Trying to follow

Experiments in living that step us out of our normal life experience can be invaluable tools. I think they are the sorts of things that begin to help us question our current lifestyle. One Josh writes:

It’s a shame that as a culture we are so used to excess that we don’t even recognize it anymore.

And it’s a shame that I’ll probably wrestle with this decision for another month. The entire time talking about ethics and Jesus and taking the moral high road. Feel good about myself. And then break down and buy it.

I’m a hypocrite.

It’s an honest struggle and these words connect with a lot of us, as they are things we rarely even dare to think out loud or acknowledge. For Josh, it’s this sort of pondering that led him to give up this. I am so happy to see Josh make a decision like this because I really believe it will free him up to focus on and be willing to challenge other areas of his life and choices. I am excited about were this new freedom and balance will take him.

Another Josh, contemplated this:

I remember reading somewhere a few years ago about someone who tried to eat off of a dollar a day in order to gain some type of understanding of what (I’ll say a majority again) of the world’s population goes through in regards to that key element of survival, eating. I don’t remember much about the article, but I began wondering if I could do that. Wondering led to doing some calculating and strategic thinking, which led to this post. Day 1 of $1 a day. I have four weeks of training left. My goal right now, is to make it through the next four weeks on $1 a day for food, (Monday through Friday, I go home on the weekends, and will try to keep it up, but won’t make my wife and kids go through it too). That doesn’t mean I won’t eat food that has been provided for me without cost to myself, (for example, we have a snack table everyday at our training session that is free, but more on that in another post), and I still have a few leftover groceries from last week that will help me for a few days.

In his first entry a few days later he chronicles what he’s been eating thus far, including a excessive snack table at his training, and concludes:

I make light of this, mostly because of the ridiculousness of excess. I am grateful for my friends and their willingness to share. (I’d like to add here that I have not yet solicited any food.) I have been truly blown away at how much more we eat than we really need to. I also realize that hanging out with others who are not trying to live off of $1 a day, has benefited me. I am well aware that living amongst others in a similar predicament would have different results. I have other observations and other thoughts that I will continue to process and post later.

I really appreciate both of these guys and the way they are willing to challenge their current lifestyles. I don’t have any notion that by eating on $1 a day Josh knows the experience of those in the rest of the world, but one can appreciate his attempt to try and connect on some level, most of us rarely even go there. As always, I assure you Josh will have some valuable insights from his experience and I do believe his eating habits and lifestyle choices will be better for it.

I mentioned the Jena Six when they first appeared in the news and that post has had more hits this summer then any other. A lot of people are interested in what’s going on, and I felt the need to update you, by way mostly of quotes from other blogs and news outlets. First, if you know nothing about the Jena Six, this short news clip should catch you up.

Watch Part Two here.Here’s the most recent news, via While Seated:

Mychal Bell, the first of the Jena Six to face trial, was found guilty of aggravated second-degree battery and conspiracy to commit the same on June 28th. A comprehensive look at the case, the trial and the verdict was published on July 2nd at friendsofjustice. Plus, Democracy Now did a full story.

Jack and Jill Politics also gave a comprehensive look at the situation, including interviews with the parents of the victim in the case.

There are a lot of ways to get involved. The Daily Kos has a list of representatives to call and the link below has multiple Actions for you to partake in.

A while ago I wrote a series called considering church, and discussed the Sermon:

I’ll be honest I like listening to a good sermon every now and then. I could list a few of my favorites for you; at some point maybe I’ll even provide links to mp3’s of sermon’s that really moved me. There is also a good bit of Biblical support for sermons. Jesus seemed to like to sermonize it up every so often; my personal favorite is the “Sermon on the Mount.” Paul had quite a few lengthy sermons, and the first thing Peter does once he has the Holy Spirit is give a sermon. The word “Preach” shows up in the NIV 123 times (according to Biblegateway). Paul even goes off about the Rights of an Apostle in I Corinthians 9 (which is probably where we get our justification for having a paid pastor). The idea of a weekly meeting for a sermon probably comes from one of my favorite passages Acts 2:42-47.

So by now your probably thinking my goal was to answer the question presented in the title: Why the Sermon? Your maybe even a little bit convinced, or you’ve at least added some Bible verses to support it. So if that’s all you wanted, stop now and read no further.

I still wonder “Why the sermon?” If we are going to follow the Acts passage we should be meeting together daily, and also going to each others homes and eating together; we should be selling our possessions and sharing everything in common. And maybe our pastors should even be doing miraculous signs.
If we are going to hear out Paul’s words to the Corinthians then maybe we should also be advocating for more circuit preachers. Maybe we should stop the calls for money and just be giving it.

 Read the original post and comments here.

Note: Remember, this is just an out loud brainstorm. I’m eager to engage in discussion, but please don’t come on too strong as this isn’t a statement of beliefs I hold strongly, just a “What if?” to make me think a little more.

With approval rates low and mumbles of impeachment here and there, there’s few people in support of the current President and maybe even fewer in support of the war. The main face of the USA that people around the globe see is either Bush on a TV somewhere or a military person stationed in their country. We have more military around the globe then many other countries combined.
On top of that, our benevolence in foreign aid mostly goes to buying military weapons for our allies, and the little that goes to actual humanitarian work doesn’t outweigh the illegitimate debt we require back from the same countries we are giving aid to.

So, I wonder, what if we just quit? In economics class I once heard the term “lifeboat” economics to describe the idea of us not helping other countries, that if we did help them our lifeboat would sink, so instead we just need to look out for our own, and keep our lifeboat to ourselves. I wonder sometimes, if that would be so bad.

What if all of our military worldwide, packed up and moved back to the states? What if any Multinational Corporation that did business in the USA had to move it’s factories (sweatshops) back into the borders? What if we gave up on holding illegitimate debt over the heads of third world countries? What if we stopped our environmental hazards and dumping on the rest of the world? What if we stopped giving aid and sending PeaceCorps volunteers?

Would the rest of the world survive without us? Would it all go up in flames and anarchy? I’ve wondered about it recently, and I’m currently leaning toward ‘the world is going to be okay.’ I’m starting to think we do more harm then good with our superpower and privilege. We definitely do some good, and for those out there doing good in the world on behalf of the USA, I don’t mean to take away from your work.

What do you think? Would the rest of the world survive without Washington’s watchful eye and strong hand to hold things together? Do they need us?

I’m not special. I happen to be just one of the six billion people that live on this planet. Whether your religious or not, the way I see it, we are all part of the human family, one great big, interconnected, multi-generational, inter-cultural, spread out, and fairly dysfunctional family. But, I’m not special, I’m just one more member of the family. It’s only fair that I share equally with the rest of the family, this great big planet that we live on. Above is a picture of my ecological footprint. It’s an improvement from how I was living last year, but still double what I’d like it to be.

I know it’s not right to make laws about things like this, but I don’t see why we as people aren’t a little more shameful of the way that we live? I mean if I took the 4.5 acres that were for my brother and hogged his plus mine, and a little of my sisters land all to myself, just so I could eat as I please and travel as I wanted to. People would scoff at me. Why is it then that nobody will probably ever call me out on my choices regarding this?

(ht: Josh) By the way there is a great conversation in the comment’s section over at Josh’s blog.

How Big is your Eco-Footprint?