Take a Rest; Take a Sabbath: My Experiment

Posted on by

Throughout the Bible, we read about this idea of Sabbath. What is Sabbath?

In the ten commandments we read:

Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your male or female servant, nor your animals, nor any foreigner residing in your towns. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.

It seems as if God is pointing to benefit to resting. Nevertheless, it would be fair to say that the Sabbath is probably one of the most ignored pieces of the Bible.

In our busy world, resting doesn’t come naturally for us.  With two kids, rest often seems like a huge luxury for me. Rest is when the kids are watching television on Sunday afternoon and I can take an hour nap.

Trees

I once attended a church, where the idea of Sabbath was interpreted very loosely. This particular church was incredibly busy. We had meetings throughout the week, and it was not uncommon for us to spend all of Sunday engaged in activities. This was a church that never had any time for rest, or rather they reinterpreted rest to include a full day of church activities. The result was a profoundly unrestful rest. We thought that God’s kingdom somehow depended on us, and if we somehow faltered, God help us. If we took a day of actual honest to goodness rest, the result could be calamitous!

For the past three weeks, I’ve taken a kind of Sabbath experiment, to discover the meaning of Sabbath and to consider what God might have been thinking when he said, “take a Sabbath.” This experiment was also partly inspired by my reading of Mark Scandrette’s Practicing the Way of Jesus: Life Together in the Kingdom of Love. In one of the chapters Scandrette describes an experiment in Sabbath keeping.

Sabbath Keeping: Taking a day of rest is a way of expressing faith in what God provides. What does a deeply regenerative day look like for you? How would you feast and celebrate what God has given you? What would you abstain from to pursue deeper rest? (Scandrette: Practicing the Way of Jesus)

As I set out to take my own personal Sabbath, I had several realizations beforehand. . .

First of all, I understood any Sabbath would need to have some clear boundaries. For example, we still needed to take care of our children.

“Sorry, Emma, Papa’s taking a Sabbath. Can’t give you lunch. Grab a yogurt and slice of bread.”

No, I can’t get out of feeding our kids.

Second, I realized that any Sabbath would have to involve getting off the internet. I’m the sad victim of internet and email addiction. I compulsively check my email throughout the day. I check the news. I check the number of hits on my blog. I do any number of things on the internet, and most of these things are totally unnecessary.  So, for me Sabbath would have to mean no blogging, no tweeting, no email and no surfing the internet.

Trees

Third, actually trying to keep a Sabbath required some intentionality. I would have to plan out my weekend and probably get more things done on Saturday, in order to have a Sunday of rest. As the father of two very needy little girls, rest doesn’t just happen. I needed to plan this out. But having planned it out, I would also need to trust in God a little more. Resting would require me to let go of anxiety and fear. Even if a few tasks went undone, life would not fall apart because I took a rest.

Fourth, I didn’t want Sabbath to be a legalistic exercise. In the Gospels, we read how the Pharisees constantly criticized Jesus and the disciples for not keeping the Sabbath. Jesus heals someone on the Sabbath and gets nailed for it. The disciples get something to eat on the Sabbath and get criticized for it. No, this wasn’t the kind of experience I wanted for myself. I had lived out legalism for several years of my life and I found it singularly unfulfilling and tiresome. If I kept the Sabbath it couldn’t be about guilt, self-hatred, shame or trying to look better than other people. This had to be about rest.

I wanted what Jesus promised in Matthew 11:28

“Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.”

Overhead

Fifth, I understood that this Sabbath thing might take experimentation and a little trial and error. There was going to be a learning curve to Sabbath keeping. What is restful for me? What does it mean to take a rest? What’s restful to me, might not be restful to Carla and vice versa. Moreover, I didn’t want to over-spiritualize things. Sabbath doesn’t necessarily mean reading the Bible, praying all day, or listening to praise music. The last thing I wanted to do was treat Sabbath like some kind of religious chore.

