Amazing Grace - Lessons for today

I love the movie Amazing Grace. And recently when watching it again I noticed a couple things I want to emulate about William Wilberforce.

1. His good friend spurred him on. Willam Pitt became Prime Minister during the period Wilbeforce was up against slave traders in Parliament. His friend indulged his thoughts and ideas. He brainstormed along side him and even did some work while Wilberforce was out sick for a period of time. Without his friend's help in soliciting votes, the law might not have passed. His friend was instrumental in his success and in his life as a freedom fighter. Pitt believed in Wilberforce's call to this mission and sought to propel and help him as much as he could.

2. He had a mentor. John Newton provided wisdom, guidance, and the needed push to keep Wilberforce going in a life of politics. Wilberforce wavered with pursuing a religious life rather than a political one and needed supporters who had his back throughout the tumult of getting the motion to law.

3. His spouse challenged him. While he didn't marry until in his late 30's, he did so to a woman who was already behind his cause. She encouraged his persistence and reminded him what he'd accomplished thus far.

4. He persevered through physical  illness and carried the burdens of many he'd never met.It's believed that William Wilberforce suffered from ulcerative colitis which was only treated back then with opium. It was stress-induced and with him most of his life. In addition, he was plagued by nightmares of slaves in their slave quarters on ships.

These choices and relationships were critical to him fulfilling the mission God gave him. He was surrounded by God's love in the form of these people who provided challenge and support at just the right moments. I recently heard the president of International Justice Mission at the Justice Conference. Gary Haugen spoke about how the work of justice "is long and boring" and the great persistence of the people who work with his organization. It's not a glamorous thing to do, but it's a worthy thing to do. I think about that phrase often - the work of justice is long and boring - it is reflected in the life of William Wilberforce, Lincoln and many others who allow the work of justice to sink deep into their souls. Thank God for them. May we all learn from their work and grow in our ability to persevere as God seeks to use our lives for His glory and to love a world that doesn't acknowledge him.

7: Clothes

As my small group continues our own mutiny against excess, we came up with several ways to examine our clothing and reassess the way we view clothing.

I chose 7 non-descript items of clothing for work and wore variations of them all week. I got absolutely NO comments on my clothing so here are the conclusions I came to:

1. My coworkers think I'm weird but they are not going to say anything to me.
2. I see a variety of people each day so it's possible that they didn't see me consecutive days to know that I wore similar clothes.
3. Nobody really noticed at all and I am the only one preoccupied with my wardrobe choices.

In addition to those conclusions I also learned:

1. I have too many clothes, and I need to unlearn the value of buying something shiny and new. That was a value instilled in me long ago and is one area I want to investigate more.
2. I truly enjoying getting dressed and making choices regarding colors, fabrics, styles. And while I enjoy it I need to remember it's a choice, not an expectation. And when I get frustrated and feel "I have nothing to wear" I need to be chided!  
3. The American culture values consuming and newness A LOT and I get sucked in unwittingly too often. I want to increase my awareness of such messages and feel more confident questioning them.

So continues my saga with this book 7. I've realized I cry each chapter I read. Either because I overly identify with the author or because her lessons are refreshing and that soothes my soul in ways that are touching (and therefore covered in tears). 

7: FOOD pt 2

Well days 5, 6, and 7 of the FOOD challenge were a bit easier, or I just got lazier. It's hard to say. Remember on Day 1 when I rationalized that if coffee was given to me then I could include it in my food that day? Well the same thing happened just before Easter when I went to stay with my grandmother. She is very hard to say no to and she's consistently asking you if you're hungry, followed by 6-7 choices of your favorite foods, she keeps on hand in her refrigerator (including a lot of cheese which I gave up for all of Lent). I was officially done with the challenge by Easter morning and thoroughly enjoyed the choices for our brunch. One of the tastiest parts was the bunny cake competition which is included below:

Conclusions thus far:
I value choices and variety far above many other things.
Food is easily an idol in my life given the struggle this challenge was.
Food is easily an idol in the lives of my friends as well. We all did our share of complaining, justifying, rule-bending, and excuse-making in our first week.
This book is seriously messing with my life.
Grocery shopping has a different meaning for me now and I try to remember how grateful I am for the choices, flavors and recipes I can enjoy.
I will revisit this idea of fasting, limiting food choices, or simply reducing (by eating what is already in my house) more often in the coming months. A good habit doesn't develop in only 7 days. In some ways, our altered challenges might be setting us up for more frustration than if we did 30 days.

