Crunchy Life: My Very Unusual Reason

Have you heard of this term being "crunchy"?  It's such an odd term that I feel very strange accepting it.  When I hear it, I suppose it makes me think of someone who has become so used to not bathing that perhaps their hair has become, "crunchy."  HA!  Did I make that theory up?  I've probably just offended a gazillion people.  Pshaw.  Just kidding.  I'm grateful for the five of you who follow my blog!  Woot!

But honestly, as I read more and more about pesticides, chemicals, GMOs, artificial flavors, false marketing, yada yada yada  . . . well, it's gotten to the point where we make almost everything we eat from scratch.  And I'm slowly getting sweetest lovey on board with making beauty products from scratch, too.

It's been an interesting evolution, honestly.  Are you on this train, too?
It started with dear husband got cancer.  We began trying to eat more cancer-fighting foods, and trying to eliminate cancer-causing foods.  Only, the more you research, the more you find that A LOT of foods cause cancer.  Boo!

Another funny (well, not funny-ha-ha) factor to add in there was that we really read a lot about how the vast majority of chocolate manufacturers use cocoa from sources that rely on slave or child labor. How crumby is that?  So we began ordering fair trade cocoa and buying organic chocolate chips so that we can make our own brownies and chocolate chip cookies.  We let go of the Oreos, Dove bars, Snickers, etc.  I have to say that you would be utterly shocked, I mean shocked, to really look at how many products in the supermarket have some bit of chocolate in it.  It's depressing to think America is keeping child and slave labor alive and well so that we can enjoy chocolate PopTarts.
But I digress.

Basically, this evolution has been super slow going and still in progress.  I'd say that our food is 95% there, our cleaners are 70% there, and our health and beauty stuff is somewhere around 10% there.

Why do I do it?
Here's the kicker.
I think of lot of people do it because they are scared.  They are scared of getting sick.  They are scared of making their kids sick.  They are scared of dying.  They are scared of what GMOs and chemicals and unknowns could be doing to them.  They are scared of diseases that would be hard to bear.  They are scared of not having clarity of thought, of not being themselves, of not being their best self.

That's not me.
I'm not scared.  Well, I'm not fool-hardly.  I've been around enough pain and suffering to have a deep reverence for what those experiences are.  But I suppose at the end of the day, I know my life is in God's hands.  And He'll walk me though whatever lies ahead.
No, I'm not scared.

What I am . . . is longing for heaven on earth.
You know the Lord's Prayer?  (This is how I memorized it, and not in a lovely ESV version; sorry 'bout that).

Our Father, who art in heaven
Hallowed be thy name
Thy kingdom come
Thy will be done
On earth as it is in heaven
Give us this day our daily bread
And forgive us our trespasses
As we forgive those who trespass against us
And lead us not into temptation
But deliver us from evil
For thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory
Forever and ever. Amen.

At the end of the day, when it comes to my food, I want to eat the food that God intended us to eat in the Garden of Eden.  And when you bite into a sweet mandarin orange, and all that juice just explodes in your mouth, can't you just imagine it?  I don't want to settle for less.  I don't want my body being used to artificial sodas when I now know the goodness of refreshing, clean water.

It sounds so silly.  But anyone who has tried to give up sodas knows how crumby a glass of water can taste when you're used to drinking all that addictive, sugary chemical.  But it isn't what God intended for us, was it?  And any runner who hasn't had a soda in years will tell you how deeply delicious water is and everything else pales in comparison.  When your body is aligned with eating the way God intended, His foods have such variety and richness.

I won't lie to you.  There's a part of me that also feels a little like a hippie protestor.  Like I'm voting with my money.  If I keep buying organic chocolate chips, that at the very least, my grocer will keep them in stock.  Maybe the grocer will buy enough that I can buy them cheaper.  Maybe if I add my voice in with all the others out there trying to eat healthier and all natural, then it'll tip the iceberg and it'll make a bigger difference.  Who knows.  But just like all the other things in life that God calls me to, I feel like I try to do my part.

Thanks for not thinking I'm nuts.
Or at least not posting that you think I am.
*hugs*

I'm off to go eat some popcorn.

Good Friday and Charlotte's Web

Watching the 2006 Charlotte's Web with the babies this Good Friday.  There's so much I've been pondering this week with regard to Easter.  You?  I've been telling my Guatemalan lovies about Holy Week in Guatemala -- the beautiful decorations, the festivities, the reenactments, the week of holidays.  The whole place shuts down.  The streets are beautiful and lined with the most elaborate artwork of flowers and colored sawdust.  People sell tasty breads and treats all to celebrate the day the Lord rose from the dead.  

And it got me thinking so much about how little we do here in the States.  We have a service.  Sometimes even a holy sunrise service.  But the feeling in the air isn't about Jesus -- it's about bunnies, eggs, candies, Peeps, little chicks and local egg hunts.  I mean when we're all good and honest about it that is the heart of what we all spend our time on.  That's what all our decorations around our homes and offices are.  

I'm not saying we don't think about Jesus.  

I'm just saying He isn't center stage.

And it kind of boggles my mind.

But I told you my babies and I were watching Charlotte's Web, didn't I?  Oh, we picked it out for Little Girl.  We thought she might make her animal sounds if she saw all the barn animals.  But she still can't say, "oink," so it was a little bit of a bust.

Still, I heard this line early on in the movie when Wilbur moved across the street to the neighbors' barn.  

And it struck me.
I bet that's how Jesus felt from heaven when He looked upon the earth.  So full of living things -- but not so full of life.  In fact -- quite the opposite.  Very, very full of death.  Death from our sin.  Death from our chains.  Death from our brokenness.

And the God of Heaven who is life chose to pour His life back into us through deep deep sacrifice.

Good Friday.
This is the day He died.
For me.
For you.
For the muslim down the street.
For the refuge trying to get in.
For the homeless man at the intersection.
For the druggie by the bridge.
For the lesbian couple next door.
For the widow who doesn't leave her house.
For the racist who curses everyone.
For the convict on death row.

Because sometimes we forget how ugly we really are and how without Jesus we stink of death.
We forget how utterly desperate, deeply desperate  we are for Jesus to rescue us.

Don't forget these truths.
Call on His name.

One thing has always been truer than true: our Lord is greater than all our sin. And He hears us when we call out to Him.  

It's finally dark out here.  That means it's late since summer is on its way.  At the risk of saying something you might already know, let me say this tonight.  All Jesus has ever asked of us is to confess He is Lord (the leader of your life), that you give your life over to Him and trust Him in all things, and ask forgiveness for having lead a life without Him (following your own way).  It's pretty simple, but pretty significant.

And if you do talk something like this over with God, then He calls us to be in community (the church) --- all of us recovering broken people out there.

Good night, sweet friends.