My Sabbath Experience

For three weeks I tried to be deliberate and intentional about taking Sabbath. I took my Sabbath on Sunday, because this would be easiest for me. In many respects, my Sabbath represented a subtle but significant shift in the way I spent my day. There were a lot more walks. We walked to the park. We walked around our local Mass Audubon habitat. Enjoying nature was a huge part of enjoying Sabbath. There was also a lot of down time with the kids.

Trees

Three weeks is probably not enough time to get any kind of scientific results, but it was long enough for me to have a few realizations about the meaning and importance of Sabbath.

Lessons Learned from My Sabbath Experiment

Taking a Sabbath helped me be present to the day, to my family and to God. What do I mean? Too often, during my day, I realized how, while I may be physically with my family, or with my friends, I was mentally somewhere else. I was thinking about the chores that need to be done. I was thinking about checking my email. While I’m with the kids at the park, I’m checking my Blackberry. While my kids are playing in the house, and “I’m watching them”, I’m on the computer doing something “important.”

Trees

So, while I might be physically “there,” I’m not really present. I could be walking through the park on a beautiful spring day, and my mind’s several miles away, thinking of what needs to be done and the plans for the coming week. If I open my eyes, really opened my eyes, I would see the beauty around me. I might even hear God speak to me in the quiet of the day. Taking a Sabbath and resting, I didn’t have to think about “what was next,” because there was no real “next” on my schedule. I was free to see, hear and experience.

On those quiet afternoons, I walked through the woods, and actually heard quiet. In this intentional state of rest, I allowed myself to hear quiet. I could hear the wind blow through the trees and listen to the birds singing. I saw the trees budding and flowering. I enjoyed the color and magnificence of spring.

In this state of quiet, I found myself wondering, “How often is God speaking to me, but I’m just too busy or too occupied to listen.”

Maybe there is something to Psalm 46:10

Be still, and know that I am God

When life is busy and overwhelming, I might find myself longing for more time. Maybe, what I truly need is to be still.

Trees

All of this made me wonder, whether the reason why people don’t enjoy nature and creation more, is because we’re too busy. Maybe if we, in the spirit of rest, walked through the woods, removing ourselves from the busy-ness of our day, maybe we would discover any number of things?

Overall, my Sabbath rest opened me up to enjoying the small discrete moments of the day. I even found that playing with my own children became more enjoyable. I played with my girls in the spirit of rest and enjoyed my time with them. Too often, playing with the girls can seem like a chore. I’m standing outside with them in the driveway, watching them ride their scooters or bikes, and I’m just counting down the minutes when I can go back into the house and finish some task.

I periodically ask them, “Aren’t you guys tired?”

“Nooooooo!” they yell out.

Instead during my Sabbath I played with the kids and enjoyed it, because it was rest and I didn’t have to be anywhere else. The message I told myself was, “I’m resting and I’m just going to enjoy the moment.” So, I blew bubbles in the driveway and watched Johanna chase them down. As I stood out there in the driveway watching Johanna riding her scooter and Emma happily singing to herself, I could find joy and rest in the smiles and laughter of my children.

Girls

Last week, the Sabbath experience was a little different for me. Carla was at a conference, and I was mentally and physically taxed. I came away with the takeaway that rest is hard when you don’t have the support of your partner. When my support is taken away or gone, I hide in my metaphorical bunker and go into survival mode. How do single parents do it!!??

Overall, my Sabbath experiment was an enlightening one and left me wanting more. I gained a whole new appreciation for rest and for what God might have been doing, when He invited us to take a Sabbath rest and make it Holy. In telling us to take a Sabbath, God is inviting us to listen to Him. In telling us to take a Sabbath, God’s not giving us another task. Instead, God is trying to free us to enjoy the moment, enjoy creation and take joy in those we love.

Wanted: Subversives Who Want to Change the World

Posted on by

What does it mean to be subversive?

