Let’s stop pretending that we’re making progress.

Oh say, can you see
the denial in you and me?
“Industries are dying,” he said.
“Let’s create new ones…
everyone deserves prosperity.”
Define prosperous.

I know how funny you thought it would be to be all like, “Hey! [insert my name here]‘s about to be an adult, so let’s mess society up and make her think she has to live in a place where everybody repeatedly makes horrible decisions, and then repeatedly makes more horrible decisions to try to fix the consequences from the first set of ‘em!”

Joke’s on me. Give it up already!

BREAKING NEWS: study shows living an unhealthy lifestyle could lead to poor health

“New research shows food and mood go hand in hand.”

“New study shows not enough sleep may be bad for your eyesight.”

“Lack of sleep linked to high blood pressure.”

“Stress could increase risk of heart disease in women.”

Get out. I am shocked. I could never have imagined such links. This has caused me to be taken aback…

NOT!

Really? Studies? Like the kind that cost money? Because for free, I would have said the same thing. And I’m pretty sure most of us could.

out on a limb

Hey Usher, this person just wants to be like Jesus!  But Deacon’s right. It is hard to go out on a limb for Him. Pray for me?

- – -

One time, at work, a colleague asked if snacks like Jello and pudding are healthy. Now, I’m no expert (despite my obsession with holistic nutrition), but I gladly gave him my answer.

I said “Honestly?” and he said, “Yes.” So I said, “No.”

See, truly, I think the only food that is genuinely healthy is food that naturally occurs. As are most things in life. Simply put, we’re living where things that naturally occur aren’t so desireable. Maybe it’s because advertisers make us think that what naturally occurs isn’t as good as what they can give us.

hair dye.
wrinkle cream.
makeup.
hair spray.
anti-frizz serum.
razors. shaving gel.

Gray hair, wrinkles, hairy pits and legs and zits are all signs of functioning bodies; all of these things are natural (zits are natural, anyway, because of to what we expose our bodies). But we’re living in a society that says that it’s not.

And that’s sad.

Apathy

So the eye roll I got from the cashier who thought my Obama/Hillary answer was unacceptable has sort of stuck with me since yesterday. I started to mull it over and made a realization: I am not apathetic.

Matthew 6, which has also stuck with me, says no one can serve two masters. Well doesn’t who you’re serving determine the path you’ll take? Mid-conversation with about twelve (exaggeration) different people recently, I’ve said one of a few things.

A. I know I don’t make a lot of money, but I’m not worried.

B. I’d like to do something nuts, like give up – quite literally – everything I own.

C. Maybe I’ll move into my own (cheap) place, since it’s hard to embrace the things I want to embrace while I live with people who aren’t into it as hard corely as I am.

And the response has been pretty much the same: “How on earth could you survive?”

And that’s when I do one of two things: just stop talking ’cause I know I’m just not getting through, or say, “Dang. You’re right.” And, I’ll be honest with you, it’s my lack of faith. But I long to truly trust.  I want to be able to give away what I need, saying things like ”this dinner is mine, but there’s a lady outside who needs it more” or “this is my favorite jacket, but I’m really not cold and that kid is” or “I know I only have a quarter tank of gas left, but this money might buy that guy a bus ride home.” Even now, when I think about doing these things (and not everything will always have to do with the homeless we encounter), I get scared. I’m all like, “shoot! I’ll buy the lady dinner, but I’m not giving her mine.” and “Heck naw, this is my jacket! I’ll find the kid something else to wear.” or “Dude. How am I going to get to work?” I’m also all like, “Yeah, if I give my gas money to everyone who needs it more, I’ll be late to work every day and therefore, fired.” which all, to me, sounds something like “How on earth could you survive?”

First, as Christians, I don’t think earth survival should be our biggest concern.

Secondly, doing any of these things would get us in trouble in some way, shape or form. No doubt. We’d get dirty looks, if nothing else, from strangers who see us handing our dinners to homeless people. We’d get dirtier looks if they saw us giving them money. We could totally get fired. But what path are you on if what other people think of you and the loss of a job are your biggest losses? Which master are you serving when you say, “Where I live, getting dirty looks and losing jobs is bad. There’s no way that’s gonna work out for anyone.”?

Maybe we should trust like Jesus did when God said he’d have to die on a cross.

Anyway, apathy. I don’t think I’m apathetic. Apathy depends on which master you’re trying to serve.

Joy to the nations when Jesus is king.

I’ll be blunt: my office smells really good right now. It’s somebody’s lunch.

Now, I’ll be relevantly blunt: Maybe we should vote for Jesus. A little earlier, I walked to a nearby market for lunch (couscous salad and some tofu and broccoli, if you’re curious), where the cashiers questioned me and my political affiliation.

“How do you feel about Obama and Hillary?” one of ‘em asked.

