One day she met a man who was on the same page with her regarding finances, and they got married and had two incomes.  And he took over the books (Thank the Lord!), and she never worried and obsessed about the budget for two years.  Which wasn’t a problem because they both overall had a conservative mindset toward buying things.

Until one day she saw how much they spent on food in a month.  And she just about choked.

Ahem.

So my plan for spending week is to make a budget for the after-bills money.  I said I was going to do it three weeks ago.  And the week after.  And in the car on the way to my cousin’s out-of-state wedding. 

And I didn’t.

It’s not that I don’t know how to make a budget.  Believe me, I could make several variations of a budget based on whichever financial guru’s method you want.  And it’s not that I don’t know how to scrimp and save to stretch a dollar to make the food budget work.

But I don’t want to go back to that dark place of agonizing over every penny spent and freaking out over spending a few bucks (or cents) without going through mental acrobatics in order to justify the expenditure.

On the flip side, I do not want to be the girl who “eats” her money.  (That’s expensive poop.)   Or the girl who is so selfish in her spending priorities that she neglects those in need.

Throw into the mix that this month I get my last teacher’s paycheck and we are no longer a two-income family—so now we’ve decreased income and increased time.  I don’t consider myself an extravagant spender, but I could still do some serious damage without boundaries.

Which is another way of saying I need to make a budget.

But unlike the budgets I’ve made before, I want this one to have the end in mind of taking care of my family well and caring for others well—setting reasonable limits to our self-spending for the sake of living out what Christ called us to do.   And when you approach it from that perspective, a budget brings life, not death.

I started writing this last night, and let me tell you that every inch of me was kicking and screaming like a spoiled child resistant to actual work and change.

And then in Bible study my friend talks about God reaping out of what is His to begin with anyway.

And the word God gives me is overflow.

And I think that God is trying to tell me to be at peace that He provides more than enough.  God is asking me to use the overflow for His glory, not my own selfish end.  Which is still admittedly uncomfortable and different from a culture which says, “store it all up for yourself, you worked for it, you deserve it”—neglecting to give glory and respect to the God who gave us the ability to even earn it in the first place.

Moreover, when God gives any man wealth and possessions, and enables him to enjoy them, to accept his lot and be happy in his work—this is a gift of God.  Ecclesiastes 5:19

I'm going to go write that budget.

Plugging the Dam

Sometimes the fight against wastefulness feels like it just isn't enough.  In gathering my thoughts to write this post I was thinking of the little dutch boy with his finger in the dam.  Not actually knowing the story in full, I decided to Google it and this is the link I found. 


And this is the quote that jumped out of the page at me: "This story is told to children to teach them that if they act quickly and in time, even they with their limited strength and resources can avert disasters."

And so it is.


I previously shared some of my back story and the why of living "green."  Today I want to share some of the how.  I am a huge fan of taking baby steps and not beating myself up if I don't do it all "perfectly," whatever that means.  Any positive change is, well, positive change.


Six years ago, I decided to use cloth diapers. (Yes, there was research conducted that "proved" cloth isn't any better than cloth diapers.  The study was paid for by Pampers.)  I used them most of the time and had disposables as back up.  When I went back to work due to a family crisis, I put my daughter back in disposables because cloth diapering was way at the bottom of my list of priorities.


Six years ago, I also made a list of paper products that we could replace with cloth or reusable items.  (Paper towels, napkins, Kleenex, etc.)  The paper towel switch to rags was really easy (just grab a cloth towel instead), but I only finalized this transition in the last couple of years.


A couple of years ago we started gardening and hence began a compost pile.


We love to cook, and making food from scratch cuts way down on packaging waste.


Last summer I bought the kids and myself insulated stainless steel water bottles--so worth the money, that water stays COLD.


Last school year we switched from plastic baggies to sandwich wraps and snack bags that I bought from a local woman I found on Etsy. We are going to buy little stainless steel containers for wet items like cut-up fruit for this next school year.

The beginning of this year we decided to become a little more focused on cutting down waste and focused on fixing one item each month which led to:


Getting a system in place for remembering grocery bags
Reusable mesh produce bags
Reusable cloth bags for bulk items
Reusing spaghetti jars, etc for bulk peanut butter and for storing food (This one I am the most proud of because I spent weeks trying to figure out what to buy to store peanut butter in and then it suddenly occurred to me that I had this FREE option.)
Replacing freezer bags with towels and a pillow case for baked bread and reusable containers for other items
Being careful of how much waste we spent moving and spend working on our new house
Making our own cleaning products

We are still a work in progress.  Each month we continue to focus on one thing that we can change to reduce the amount of waste generate in our household.


I am that little dutch boy.  As are you.


