Food culture

I confess every once in a while I want McDonald's: the convenience, speed, taste manufactured by sodium, MSG and grease.

Sometimes I feel as though those of us who want to eat organic, cook from scratch and avoid prepackaged foods are perceived as stuck up or following a fad, especially as I have become more interested in the whole foods lifestyle, or Paleo. But eating foods that haven't been altered by science, chemicals or copious amounts of sugar isn't a fad, it's how we are supposed to eat.

Convenience and an obsession with outdoing the competition has created a food culture in America that doesn't strike me as healthy. In response there are movements to take us back to the way food is intended to be. Buy local, in season, non GMO, etc. As I wrestle with feeling like a snob when I refuse certain foods, I think about a quote from a book I read about six months ago. The book was written by a Canadian who lived in France with her French husband and tried to understand why French kids ate so differently than her own. She wrestled with the amount of say the government has in the eating habits of children, they are even taught about food in school and their lunches are planned. She was told that North Americans think so differently about food because they have yet to develop their own food culture due to their relative youth. When you look at history, it is true that we are often a few leagues behind Europe on certain developments or matters of political issues, whether good or bad (current events speak to this, as do historical, such as slavery).

The author decided to teach her children to eat like the French children, to think about food as the French do. I think her observation, quoted below, is quite profound, as is her realization that she had to change herself first. If I want my daughter to eat well and treat her body well, I must learn how to first.

"Now, healthy eating is one of the most important skills that parents help their children develop. Underelying this focus on food education for young children [in France] is a simple principle:
"Chances are, my children are not going to grow up to go to Harvard, or to be major league sports stars, concert musicians, or NASA astronauts. But no matter who they grow up to be, how and what my children eat will be of great importance to their health, happiness, success, and longevity."

Quoted from French Kids Eat Everything

"a dot fell to the ground"

"Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you? If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy him. For God's temple is holy, and you are that temple." 1 Corinthians 3:16-17

When I read 1 Kings 5 and 6, the description of the preparation for and the construction of the temple, I read of the care, the costly materials, the beauty. I read God's promise to Solomon. And I think, "You are that temple."

I am of no use to anyone if I do not first recognize my worth in the eyes of my Creator. As Eli the woodworker says in Max Lucado's You Are Special: "you are special because I made you. And I don't make mistakes."

In whose name?

Colossians 3:12-17 is excellent marriage advice; good advice for any relationship, really:

"Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him."

What do I live for? In what name do I do things? In other words, who gets the glory? What example do I offer for someone "living for Christ"? If I actually do everything I do in Christ's name, do I honor Him or shame Him?

Sufficient

Definition: enough to meet the needs of a situation
(source: Merriam-Webster Dictionary online)

Usage:
"My grace is sufficient for you"
2 Corinthians 12:9

Conclusion: What more do I need?

with wings

To whom then will you compare me, that I should be like him? says the Holy One. Lift up your eyes on high and see: who created these? He who brings out their host by number, calling them all by name, by the greatness of his might, and because he is strong in power not one is missing. Why do you say, O Jacob, and speak, O Israel, "My way is hidden from the LORD, and my right is disregarded by my God"? Have you not known? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength. Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; but they who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.

Isaiah 40:25-31

Not enough time

Lord though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death

I'm not scared cause You're holding my breath

I only fear that I don't have enough time left

To tell the world that there's no time left, Lord please

from Group 1 Crew's "Forgive Me"

I have to wonder. Am I really afraid that "I don't have enough time left/to tell the world that there's no time left" or is it really a fear of not having enough time to get everything I want and experience all I think I need to experience?

Pretty sad when you think about how temporary this life really is and how permanent eternity is.

34. Let My Love Restore

"His thoughts said, 'I am not what I meant to be, or what others think I am.'

"His Father said, 'It is written, "He restoreth my soul. The Law of the Lord is perfect, restoring the soul." Let some word of Mine restore thee. Let My love restore thee. Didst thou think thou hadst a Father who did not know tha tHis child would need ot be restored? I will restore health unto thee: I will heal thee of they wounds. I will restore comforts unto thee. I will restore unto thee the joy of My salvation. I will renew a right spirit within thee. I will not cast thee away from My Presence.

