Can We Curse People With Our Prayers? (Part 1)

Debunking Superstitious Beliefs About Prayer (Part 1) 

The other day I was having a conversation with someone about demons. The subject brought to mind something that had been bothering her for some time now. She used to ask God to give her faith, telling him, “do whatever it takes.” She also asked God to do whatever it takes to save her son’s soul. Part of her story is that her mother went through an illness and died, and later her son also died prematurely in a car accident. And it wasn’t until after these two events that she fully turned to God. So recently a friend told her that praying the words, “whatever it takes,” is actually a demonic prayer, and instead we should be praying “positive prayers.” This was a horrifying implication, and difficult to swallow. Had she actually cursed her own family by praying this? So, she asked me for my opinion as a minister.

I immediately told her, absolutely not! No! You did NOT curse your family! Hopefully that is obvious to you, reader. But it's not obvious to everyone....

These prayers she prayed were motivated by love and faith. She genuinely believed that God could supply her with more faith, and trusted that He would do right by her in doing whatever it takes to help her get there. She believed that God is actually good. She also had maternal love for her son. She wanted him to have more than just a good life, so she asked God to ensure her son’s place in heaven for eternity. If that is not a deeply faith-filled, loving and parental prayer, then I don’t know what is. 

I don't think she actually believed she had cursed her family, but there was a tiny spark of doubt growing. Her friend, unaware of her history, had inflicted some measure of fear. So let's talk about the implications of this belief. What would it take for—we’ll call her Betsy—to truly believe that she could curse her own family with her prayers to God?

First, Betsy would have to assume that some of her most fervent and constant prayers were actually ideas influenced by demons. Can you imagine the psychological state this would put her in? The horror, regret, guilt, shame, fear, and condemnation. The paranoia! This isn't the state of mind God calls us to. More importantly, it would skew her understanding of herself to think that instead of trusting God, she was actually being led by demons all this time... It's a cruel trick. I get angry just thinking about it. God does not call us to live a life in constant fear and awareness of the demonic. In fact, He loves us, and His love is so perfect, that when we accept it, it drives out all fear. He supplies us with faith and peace. He protects us from harm. The Bible describes him as a shepherd who leads us to green pastures and still waters; a God who prepares a table for us before our enemies. He fights for us, and intercedes for us. God is our shelter and shield. God is good and honorable, and knows how to give us good gifts. If we're going to call anything "demonic," it was her friend's suggestion which had the potential to rob her faith and reframe her entire history with God.

And because of her history, our Betsy would have to believe that her prayers were most definitely answered in the worst way. To be afraid of praying to wrong prayer implies God is somehow obligated to answer every word of our prayers in the most literal and extreme way without any ability to think for himself, or authority to choose otherwise. This would mean God has no free will, and is powerless to refuse our prayers. In other words, she would have to reject the idea that God is all-powerful, or that He is a person with His own free will who can think for Himself. Or she'd have to reject that he is all-knowing, and knows what we mean when we pray vague prayers. 

Third, if she didn't believe God was some sort of mindless prayer-answering machine, then she might have to believe that prayer has some sort of power in and of itself to accomplish our wishes apart from God. This is not Christian ideology. This is the same as how one might think of curses, magic, spells, or maybe “human energies.” It's a superstitious concept of prayer. When the Bible talks about "the power of prayer," it is only within the context of God's love. He loves us so much that our prayers are compelling to Him, and that's what makes them powerful.

Fourth, if not a mindless machine, then only a murdering psychopath would take Betsy's request to the extreme by killing her family members one by one until she finally turns to God. Obviously God can't be an aggressively manipulative psychopath, so it must have been Satan answering her prayers. She'd have to believe she was accidentally praying to Satan. There is nothing in scripture to suggest we should be concerned that our prayers will be picked up by Satan. By now, she's not even a Christian and her concept of God doesn't come from the Bible at all.

What’s more, Betsy’s concept of suffering would have to be completely ego-centric in order to believe that, because she asked for it, her mother’s and son’s deaths occurred—just in order to help her find faith in God. Sure, hardships can make or break us: we decide how we respond to them. But to think that God would kill someone just to get our attention would be to assume (He is a psychopath and that) we are more important than the other people in our lives. Our loved ones are just pawns or side-characters God can just throw away. Not everything is about us. and if we see it that way, we might have deeper issues...

Furthermore, she would have to have a deterministic concept of God's sovereignty: that he controls everything with no room for possibilities, chance, or freedom for us to choose. If so, she might believe her suffering was a form of discipline from God. These are two areas of debate that I won't delve too deep into here. We know from scripture that God does not cause evil. But when it does happen, He is able to make something good out of it. So if her mother and son died, could God use it for good in the form of leading her into a stronger faith? Absolutely! Without God, these trials may have produced different, perhaps darker results in her. But did God cause or allow those things to happen for the purpose of growing her faith? My answer to that is a hearty N-O. And this simply because of the moral dilemma it creates. What's more, it goes against the character of unconditional love defined for us in 1 Corinthians 13. 

So, can you curse people with your prayers to God? The answer is no. Your prayers don't have magical powers to curse people. And you don't have to worry about demons when praying to God. God is a good and all-knowing being who knows what you mean when you say it. He knows when it's not wise to answer your requests. He knows what's best for you. He works all things out for your good. So the next time you position yourself to pray, have faith; God is full of grace and mercy, and he is on your side.