In our society, being subversive is often given a bad name, and yet we live in a country that has long celebrated what it means to be subversive. From the American Revolution, to the abolitionist movement to the civil rights movement and anti-war movement, we see men and woman subverting the establishment. When we consider what it means to be subversive, we might think of college students at Berkeley standing up for free speech, or we might consider the actions of a modest middle aged African-American woman named Rosa Parks who refused to give up her seat on a bus and catalyzed a movement.

Being subversive means going against the status quo. It’s about undermining the establishment.

The subversive refuses to accept the status quo as a fait accompli, instead she sees what might be done, even by a single person.

In the world of faith, Christianity is often seen as the establishment and so Christians sometimes get a little squeamish around the idea of being subversive. This is all the more ironic, because the church has long been home to subversives. These were people who as Hebrews 11 tells us, did not necessarily “receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance, admitting that they were foreigners and strangers on earth.”

It could be fairly argued that Jesus himself was anything but part of the establishment and could therefore be called subversive. In a world that had come off the rails, Jesus had came to make things right. He called the religious leaders of his day, a brood of vipers, and who began his public ministry by announcing that the words of Isaiah would be fulfilled with his coming. He had come “to proclaim good news to the poor. . . to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

Of course, the best subversives are the ones who we want to follow. They are not just pushing and protesting against the status quo, they are offering something in place of it. These are the people who live audacious and courageous lives and who call us from the slumber of our complacency. They awaken something inside of us. To paraphrase Lincoln, these subversives call on the better angels of our nature.

A recent favorite quote of mine is from David Lance Goines:

The subversive aspect is to introduce people to new things that they like, not to beat them over the head with rhetoric. That has never converted anyone to anything.

Goines quote brings it home for me. Too often I’ve live in books and too often life has been abstract for me. I’ve always loved words and the well turned phrase. In the 1988 Vice Presidential debate Dan Quayle was ignominiously told that he was no Jack Kennedy. I came to that same realization in 1983 during a high school speech contest. As a high school sophomore, I set out to memorize and recite Kennedy’s presidential inauguration speech as a high school sophomore.

Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of liberty.

Yeah, it was great speech. . .when Kennedy delivered it. My version was significantly less eloquent, as I stammered to an embarrassing conclusion. I was no Jack Kennedy.

The best subversives teach us, not through their words, but through their lives. They give us a picture of something beautiful and they offer the rest of us the opportunity to become part of the picture. They show us a better way and they make us want to follow.

***************************

I’ve recently talked a lot about David Milarch and the Archangel Ancient Tree Archive. Hundreds of years of neglect had paid a terrible toll on our nations forests.  Twenty years ago, even as climate change and global warming just started becoming part of our vocabulary, Milarch had this kind of inspiration to clone the biggest and best of our nation’s trees. He took the saplings from these trees and like a modern day Johnny Appleseed planted them to ensure they would not be lost to us.

2013-05-03 15.20.06

Most recently, this past Earth Day, David Milarch and his colleagues at Archangel planted coastal redwoods from Northern California, in nine locations, in seven different countries: Germany, Ireland, Wales, Great Britain, New Zealand, Australia, and in United States. The goal is to give these big trees a greater chance for survival. In saving these trees, we’re doing more than giving ourselves a place of shade to lay our heads, we’re maintaining an important part of our planet’s biodiversity and doing something to stem the tide of global warming.

I believe Milarch’s story is a good one, in part, because it speaks to something deep inside of us. In seeking to save the ancient trees, Milarch invites the rest of us to save something majestic, precious and beautiful. Far from accepting the status quo, and the demise of these trees, Milarch chooses to challenge it.

***************************

This past week I read Jenny Brown’s The Lucky Ones: My Passionate Fight for Farm Animals. Brown is a different kind of subversive.  Brown tells the of how she, along with her husband, founded the Woodstock Farm Animal Sanctuary in upstate New York.  Brown’s story follows a broad narrative arc. As a young child, she battled cancer and lost her leg to the disease. As a college student, she became interested in animal rights and took on undercover assignments to take video of factory farms and cattle feed lots. Some of the stories are pretty grim and nauseating.

