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| Wow, I haven't been here in so long, I almost forget how to do this. Hmmm... Q1: What is the chief end of man? A1: The chief end of man is to glorify God, and to enjoy him for ever. My Sunday School girls have rightly, and very astutely I think, surmised that the answer to the first question of the Westminster Catechism makes our God appear selfish. An unselfish person, assuredly, would not do anything purely to glorify themselves and themselves only, and it does not seem that a selfish God could be a good god; an opinion which I can understand having held it myself at some recent date. Of course we can say that it is unfair to hold God to human standards - that what would be an unpleasant characteristic for a mere human being is not so in an all-powerful god - but this line of reasoning does nothing for a person who believes in a non-existent, or very small, or very mean god. In order for Question 1 to make sense to a person, the girls say, that person needs to be convinced, by God but probably through human means, that our God is worth glorifying and that His desire to have us glorify and enjoy him is not selfishness on his part, but necessity. The person needs to understand that things could be no other way with a perfect God. My question for you is: How did you come to understand that God's glory is something to be desired, and not only desired but required, by Himself and ourselves? Was it a Bible verse? A life experience? A John Piper book? (ha ha) What can we do to help other people understand this? | | |
| My dear and very thrifty friend Crystal came over last week and taught me some of her money-saving grocery shopping tricks. Spending less money on things like groceries has suddenly become an imperative for more reason than one - the main need being simply economic, and the other need being a general desire to consume less. Crystal suggests: -Look at the websites of the stores in your area BEFORE you go shopping. Find out which items are on sale and plan menus around those items. Be willing to go to more than one store to get the best prices. -Keep a notebook with the prices of the items you buy most often. Pay attention to how much those things cost regularly so that when they go "on sale" you can be sure you are really getting a deal and not just falling for a good ad. -When something really does go on sale, buy a lot of it. Bread, butter, meat and other items can be frozen for future use without too much nutrient loss. -Choose organic food wisely. Organics, while better in many ways, are of course more expensive, and many of the benefits of organics are lost in highly processed food. Minimally processed organic fresh fruits and vegetables can be a very good buy. -Set a budget and stick to it. Take cash instead of a checkbook or credit card. Keep track of how much you are spending on your way through the store and when you have hit your budget amount, LEAVE. -Eat less meat. Beans, beans, the magical fruit, the more you eat, the more you toot. Actually, Crystal didn't say that, it was me. On that note, here's another good reason to eat less meat: It's enormously expensive, both financially and ecologically, to produce meat. Our Western over-consumption of meat and dairy products takes a lot of money out of our pockets that could be spent on other things, and it causes us serious health problems. The life expectancy figures for American women just went down for the first time since 1918. Our consumption of meat and over-consumption of food in general is also potentially affecting the rest of the world. From an MSNBC article regarding the "silent tsunami of world hunger": Many analysts, including Britain's opposition leader David Cameron, claim that people in the West will need to eat less meat — and consume, or waste, less food in general. Some expect the shift in attitudes to herald the end of supermarket giveaways and cost-cutting grocery stores that stack goods to the ceiling and sell in bulk. Citizens in the West, China and India must realize that the meat on their plate and biofuels in their expensive cars carry a cost for those in the developing world, Evans said. Sheeran believes many already understand the impact. "Much of the world is waking up to the fact that food does not spontaneously appear on grocery store shelves," she said.
