7: Stuff

In a long overdue attempt to reflect on how the book, 7: An Experimental Mutiny Against Excess, is changing my outlook on my faith, decisions and real life - check this out.


STUFF

"I have come to see that the great tragedy in the church is not that rich Christians do not care about the poor, but that rich Christians do not know the poor." ~Shane Claiborne 

For the chapter on our possessions, Jen Hatmaker gives away 7 things a day for 1 month to see what changes this causes in her perspectives and attitudes. Our small group decided to take on this challenge in a similar way. Rather than a specific number, we were struck by the way she gave stuff away. Jen sought out organizations that needed her stuff. She prayed over the items she gave away and she sought to get things into hands of those who actually needed it. Goodwill has its place in all this, but isn't the only solution. More on that in a second.

So I transformed my dining room into a center for give-aways. I put post it notes on my walls and brown grocery bags on the floors and started sorting - much of it was clothes after just examining how much I actually own. Other stuff was housewares mostly.

With the help of several friends who were spring cleaning we sent stuff to:

• Cook Elementary School, one of my churches partners, to inspire kids to think about college by giving them college Tshirts
• El Buen Pastor one of my churches partner organizations, does an annual yard sale so we donated some of our nicer fall clothing for the women as well as some housewares. 
• World Relief in High Point  - We gave housewares including linens, towels, pillows, blankets, artwork, shelves, shoe racks, toiletries, kitchen utensils, and a rice cooker to help furnish refugee families' houses when they get to America with nothing more than a suitcase. This awesome organization is actually holding a donation drive this month. If you're doing any spring cleaning - consider helping out!

Give on June 20th!!

• Hope Phones who are "an innovative way to fund the global efforts of Medic Mobile, parent organization that advances healthcare in 16 countries with mobile technology." - We sent 11+ phones to Hope Phones. *Perk - they let you print a packing slip and doesn't require a trip to the post office! 

our contribution to Hope Phones

• An urban high school - I gave some coats and clothes that match the SMOD to some high school girls through their school counselor. 
• Goodwill did get a lot of donated clothes, which is great, but I did wonder - does everything we take there actual get sold? And if I have clothing that isn't in that great of shape, what should I do with it then? Then I ran across this video and learned why we should send any textiles there, even if they can't be resold in their stores. You should take 4 minutes to watch this video.
• Dress for Success was on my list, but after volunteering to sort some of their current donated goods, I decided to send my business clothes elsewhere. They have tons of stuff at the moment, so I'm working on getting UNCG to officially partner with them as a referral agency instead :) I took those items to the Shalom Project, a clothing closet as part of the ministry from Green Street Methodist Church.
  
• My credentialing body for Nationally Certified Counselors sends counseling textbooks to countries without established counseling training programs to help them have understanding of theories, practices, treatment plans, etc. So between a few of my counseling friends and I we donated 21 books to be sent to places like Bhutan, Bulgaria, Cambodia, Cyprus, Greece, Jamaica, Kenya, Macedonia, Malawi, Nigeria, Philippines, Portugual, Romania, Tanzania, Turkey and Uganda. :)
• The Reynold Library took my old issues of Real Simple, Rachel Ray, Health and Women's Health to be sold and make money for the library. 

That whole process took about 6 weeks total. My dining room was kinda crazy during this time and I was spent by the end. It was both inspiring and disheartening at the same time. I was inspired by the many places I learned we could take things that we don't use anymore, both from a "reduce, reuse, recycle" standpoint (a future blog) and a "getting things into the hands that need them most" standpoint. But I was also disheartened that I had so much stuff I could part with and still have so much stuff. I've already reassessed the space in my drawers and have another bag to take to Goodwill.
This book is making me really look at my life and the ways I place values on things instead of relationships or "kingdom work." I do hope and pray that the places I sent those items will make a positive impact in God's economy. And I pray that I continue to let it sink into my marrow that things don't define me and that my "blessing" those less fortunate with my cast-offs doesn't make me any more righteous or good. Jen left us with these questions, which I know pose to you -

• What do we do with our riches? 
• What do we do with our privileges? 
• What should we keep? 
• What should we share?

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).