To end this section in full irony, enjoy this song from Chris August on his love of Candy :)

So the next chapter is on Clothes and we've accepted the challenge. I will commit to a clothes audit (truthfully counting up all my current articles of clothing and sharing that number with my small group) and wearing 7 items of clothing for 7 days (as an adaptation we agreed 7 items for work and 7 items for non-work, since we all have dress codes to abide by and the author did not). Stay tuned :)

7: FOOD part 1

Day 1: My weekend in Asheville was a blast with my two good friends from high school. Like any good girl's weekend, we had snacks in our room and on Sunday, the day I was to start my fast, I woke up and ate a chocolate chip cookie because I was hungry. FAIL. Then I went down to the free hot breakfast and added a banana and brown sugar to my oatmeal. FAIL. I also had coffee. Then drive home and got Panera black bean soup, hoping that would count. It came with a baguette. How luxurious. How pampered I am simply by living in this country. This is going to be hard! Just on day 1 I find myself ready to jump down other people's throats to get them to understand how awesome we have it in our communities and in this country. My word for day one is simply "Privileged."

Day 2: I stuck to plain oatmeal for breakfast and plain rice and black beans for lunch. As I looked at the demands of my day I was already hurting thinking I wouldn't have coffee. Then I decided that if someone offered me coffee, I could accept since that's even what someone on the street would do. Coincidentally I met with my State Farm agent early this morning and they were a hospitable group :)I had extra time this morning to read the Bible and to almost fall back asleep. When I realized the extra time in my morning came from already eliminating my options for lunch and breakfast, I felt fortunate. This wasn't a great feeling - I felt fortunate that I didn't have to spend my precious time choosing between all the varieties of lunches I could make with the contents in my fridge. FAIL.

Then later that afternoon I considered if I could get home in time to go to one of my favorite fitness classes - body combat. You can sweat off almost 750 calories in that class. I got home a little too late and thus eliminated the option, but as I considered working out at all I realized I'd only consumed about 500 calories. That got me thinking about the amount of calories people in other countries consume and I ran across this infographic visualizing the world's food consumption

"Today, one in eight people do not get enough food to be healthy and lead an active life, making hunger and malnutrition the number one risk to health worldwide -- greater than AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis combined." - www.wfp.org/hunger/faqs

Below are 2 photos of what families in NC and Chad eat.  See the full TIME slide show.

A family in North Carolina, USA

A family in Chad, Africa

My word for day two is "inadequate."

Day 3: I didn't have coffee today. I also got a terrible headache. After leaving the office a little early, taking a quick nap and some Aleve, I felt much better. I also was convicted about how comfortable my life is. Many people work in jobs that don't allow them to leave early, don't have the free time to nap and recover, or don't have running hot water to take a rejuvenating shower. Lots of people can't afford the luxury of pain medication, or it's not even sold in the vicinity. My word for day three is "uncomfortable."

Day 4: My word for today is "monotony." I caught myself complaining about the morning oatmeal and boring beans and rice. Eating the same thing everyday is awful to me. Someone recently asked me, "Linda don't you think you were born in America for a reason?" This question has stuck with me and caused me some frustration. Since I don't know with certainty the reason (and all the ones I could think of are quite superficial and entitled), I decided the only appropriate response is gratitude.

• Gratitude for variety and access to foods that taste delicious. 
• Gratitude for this project that has left me with the space to consider how others live. 
• Gratitude for the extra 20 minutes I slept in this morning because I didn't have to decide what to eat for breakfast or lunch (no lie).