Man, the conference was frickin sweet! In addition to stimulating my thoughts, there are a few things that I would like to change about my lifestyle. These are a few preliminary thoughts:
I would like to eat less food. I realize how many people have no food whatsoever to eat, and often the food they do eat is insufficient. I think about the meal that we ate collectively at the conference when we ate porridge that World Vision provides for people in malnourished areas of the world, and it opened my eyes; to taste what so many people consume every day, to know and experience for a moment in time the nothing that people have was powerful. When I think about that food, and consider the food I eat every day, I am saddened. I no longer want to consume as much as I do. Maybe it won’t make a tangible difference for them, but it will remind me how much I have, and remind me that I have so much more than so many. When I want to reach for more food that I don’t need, I will instead pray to the Lord for the people that couldn’t eat in the first place. God hears my prayers. He loves his people; whether they have food or not. Especially those with nothing: “Blessed are the poor, for theirs is the kingdom of God.” So, I will eat only what I need. This is easier said than done, but right now I refuse to consume that which I do not need; it is so sad to think that I can eat whatever, whenever I want, when some would give up anything for a bite for one day.
Another thing that I want to change is how much water I use. Often, sometimes I use a crapload of water in the shower and for other random stuff that I don’t need. Again, it wont make much difference for people who don’t have water in this world, but it will continually remind me of the need in this world for water. It’s sad to think about how I can run the shower for minutes and minutes, and absolutely nothing will come of it, when people elsewhere travel miles everyday for water that isn’t even clean for drinking. So, I will remember the people in this world who suffer by lack of water. I can pray and God will act. He is faithful!
I’m not going to buy anything unless I really really need it. Maybe this seems prudish or snobby or stuck up or something, but think about how much money I’ll save, think about how much money won’t be wasted. I’ve already spent a lot of money this semester, some on books that I need, some on items that I kind of need, like a coffee maker so I can wake up in the morning for devotions and my morning classes, and some items that I don’t need at all. My point is that I don’t want to give money away to places that don’t really do anything positive for me or for anyone but themselves. It would be nice to not support companies that I don’t know how they treat their workers. It’ll save me money, and be morally safe, eh? Oh yeah.
Along with that, I want to steer clear of institutions that treat workers unfairly, perpetuate poverty, and oppress the poor further. I’m going to do some research on this, but I’m pretty dang sure that companies like American Eagle don’t pay their workers in Indonesia the same wages their store employees get. I’m pretty dang sure that the shirt I’m wearing was stitched and assembled and printed by someone or some people that didn’t get paid much more than $20 for their day. Maybe that’s being generous. Maybe they do get paid well. All I’m saying is that I’d rather know and make a decision based on that rather than buy whatever for too much and have that overly expensive item have been made by someone stuck in a cycle of abject poverty. It’s not my place to buy that shirt, especially if I don’t know who made it. It’ll be a lot easier if I just don’t buy stuff in the first place, eh? Yumsaboss.
Again, this is easier said than done. I just ate a handful of Swedish fish without thinking. I didn’t need those fish. Yeah they were tasty, chewy, and delicious. In the end, however, it’s likely just going to rot my teeth and make a little chubbier. As pleasant as it was to throw those little red suckers into my hungry, salivating mouth, I didn’t need them. It’ll be small choices like this, to just live better, to just treat my body better, to be a little more careful about who I support with my dollars. I encourage anyone who reads this to keep me accountable—this really is how I’d rather live my life, knowing that I am doing everything, absolutely everything, in my power to follow Jesus. Not just in my social and spiritual realms, but also in my physical, consumptive, and private ones too.
Living for Christ, because of this conference, has become more than an outward lifestyle, and is now far more of a holistic, balanced approach to taking up my cross. One of the most impacting things that I realized at this conference was that participation in sinful structures, socially unjust systems, and essentially evil establishments is just as sinful as committing devastating personal sins. In the west, it’s often stressed about how terrible things like murder, lust, covetousness, greed, and other sins are. However, I have never heard a word about social sin in church, when in fact, the Father despises it just as much. I wouldn’t support an adulterous marriage, so why would I support a company that exploits children workers or keeps workers suffering in poverty? I hope it doesn’t sound like I’ve gone off the deep end, but shouldn’t it be a little more offensive that structural evil affects many many more people than just myself and my personal sin? I think I need to be more mindful of that kind of thing.
I’ll write more about the conference soon, some other great things to think about.
Yumsaboss!
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