Throughout Lucky Ones Brown offers her unfiltered opinions of the meat and daily industry. While interesting and provocative, this is not what makes her book compelling. More than just a story of suffering and the meat industry, Lucky Ones is the story of Jenny Brown’s special friends. We read about Dylan, a Holstein calf who narrowly avoids an early death at the veal farm. Dylan finds a home in the Woodstock Farm Sanctuary and is adopted by Olivia the goat. There is the story of Albie the goat, who escapes a live kill market and was found limping in a Brooklyn park. He is brought to Woodstock, but as the result of a necrotic leg, is forced to undergo an amputation. In a most amazing twist, Albie is fitted for an artificial leg and goes on to live out his days at the Sanctuary. Brown also shares about Brandy the rooster, Judy and Patsy the pigs, Boone, Alphonso and Herschel the turkeys and many others.

In sharing these stories, Brown does something distinctly and classically subversive. She could certainly try to change our mind about eating meat by just telling horror stories from the industry. Instead, Brown introduces us to her animal friends. She shares their stories and their distinct personalities of the animals who have found a home in her sanctuary. Once you hear their stories you can’t help but root for these animals and have empathy for them.

While I’ve flirted with vegetarianism from time to time, I’ve also been known to enjoy 18 oz. rib eye steaks and a plate of buffalo wings. I’m not here to guilt anyone from eating meat. That said, I strongly believe that we should know where the things we buy (including food) come from. Brown’s book may not convince you to become a vegan, or a vegetarian, but it might make you think about your choices. After reading Lucky Ones it’s hard to think about meat in the same dispassionate way.

***************************

In this post, I’ve shared a few different stories about subversive people, who didn’t simply try to win us with rhetoric. David Milarch invites us to save the majestic ancient trees and do something about global warming. Jenny Brown tells us the stories of her animal friends. In sharing about Dylan, Olivia, Brandy, Patsy, Boone and the rest, Brown puts a face on what we might have formally considered to be food and makes us reconsider our choice of menu.

In the mouths of some, calling someone a subversive might seem like anything but a compliment. A subversive might even be called a rabble rouser, or a malcontent. Nevertheless, it’s through the work and mission of subversives that we are allowed to see our world differently. They are the idealists and the visionaries who refuse to accept the status quo. They are the dreamers.

We need more of them.

Living a Subversive Life

Posted on by

Who are the people who’ve inspired you to take action in your life and to take crazy steps of faith?

This past week I had the opportunity to watch two different documentaries which touched on the topic of inspiration and activism.

The 2009 documentary No Impact Man, tells the story of Colin Beaven, who took on a most interesting experiment, where he tries to live a year in New York without having any net impact on the environment. Along with his wife and daughter, they go without electricity, elevators, toilet paper and driving. They don’t even take public transportation. The spirit of the experiment is to reduce their consumption to the bare necessities. His family generates no trash and buys only local food and doesn’t eat any take-out food.

Overall, I loved the spirit of the experiment, because Colin and wife Michelle were actually trying something. There were ups and downs to be sure, and even marital tension, as his wife Michelle chaffs when forced to give up her Starbucks, but it was something whimsical and adventurous.

A wrinkle to No Impact Man the Movie, is that it wasn’t just a family attempting something audacious in the privacy of their own home. This was a very public experiment. People followed their progress on Colin’s blog. They received a ton of publicity and Colin did countless interviews for the radio, television and print media. Everyone from Diane Sawyer to Steve Colbert wanted to talk with Colin about this crazy experiment.

The result of all this publicity was predictable.

While Colin’s family received a lot of acclaim, they also received a fair amount of skepticism, hate and vitriol, even from the environmental community. In the documentary, we see Colin and Michelle taken aback by the negative response. Michelle goes to a food-writer friend, who questioned Colin’s sincerity and the ostentatious nature of the experiment. Her friend offers some theories about why people hated Colin and Michelle, “Aside from making people feel guilty and defensive about their consumer habits, people are very traumatized if you suggest that they should make do without something.”