Here are some websites that you may find helpful in your journey:


lifewithoutplastic.com
zerowastehome.blogspot.com
www.nurturedfamily.com
house cleaning recipes from mothering.com
www.bluelotusgoods.com

This Waster of Time

I'm backing up the train a bit.


You see, I sat down to write a blog post today about waste and decided to check Facebook "real quick" before writing.  Nearly two hours later--no blog post, and my kids' quiet time was over.


I have a problem.


My lack of self control in this area is so completely inconsistent with the way I handle many other areas in my life, including other outlets of media.  I enjoyed taking a break from it all a couple of weeks ago during media week.  After media week I had decided to make Sundays Facebook-free.  


And I did.  


And then I gorged myself on it the very next day.


I'm thinking I've missed the point.


Yesterday, my friend spoke at church.  During her message she mentioned Brené Brown's statement that "We are the most in debt, obese, addicted and medicated adult cohort in U.S. history."  She also discussed how much advertising effects us, selling us something beyond the actual product offered.


In the back of my mind I thought (and even said to my husband), "I'm so glad we don't have TV in our house."  (We have a TV, just no channels which means no commercials.)  I sometimes think to myself how great it is that I'm not addicted to Soaps or other Daytime TV.  Isn't it great that I'm not like those other Americans?


And then there's the internet.


Ahem.  Yes, I remember the parable about the Pharisee praying "God thank you I do all these great things and that I'm not like him (the tax collector)." Meanwhile the tax collector is praying, "God be merciful to me."  (Luke 18:9-14)  And I remember the so often quoted plank-in-your-own-eye bit. (Matthew 7:1-5)


My friend read the passage from when a lawyer asked Jesus what the greatest commandment was and Jesus responded, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the great and foremost commandment. The second is like it, ‘ You shall love your neighbor as yourself." (Matthew 22:35-40)  


Everything I do, feel, and think should be reflective of loving God. And I must love my neighbor as myself.  


When I waste time on things that don't really matter, I'm not really loving God, my neighbor, or myself.


I'm extending waste into this week to work on a few things I didn't finish last week and to include "time" by putting a boundary on those things that I allow to steal it.


I'm linking this one up under Media and Waste on our Summer of 7.  You're welcome to join in or just read what's going on at other blogs.  Just don't stay too long... ;).

Who cares about the earth anyway?

When Jen Hatmaker mentions in 7 the Christian shirt she wore growing up in the Bible belt of America, it brought back memories of my own experiences growing up.  I am embarrassed to admit that I bought and proudly wore a T-shirt which read “Save Forget the Whales, Save the People.”  Believe it or not, somewhere I had gotten the distinct impression that environmentalism and Christianity were two irreconcilable and opposing forces.  (On a side note, that T-shirt got some remarks from non-Christians at my school.  Surprise of all surprises, they weren’t asking to go to church with me on Sunday.)

My journey in becoming “more green” started a several years ago while reading The Tightwad Gazette.  Amy Dacyczyn that environmental efforts and frugalness often go hand in hand—that being resourceful and reusing is actually quite helpful to the environment, (maybe even more so than running out and purchasing all the “green” products now advertised…)

Reading this book started the wheels turning in my mind and led me to think about replacing paper products in our home to save money and cut down on our wastefulness.   (I’ll share specifics in a later post.)  I started researching alternatives to paper towels, napkins, etc, and came across a blog written by a Christian lady who, from what I could tell by reading, really loves Jesus and is also environmentally conscious.  Shocking.  This discovery caused me to start to think about whether or not Christianity and environmentalism in and of themselves really were at odds with each other.

And here is where I landed:

God created this Earth and all of its living creatures.  God put man in charge of the earth and its living creatures.  And while I do not believe putting the earth or its creatures in a place of worship (above God or people), I also feel that many Christians have missed the mark when it comes to being good stewards of what God has created.  To be perfectly blunt, wastefulness, squandering, and inhumane living conditions for animals are not Biblical values.  However, being faithful with what one’s been given, responsibility, servant leadership, and compassion are valued in scripture.  Proverbs 12:10 even tells us that a righteous man takes care of his animals.

Which leaves me with the following questions:

Why is it that we would be outraged if a house guest wasted our food and money, trashed and dirtied our home and broke our possessions, yet we feel as if we have no responsibility whatsoever to properly care for and manage the home God made for us?  Why would anyone else want to follow a God whose followers squander the world that they claim He made with absolutely no regard for how their actions affect others?

Regardless of how others may have turned environmentalism into a religion in and of itself, as a Christ-follower, indifference and apathy just don’t cut it with respect to wastefulness.   God cares how we use what He's given us.