“I really don’t care,” I smiled. ”And I don’t even know if I’ll vote.”

Another of ‘em seemed sorta mad.

“If you’re not going to vote, you shouldn’t say anything,” he said.

And I said, “I didn’t say anything, except for ‘I don’t care.’”

Maybe I should care. Maybe I’ll learn why when I go to Jesus for President in July. But right now, bluntly, I don’t care who’s president.

America needs a King.

Qualifications: Willing to give up material possessions, popularity and constant comfort. Is not a wuss.

I was a little pissed this morning, partly due to PMS and due partly to “society.”

I’m always afraid my calling it “society” makes it sounds like I don’t think I’m part of it. I need to work on finding a better word. But, nonetheless, I was pissed. Possibly perturbed. It just irks me – physically, sometimes – to know so few who share my vision.

Have you ever seen one of those movies that stars a girl who knows that she knows that she knows the truth? She’s so certain about it, but she works, lives and walks among friends, family and strangers who think she’s a nutjob. Well, welcome to my world.

It’s not like people walk up to me saying, “You’re a nutjob.” I rarely even get dirty looks. But what I feel – dare I say – called toward – is the kind of thing the girl in the movie grasps. I know that I know that I know this is right. But everything around me says it’s wrong.

My world says I need to make a lot of money. My heart says God will provide. My world says I can do what I want with my body. My heart says this body isn’t mine. My world says my life is in my hands. My heart says it isn’t.

Twenty-two years in church, eight years at a private Christian school. My priests, leaders and teachers always told me to trust God. And I always said, “I do.” But who among us does?

I don’t think Jesus was all like, “Ok, so right now, I want you to trust me. But in 2008, I want you to trust your medical doctors. I want you to trust that even though you’ll be eating food that – unbeknownst to most of you and blocked mostly by the denial of the medical professionals that you trust – is going to cause all the cancer and heart disease and high blood pressure. But then, I want you to trust in your insurance companies. They gotchu, dude. And right now, I want you to trust me. But in 2008, I want you to trust in your jobs. I want you to trust that your skills will pay the bills, via the cash they’ll earn ya. I want you to trust in your bank, to keep collecting it for ya. I want you to trust that when you have enough of it, you can use it to buy the biggest house and the better car and all the stuff to fill them.”

I do, however, think Jesus meant what he said in Matthew 6.

 19“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. 20But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. 22“The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are good, your whole body will be full of light. 23But if your eyes are bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness!  
24“No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.

 25“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? 26Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life^[b]? 
28“And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. 29Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 30If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? 31So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

It irks me that I can’t articulate how I feel about all of this. (My friend Nick thinks there’s a reason for that: act now, articulate later.) But I’m going to try anyway.

I guess, ultimately, this is where I’m at:

Jesus said it himself. The sparrows don’t store up, and God still provides for them. We’re so stuck, though. We like to go around saying, “Yeah, I trust God all right.” If we do, what’s with all the insurance? Not just the health insurance, and the car insurance and the life insurance. But the everyday insurance: why do we donate our old clothes to thrift stores when we could drive down town to hand them out? Why are all the clothes we donate the clothes we wouldn’t wear anyway? Why do we only give what we don’t want, but keep what we don’t necessarily need?  Why do we write checks to charities across the world but walk right by the old guy with the cardboard sign that says “hungry?” I guess we want to know that we can give, but not too much. Why do we panic when the layoffs start? Why do we buy lottery tickets? I guess we want to believe that we can trust, but not too much.

Oh, we of little faith.

give Him a chance, why don’t ya?!

We don’t give God a chance.

I was talking to a colleague today, who – mid conversation about stress, work, the pay freeze and impending possibility of layoffs - said he hopes he hits the lottery. But he said he feels bad buying lottery tickets because it shows his lack of faith.

I laughed, but sort of uncomfortably, in a, “dang, you couldn’t be more right and now I feel bad for my lack of faith” kind of way. I don’t buy lottery tix or anything. I think I bought one once, but whatever. It’s more than just the lottery.

We hit a metaphorical bump in the road and we immediately look for a solution we can create for ourselves. Can’t afford to pay the bills? Find a job that pays for them. Don’t feel well? Go to the doctor.

When we can’t afford our bills, maybe we should re-evaluate what we’re buying. Do we need that many minutes on our cell phones? Do we need cable TV? Do we need access to the Internet at home? When we’re sick, it’s our body telling us to change something. It’s not saying, “make these symptoms stop!” It’s using symptoms to say, ”stop treating me this way!”

But we’ve learned to trust in the selves that have been molded by a society that uses the words want and need interchangeably, a society that says we can and will eat and drink and do whatever we want without experiencing consequences (which never works anyway. How many people do you know who have cancer? Enough said.). We’ve learned to feel like we can trust ourselves. And it’s made relying on God obsolete.