Personally, I totally understand this. People have a strong reaction if they feel like you’re judging or even indirectly putting them down. As if to say, “We are living in this really eco-friendly, conscious and responsible way. What’s your problem!!!” While this wasn’t the tone of Colin’s experiment, I could understand how some people might receive it this way.

Not long ago, I attended a meeting on sustainability. On the whole I found it very interesting and helpful. The people at the meeting were largely friendly and inviting. They were genuinely passionate about wanting to improve the quality of life for people in our community. Yet, I think there is a common negative perception of environmentalists. They are these angry, judgmental people, who will make me feel guilty for eating take-out, using electricity and for driving my car.  I think it’s this perception that keep a lot of people away from the environmental and sustainability movement. I also think it’s a perception that some people might have read into “No Impact Man.” (ie. “These people are judging me”).

Another documentary I recently watched was Food Fight. The documentary talks about the American industrialized food system, and about how the mass production of food has resulted in less nutritious and flavorful food. Through the farms where genetically modified food is grown with the aid of pesticides to the production of artificial processed food, we see Americans embracing a food culture which seems singularly interested helping them get really, really fat.

Food Fight largely follows a food counter-culture, focusing specifically on Alice Waters of Chez Panisse in Berkeley, California. This food movement rebelled against industrialized agriculture and instead embraced organic, fresh and locally produced food. First and foremost, this food movement was about trying to produce really good tasting food. It was about pleasure.

Remarking on Alice Waters and Chez Panisse and how they managed to revolutionize the way people saw food, author David Lance Goines offers one of the best quotes in the movie when he says, “The subversive aspect is to introduce people to new things that they like, not to beat them over the head with rhetoric. That has never converted anyone to anything.”

It’s a great quote, because it’s so true. It’s not just true about food, or about the environment. It’s true about life and it’s true even about faith.

Trees

The invitation to live a better and more meaningful life is not about brow-beating people, making them feel guilty or winning them with arguments. Besides, being morally offensive, this approach is simply not sustainable. It disrespects people by treating them like cattle, not to imply that cattle even deserve to be treated in this manner.

P1010397

The invitation to live a better and more meaningful life is about sharing good and beautiful things with people. It’s about introducing people to a life, which is both healthy and deeply fulfilling. It’s about “introducing people to things they like.”

In keeping with this sentiment, maybe the best way to encourage people to do something about climate change is to take them out of the city and bring them to a place where they can breathe in the clean air and where they can enjoy things of beauty and wonder. Rather than offer your friends more scientifically precise arguments, give them the opportunity to enjoy the shade of a big tree.

P1010389

In keeping with this sentiment maybe the best way to encourage people toward faith is to move them away from religious practices and move them toward Jesus. Rather than offer your friends a religion which seems defined by “things you shouldn’t do,” introduce them to a place of faith where they can lay down their burdens and find rest.

Let’s be subversive.

Springtime in Suburbia: Looking Up

Posted on by

This past Sunday we visited one of our favorite neighborhood parks. It was a beautiful day here in New England. I soon found myself looking at the trees surrounding the park.

2013-04-27 16.32.10

Looking at the local color of the trees, I felt transported from our busy suburban park. I no longer heard the cars on the adjacent street.

2013-04-27 17.11.59

I could have been resting on a meadow deep in the forest watching the bumble bees. There’s a kind of calm and quiet here I could easily miss, if I looked in the wrong direction.

2013-04-27 17.13.06

Raising my gaze from the children on the playground and the joggers running on the nearby sidewalk  I saw another world, a different world.

All of this reminds me how too often I’m blind to the world and the beauty around me. I’m focused on the task, the responsibility and the concern at hand. I think, “This is important.”

2013-04-27 17.17.41

Then when I look up and pause I have moment of clarity. My former concerns no longer seem as important to me.