I was a vegetarian for four years and eventually gave it up because I discovered that while I didn't morally disagree with killing animals for food, I did (and do) have a big problem with the way we humans think it's acceptable to treat our food sources, be they animal, vegetable, or mineral, along with the land and the people involved with producing that food, with total disrespect, our sole purpose being to get the most profit out of them. All take and no give - it just doesn't seem like a good way to be. I admit that not all my reasons for giving up vegetarianism were pure (a street-side vendor selling bratwurst in Berlin had something to do with it) but since then I have tried to maintain healthy responsible food-purchasing habits with more or less success over the years. Sitting here tonight I feel like I'm on some wierd tree-hugging Moebius strip, going from idealistic, self-righteous hippie vegetarianism to...whatever this is now - something to do with Our Risen Lord, and hopefully humility, and love. Here's an article about the effects of reliance upon meat for those who may be interested: http://www.goveg.com/environment.asp and here's a link to some information on NPR if that's more your style http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=89676010&sc=emaf. Anyone got any good vegetarian recipes to share? | | |
| It occured to me after I wrote and posted yesterday that most of my readers will have already considered for themselves what it means to not store up treasures on earth. So, what does that look like for you? Do you have any hints or tips for living frugally? If there is something you do to reduce clutter, spending, or material consumption, what is it? I would be most happy if you could share your ideas with me here or in person. Here's a tip from me to myself: Drive more conservatively. I always drive like I'm in a race, for which there is really no need. Aggressive driving uses more fuel, and at $3.34 a gallon I really can't afford it. Also I am going to turn the heat down in my car from 80 degrees (why it was set at 80 I'm not really sure - I guess I was cold?) to 60ish, or maybe turn it off altogether now that the weather is gettting nicer. | | |
| It's all well and good to talk about decluttering. It's pretty easy to say, "I loaded up a bunch of boxes and took them over to Empty Tomb and boy do I feel great." Rationally I can admit that my belongings are just things, and that I shouldn't store up treasures on earth, and so on, and so forth. In reality, however, this "getting rid of things" is hard. There should not be a little hole in my heart where a bright yellow spice rack from my former days used to be, but so help me God, there is one. I've talked to other people about this sort of thing, and tears have sprung into eyes (and not only mine) at the mere thought of parting from various items. So, if you are contemplating decluttering and finding it emotionally difficult, I'm right there with you. I found some unexpected encouragement from John Piper in "Let the Nations Be Glad!", subtitled "The Supremacy of God in Missons". Piper says, "Even though it is true that we should thankfully enjoy what we have, there is a relentless call in the Bible not to accumulate more and more things, but to give more and more, and to be deprived of things if love demands it. There are no easy rules to tell us whether the call on our lives is the call of the rich young ruler to give away all that we have, or the call of Zacchaeus to give away half of what we have." I had read the story of the rich young man who was told to give away all that he had. I could see the importance of the utter rejection of wealth in his life that was so strongly predicated on worldly goods. I very much admire those who follow this path, but the command to give everything away is clearly not applicable to everyone. The rich young ruler I am not, but the verse in Amos about selling the poor for a pair of sandals cuts deep - and I can identify with Zacchaeus. Piper continues, "What is clear from the New Testament is that, while we live on earth, suffering with joy, not gratitude in wealth, is the way the worth of Jesus shines most brightly." I like that. I like it that Piper divides all Christians into only two camps - those called to own nothing, and those called to own half of what the world entitles them to own. It's easy to think in halves. How about owning half as many things as we do now? I could easily do with only half the number of some things I own, like comforters or flower pots or silverware sets or easter baskets or...you get the picture. That has the added advantage of allowing us to fit better in our house so that we won't need to buy a bigger house just to keep all our stuff in, which people do all the time. How about taking half as many showers to conserve water and money? Or spending half as much at the grocery store - well, I don't know about that (yikes!) but at least it's a recognizable goal to aim for. And in the future, I can aim at passing by half the opportunities I have to acquire more stuff. It's kind of cool to think that if I cut my consumption of some things in half, two families could begin to live on what formerly provided for one. More from Piper: "You cannot show the preciousness of a person by being happy with his gifts. Ingratitude will certainly prove that the giver is not loved. But gratitude for gifts does not prove that the giver is precious. What proves that the giver is precious is the glad readiness to leave all his gifts to be with him. This is why suffering is so central in the mission of the church. The goal of our mission is that people from all nations worship the true God. But worship means cherishing the preciousness of God above all else, including life itself. It will be very hard to bring the nations to love God from a lifestyle that communicates a love of things. Therefore God ordains in the lives of his messengers that suffering sever our bondage to the world. When joy and love survive this severing, we are fit to say to the nations with authenticity and power: Hope in God." | | |
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