HCLM BLOG

So here's some stuff I've been thinking about.

I have been thinking lately that our capitalist culture teaches us that we are primarily consumers. That our job is to be shrewd customers, rewarding the companies that produce the products we want for the lowest cost. For most of my life, how these companies do that has not been my concern. Recently I am starting to change my mind on that. I want to try to avoid being complicit in exploitation, and be more intentional about the places where I put my money.

When I consider the life my King Jesus lived while he was here, he spent lots of his time improving the lives of the poor, I want to emulate that wherever I can. I can’t do it all at once, and can’t be sure about where all my money goes; but I’m realizing that each purchase has potential to help out. I’m trying to make changes a little bit at a time.  

It’s in this context that I’ve started to think about coffee. Where do those delicious little beans come from?

I like coffee. I didn’t always, but I learned with beauty of the bean 6 or eight years ago. It’s a treat that encourages me out of bed in the morning, and a special incentive in some slow or tough evenings. Recently I realized that people have to grow this stuff. I mean some one some where farms the beans you use to make that coffee. It’s a nice treat for you, but serious work for someone else. It tends to grow best in countries that are less developed than the united states. In fact there are people in the world growing great coffee, that are doing good to live in small shanty style homes with dirt floors.

Recently I got connected with a gentleman that imports that sort of coffee from several small farmers in Guatemala. He pays them a better rate than they could get even with fair trade. He just wants to bless them. I do too. I think others might as well. That’s why we’re going to find places to sell it. Maybe we’ll call it Credo Coffee...what do you believe?

This "walk on water" metaphor has really been sticking with me.

here's the first thing that's coming second today cause it took a little more thought:

I have two things today. I'll give you the second one first, and the first one later today (it takes a little more thought).

I had a couple of conversations that ran together this week to bring me to the thoughts that I now share.

 I talked with my dad last night and he told me stories of the early part of his seminary education and his early married years, then he told me some stories about my grandfather that I had never heard. It is amazing how hearing the stories about my dad and my grandfather has changed just how I am thinking about the both of them. Equally amazing is the fact that knowing their stories is changing the way that I run my life and how I feel about my life.Knowing a little of what they went through puts my life experiences in perspective.

I also had a discussion with the staff in devotions this week about our own stories! The discussion was on just what our "witness" should be in the world that we live in today. The conclusion that we reached is that it should you telling any one who wants to hear just what God has done in your life. You don't have to have a memorized speech or lead them in just the right prayer, you simply tell those who care, why your life with Jesus is better than a life lived without him!

 So what's your story? Want to share with this online group just what God means in your life?

I read this little blurb in TIME magazine the other day that demonstrated part of the problem. When Christians begin to think that God has a political party, things get really messed up. This idea usually stems from a misunderstanding of the Kingdom of God. Remember that Jesus came to start a Kingdom...he said as much a lot. But his Kingdom was not of this world. It is not limited by boundaries and borders, by political ideologies, or economic systems. The Kingdom of God consists of the people who allow Jesus to be King in their lives and is more closely associated with the Church than with any country. I think it's dangerous for us to think that we know how God would vote. 

I gotta say, all this health care talk is finely getting me thinking.

This is probably really silly, but we used to have this blog titled "So...I was thinking" and it's in that vain that I give you this:

Kids- "Lo they are with you always, even unto the end of the earth!"

Last week was a big week for Betty and I as Ben and Megan had a new baby girl (that makes two) and Sara and John celebrated the first birthday of Owen, the cutest boy in Chicago! Being around for these two momentous occaisions gave me pause for thought. These kids start out so little and they take so much care, does it ever end?

My short answer is NO. We like to think that the lord has given them to us to raise, and under that senerio one would think that after 18 years they would be on their own and I told my kids exactly that last week when they asked. The truth is that once God gives them to you it lasts for the rest of your life. You see also last week my parents found out that my brother is getting a divorce and they feel all of his pain, even though he is 54. I realized that as long as I am around I will worry about my kids, the difference is that since they left the house I don't have as much influence on their choices. My care for them is much more in the area of prayer and praise. When they are little we control what TV they watch, who they play with, how much and what kinds of food they eat (I was told that Nacho Chips ard not on the 1 year old diet). As they get older we realize that our influence is getting smaller, the first time they listen to the teacher, but not to you! The way you feel about the friend that they have who tells them their first dirty joke! When they would rather be with their friends than with you. The final straw is when you discover, that just because you have raised them and fed them for 18 years, they are not bound to vote the same way as you in the election!!!

However, what I realized this last week is that this cycle has been going on since Adam and Eve. Can you imagine the conversation between Adam and Eve when they found out that Cain had killed Abel? "I told you that he was hanging with the wrong crownd", "He never had enough of his father's attention," "He was smothered by his mother's attention." "it is that darn U-Tube!!" As long as there have been parents, they have worried about raising their children.

I am so very proud of all of my grown children, and their spouses. They have made good choices and they are raising great children. As the parent and grand parent, I simply want to save them from the pain we have already gone through. I would like them to have the benefit of my years of experience. Then I realized that this is the definition of "Experience" is that it has to happen to YOU! I can not give someone, even my children whom I love, my experience, they have to have their own. So in the end we may be doomed to repeat the mistakes of our parents, but we also have the joy of experiencing for ourselves all that life has to offer. Live with all the joy that the Lord has for you and don't leave any behind.