Here in this place, I want to loosen my grip on the worries that preoccupy and distract me. Instead, I want to hold onto the beautiful things.

Looking up, I wonder if this beautiful world was always there. Why didn’t I see it until now.

2013-04-27 17.32.09

Janitor Boy: Living With Anger and Alienation as a Young Man

Posted on by

When I was in eighth grade, we had the opportunity to take an elective class. Most of my classmates took graphic arts, or participated in some sport. For my elective, I asked to do an independent study. I wanted to be the assistant to the janitor. Why? My older brother worked as a janitor at a local church. The janitors at our school were also friendly and seemed cool.

I still remember cleaning toilets during eighth grade. It’s not a bad memory, but it’s something that sticks out for me. How many kids could say that they cleaned toilets for a semester? Moreover, how many parents would want their kids assisting the school janitor as part of their private school education?

Given the nature of middle school boys, it shouldn’t be surprising that one kid decided to call me “janitor boy.” When he called me janitor boy, I just remember feeling anger. I remember his smug sneering face. I thought the kid was a punk and should have his face beaten in. Yeah, I had a bad temper. It was something that almost got me thrown out of middle school. In retrospect, I’ve come to understand this younger boy called me the name, because he knew by doing so, he would gain control and power over me.  I’ve also come to realize, that people like this boy, behave that way for a reason. Maybe somebody hurt them, and now they do they’re doing their best to hurt others.

Looking back, I sometimes wonder about that boy. I’d like to think that he became a compassionate man. I’d like to think he changed. Thankfully, there is room for each us to change and to become better versions of ourselves. So, much of life is about learning from our mistakes, learning from our failures and even learning from our pain.

Looking back, I never had anyone to talk to about my feelings. There were a lot of people, mostly adults who would tell me that it was wrong to take matters into my own hands. It wasn’t Christian to hit someone in the face.  It’s wrong to be angry. In retrospect while those adults were well-meaning, they didn’t help me.  Instead of talking to me and helping me understand my feelings and circumstances, they were more likely to condemn me.

All of this came to mind, after reading a real thoughtful article “What’s Happening to Our Young Men” by Tom Matlock of the Good Man Project for Cognoscenti. Matlock talks about recent our string of murders committed by young men, including the Tsarnaev brothers. As we try to grasp for the possible reasons for their heinous acts, we’re left with no real reasons, other than that these young men were alienated from society.

Matlock cites statistics involving young men and they aren’t good ones:

Men have fallen behind women — in college graduation rates, as well as in employment and advancement in the high growth service sectors of the economy.

Two million American men are in prison and half a million are suffering from post-traumatic stress and brain injury from service to our country. Male illiteracy and dropout rates are rising. Economic inequality between a privileged few and the great mass of working poor continues to broaden.

As part of his work Matlock speaks with many young men. He writes:

What I hear is frustration and isolation. Boys are pounded by macho images about modern manhood, but have no one to talk to about what it all means.

As a young boy, I would have seriously benefited from speaking to someone about my feelings and about what it means to be a man. Needless to say, these weren’t conversations I had with my own father. I remember getting a lot of lectures from my dad, but sadly not a lot of conversation. As a young boy, I had a total absence of mentors in my life.

Among his many suggestions to remedy the problems facing young men, Matlock writes:

We have to listen to what our boys are saying about their lives and be courageous enough to talk to them about the most uncomfortable topics. We have to make sure that far fewer of them are left behind.

To be sure what Matlock suggests isn’t easy. If you asked me as teenager how I was doing, I’d have probably mumbled, “Fine.” Part of the challenge in talking to young men, is getting them to talk at all.

As parents and as teachers our natural tendency is to talk to our children, preach to them and lecture them. We have to do more than simply tell them what not to do. Through, the Matlock article, as well as my own experience, I’m reminded how it might be more important to simply listen to them, and then listen some more. Loving them, begins with hearing them. We must ask questions, and failing to get answers, we must ask better questions.