"'Child of My love, trust thy Father. If the Spirit speaketh some word in thy heart, obey that word. And, before ever thou art aware, thou wilt know thyself restored.'"

from His Thoughts Said... His Father Said...
by Amy Carmichael

live now in the tension

"I am worthy of your trust, no matter what happens in your life. I have a good plan, and nothing will stop Me from carrying it to completion. You must live now in the tension between anguish and hope."

quoted from Larry Crabb's 66 Love Letters

An Intoxicating Reality

We are always in the presence of God. Moses was commanded to remove his sandals because the ground on which he stood was holy; he was in the presence of Almighty God. We are always in His presence - every moment is sacred. This is an intoxicating reality.

I am loved by God and that truth should ignite every moment, every activity of my life.

"Brother Lawrence says that 'our sanctification did not depend upon changing our works, but in doing that for God's sake which we commonly do for our own.'" (Transformed into Fire, p. 198)

"...live a God-enthralled life....everything we do is aflame with love." (197)

My center

"The shift I propose begins with youth workers who live out of the wholeness of their own souls, who nurture a personal spirituality that makes Jesus Christ the center of everything. Youth need youth workers who dwell in the presence of God and are willing to walk along with them on the journey regardless of how often they are prone to personal detours." (Presence-Centered Youth Ministry: Guiding Students into Spiritual Formation by Mike King, p 11)

A new project my boss gave me yesterday is to go through a book he's read and type up everything he's underlined - sort of offer a taste of the content to those who don't read as often as he. I really like this project for a number of reasons. Primarily because I learn. The above quote was the first one I typed up. Impactful. My journal response:

"All I have to offer is my brokenness."

life of sacrifice

"I have witnessed the bonds within this family.... These strange golden-eyed ones deny their very natures. But in return have they found something worth even more, perhaps, than mere gratification of desire? I've made a little study of them in my time here, and it seems to me that intrinsic to this intense family binding - that which makes them possible at all - is the peaceful character of this life of sacrifice. There is no aggression here.... There is no thought for domination."

from Breaking Dawn Copyright 2008 by Stephenie Meyer (pp 717-718)

Secure in the Everlasting Arms

"A prayerful heart and an obedient heart will learn, very slowly and not without sorrow, to stake everything on God Himself" (p. 34).

"The Lord will fulfill his purpose for me; your love, O Lord, endures forever - do not abandon the works of your hands." Psalm 138:8

"We are meddling with God's business when we let all manner of imaginings loose, predicting disaster, contemplating possibilities instead of following, one day at a time, God's plain and simple pathway. When we try to meet difficulties prematurely we have neither the light nor the strength for them yet. 'As thy days so shall thy strength be' was Moses' blessing for Asher - in other words, your strength will equal your days" (p. 37).

"Faithfulness today is the best preparation for the demands of tomorrow" (p. 39).

"Are we assured that we are safe in the hands that hold the stars? Can we wholeheartedly surrender to God, leaving quietly with Him all the 'what ifs' and 'but what abouts'? Will we truthfully say to Him, 'Anything You choose for me, Lord - to have to be, to do, or to suffer. I am at Your orders. I have no agenda of my own'?" (p. 39)

excerpts from Secure in the Everlasting Arms by Elisabeth Elliot

Madeleine L'Engle

from Walking on Water: Reflections on Faith and Art by M. L'Engle (1918-2007)

"Faith is for that which lies on the other side of reason. Faith is what makes life bearable, with all its tragedies and ambiguities and sudden, startling joys. Surely it wasn't reasonable of the Lord of the Universe to come and walk this earth with us and love us enough to die for us and then show us everlasting life?" p. 22

"Often we forget that he has a special gift for each one of us, because we tend to weigh and measure such gifts with the coin of the world's market place. The widow's mite was worth more than all the rich men's gold because it represented the focus of her life. Her poverty was rich because all she had belonged to the living Lord." p. 31

"And then there is time in which to be, simply to be, that time in which God quietly tells us who we are and who he wants us to be. It is then that God can take our emptiness and fill it up with what he wants, and drain away the business with which we inevitably get involved in the dailiness of human living." p. 170