Simplicity, Isn’t Simple

Posted on by

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about what it means to live simply.

In the Gospels there are a two different stories in which Jesus sends out his followers. In the first story, Jesus sends out twelve of his followers and in a later passage he sends out seventy-two.

In Matthew 10, we read Jesus’ commands to the twelve when he sends them out:

As you go, proclaim this message: ‘The kingdom of heaven has come near.’ Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons. Freely you have received; freely give.

Up this point, his followers had seen Jesus do “the stuff.” Jesus was the one healing, raising the dead, cleansing the lepers and driving out the demons. Now, it was there time to follow Jesus’ example.

Freely you have received; freely give.

As much as his followers had seen Jesus do all these amazing things, I can’t imagine them thinking to themselves, “Hey, I can do that!”

Jesus doesn’t make it any easier for them when he offers some further instructions.

Do not get any gold or silver or copper to take with you in your belts—  no bag for the journey or extra shirt or sandals or a staff, for the worker is worth his keep. Whatever town or village you enter, search there for some worthy person and stay at their house until you leave.

In sharing the good news with people, Jesus commanded the disciples to live simply. Don’t take a lot of stuff. Yes, you might feel ill-prepared for the journey ahead of you. Yes, you might feel under-resourced.

2013-04-20 14.37.18

Most of the time, we do not give to others out of our poverty, but rather we give out of our abundance. We collect, gather and earn and when we have enough, only then do we give to others.

Jesus was commanding his followers to follow a different kind of model and pattern of life. He was reminding them that in Jesus, they had something far more valuable than material wealth. Moreover, living simply and traveling light offered the followers of Jesus a kind of benefit in itself.

It’s a paradox that while we live in pursuit of things, these things we need, instead of helping us, often encumber us.

In another story in Matthew 19:16-22, a rich young man comes to Jesus asking what will it take for him to have eternal life. This young man has it all together. He’s rich and claims to have followed the law. Jesus tells him to do one more thing. . .

Jesus answered, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”

In the end, the rich young man walks away sad, because he had too many things to give up.

What is Jesus saying here? It’s as if Jesus is pointing us to a benefit of simplicity for our consideration. From these passages, you might say that possessions and material wealth, rather than provide us a means to serve others, serve to hinder us from loving Jesus and loving people.

2013-04-20 14.35.29

At a time and age when many of us deeply struggle over and ponder our life’s direction and calling, the story of the rich young man offers us a cautionary tale. For the rich young man, his attachment to wealth and possessions may very well have resulted in him missing out on his life’s calling.

All of this comes to mind as I think of simplicity. We live in a world that emphasizes consumption and consumerism, as if increased consumption and having more things could make us happier, healthier and better off.

What is the net effect?

In many respects, our world is a like an overweight smoker, who is eating and smoking themselves to death. We’re unable to change the way we live and the result is a kind of environmental stroke, with pollution, dwindling resources and climate change all working to kill us slowly. We’re hopelessly addicted to a lifestyle of consumption in which we’re asked to buy more and more goods and processed foods. We’re totally unaware about the effects of this kind of life on us, even as the corporate authors of consumption tell us to upgrade and buy more.

I’m neither a smoker, nor an alcoholic, but I am someone who is addicted to consumption. As I consider how I might live more simply, I sometimes find my head spinning. It’s not easy, because you see, I’m an addict and it’s hard to give things up. I’m used to living life at a certain pace, and I need all the help I can get to keep pace. For example, an essential part of our life has been the bi-weekly Costco trip. This is where we buy in bulk and take care of our shopping needs for two weeks. Sometimes buying in bulk makes a lot of sense. Toilet paper anyone? Then again, sometimes we buy food of questionable quality in mass quantities. Why did I buy an extra large box of chicken taquitos? The reality is that we end up buying a lot of food and things we don’t really need.

Lately, I’ve been thinking about how we can live more simply as a family.

One of the things we’re planning for June is a yard sale. Hopefully this will be an opportunity for us to rid ourselves of things we don’t need. The plan is to get rid of our excesss.

I’ve been also thinking about how we might change our family’s food buying habits and how we can make better and healthier choices.

Overall, I realize that living simply may not be simple. We didn’t accumulate all of these things overnight. Our bad habits are bad for a reason. They’re not easy to change or give up. Over the past several years, we’ve convinced ourselves that to survive, we needed to adapt certain buying habits. We’ve grown accustomed to building our life around convenience and ease, without thinking about the long term consequences.

As I read Jesus’ words in the gospels, about living with less, I’m reminded how simplicity really is an act of faith. This doesn’t make it any easier to make changes to my lifestyle, or to give up things, but it does serve as a reminder about the value of taking small, incremental steps. It also gives me reason to hope, because the changes I make will be worth it in the end,

Why Should An Economic Downturn Lead to Better Health?

Posted on by

I had embargoed  this post because of yesterday’s lockdown. I just thought it was a little strange and disconnected from reality for me to post on health choices and economics, while we were stuck inside our home because of a police manhunt in our neighboring town.

In this week’s Atlantic, Richard Schiffman highlights a BMJ study which examined how an economic collapse in Cuba led to improved health.  It would probably be fair to say that this seems counterintuitive. We don’t usually think of economic collapses as resulting in better health.

During the 1990’s the combined effect of an intensified trade embargo and the end of Soviet aid led the Cuban economy into a sharp decline.

Schiffman writes:

The biggest impact came from the loss of cheap petroleum from Russia. Gasoline quickly became unobtainable by ordinary citizens in Cuba, and mechanized agriculture and food distribution systems all but collapsed.

Although the immediate effect was traumatic, the long term result was surprising. According to the BMJ study cited by Schiffman:

 (D)uring the period of the economic crisis, deaths from cardiovascular disease and adult-onset type 2 diabetes fell by a third and a half, respectively. Strokes declined more modestly, and overall mortality rates went down.

The BMJ researchers largely attribute this improvement in health to widespread weight loss.

Cubans. . .were walking and bicycling more after their public transportation system collapsed, and eating less (energy intake plunged from about 3,000 calories per day to anywhere between 1,400 and 2,400, and protein consumption dropped by 40 percent). They lost an average of 12 pounds.

It wasn’t just that they were eating less, they were also eating better. During this period, most Cubans became vegans , because meat and dairy wasn’t available. Most of their food was also grown organically, in large part because agro-chemicals were totally unavailable. As a result of their food shortages, Cubans had to resort to urban gardening. Many Cubans were growing their own food.

Interestingly, the BMJ Study also showed that when the Cuban economy eventually improved, and people started driving again and eating meat many of the gains in public health were lost.

The Schiffman article poses a host of interesting questions for our consideration. A question I often find myself asking, when it comes to food, health and lifestyle, is how can I make better choices. We often think better choices are largely a matter of economics. To make better choices, we need more education, a better career and more income. This is how life works, right?

At its heart, the Schiffman article seems to question the connection between economics and good health. While GDP might do a great job at measuring economic wealth, it doesn’t measure physical wellness, as shown in the Cuban example.

Schiffman writes:

The Cuban experience suggests that to seriously make a dent in these problems, we’ll have to change the lifestyle that helps to cause them.

For all the benefits of living in the United States, it sometimes seems as if we’re victims of our own prosperity and technology. We’re not eating better, but we’re definitely eating more. With the advent of genetically modified frankenfood, we might not even be sure what we’re eating. What’s really the point of having more food choices, if all of those choices are bad ones?

Schiffman is not saying that we should all move to Cuba to get a better life. He does appear to be telling us that we presently have the capacity to make better choices. Better choices are not solely a function of economics, but are often a function of making better choices. Choose to ride your bike. Choose to walk. Choose to eat a lot less meat. Choose to eat a lot more vegetables and food grown without pesticides. Eat less processed foods. Eat smaller portions.