Stick around for Part 2, Conjuring Up Faith.

Photo by Daniel Lincoln on Unsplash

What it Costs to Have Real Influence

         
Your Rants Aren't Changing Anyone

            When I was younger, as a newly initiated minister in Phoenix, Arizona, I was part of a group that literally went knocking on doors in some of the poorest and roughest neighborhoods in the city, offering food and clothes, and with the intent to preach the gospel, face-to-face. It was our conviction and hope at the time that sharing about Jesus might save people’s souls. I remember the trauma of it—sitting in my car, hyperventilating in preparation, walking with a feigned confidence but trembling on the inside, and naively asking people if they wanted to hear about Jesus. It was terrifying…

I’ve had people stand in their windows waving us away, people telling me to f**k off, dogs chasing me, men making passes at me, doors slammed in my face… of course, some people just hid away in their houses, never opening the door to us at all. It helped that we had food and clothes to offer, so, many times they would take the goods and shut the door. People in these neighborhoods had seen enough evil to be suspicious of newcomers’ motives.

              Any time we moved to a new neighborhood it took at least 6 months to a year before anyone would let us really talk about Jesus. We learned to say nothing of it, only to let them know we are from a local church. After a while they would ask us about ourselves, and why we cared so much. Only then did we really have their ears. Maybe they would accept Jesus, maybe not. To us it was worth it to reach even a few. And for those who didn’t accept it, at least they saw our hearts and knew what we stood for. At least in their lifetime they had seen people who represented the love of Jesus.

Few people are willing to listen to and accept what strangers have to say. In fact, even kindness can be seen as a show, or a manipulation. The only thing people trust is consistency over time. And it’s trust which earns us influence.

              If the cost of earning a stranger’s trust is committing selfless acts of love and care for them consistently over many months, or even years, how on earth do we expect to influence the beliefs of casual acquaintances on a digital platform which collapses the personal and relational aspects of conversation? And that price only guarantees they might listen; it doesn't guarantee they will change their mind. And yet these days, on social media everyone is yelling at everyone about what they should think and believe.

              I am just as guilty of preaching on social media as the next person. For a time, Facebook was my pulpit. And I do love a good heated debate (hit me up if your ever in the mood). I’ve gotten myself in plenty of trouble with people in the past. But guess what? Hardly anyone I argued with ever changed their mind. If anything, they clung harder to their own ideas and spat back. You’d think I would have already learned that given my experience going door-to-door, but I apparently have a thick skull. It takes extreme humility to admit you actually don’t know what you’re talking about, and when those we argue with are just faceless names—digital constructs of people we don’t keep in touch with anymore—why exercise that humility? It hurts too much to swallow our pride and costs us nothing to hold on to it… or does it? (hint: it costs us our influence...)

              Something we might not actively think about (but should) is that everything we say on our digital platforms has the same effect as it would in person, we just don’t see those consequences played out before our eyes. We don’t see the looks of disapproval, eye-rolls, or hear the sighs of frustration which might normally discourage us from saying more for the sake of the relationship. No, we are blind to the effect we are having on the people we care about. We often don’t know what relationships we’ve sabotaged with our written carelessness. Some people will follow you and read your stuff without ever commenting or interacting with your posts. Everything is laid bare. Nothing is hidden. People will read what you have to say and either silently gain, maintain, or lose their respect for you. Not only that, if you eventually change your mind, those words you spoke are still there waiting for them to read it again later, when maybe you've changed your opinion… Maybe you've made peace with that. Or maybe you’ve never considered it before now. I mention this for the sake of the latter…

But I digress…

Most of the time in our little online debates, the goal isn't to learn something new; it's to win. Maybe you started out with the intention to learn, but the other person struck a low blow and got you flustered. Or maybe their superior understanding of the subject is intimidating so you want to make yourself sound smart. And once we realize we cannot win, we feel our pulses quicken. I say this because I’m just as hot-blooded as you. However, nobody cares about how much you know until they know how much you care. I know, it’s a tired platitude, but I say this to remind you—and myself—that this is still as true as ever.

             It feels like everyone is constantly telling each other how to think and what to believe, expecting something to change. It’s not helping. It’s only creating stronger and more stubborn proponents of the opposing mind. Most people will briefly read what you have to say, make no effort to understand where you're coming from, most likely misunderstand what you mean, get overwhelmed or mad because it seems to oppose what they believe, and then go and find more voices which only confirm their current worldviews. The only way to have real influence--to promote true reform--is within the context of relationship.

             

       Photo by Christina @ wocintechchat.com on Unsplash

Why Wear a Cloth Mask?

A Few Facts and Some Patterns To Get You Started

People are asking, "why wear a cloth mask if we know they aren't 100% effective against airborne viruses?"  I'm here to say it is worth it, and here's why... [If you're just here for patterns, skip to the bottom. ;)]

First of all, it's important to be aware that every virus has a "target" in the body where it is most effective at making a person sick. When a virus reaches its target location, it then has the best resources it needs to grow and become most dangerous to the body. Covid-19's target is the lungs. So it makes sense to put on a barrier to prevent it from directly reaching its target. People will often argue that the virus can still get into our bodies through our eyes and ears. That may be true, but this means that the body's immune system will have more time to fight viruses off before they reach their target locations and become more formidable.

Second, it's also important to be aware that the amount of virus particles you are exposed to can drastically affect your chances of fighting it off. If you are directly breathing in the air of an infected person, millions of virus particles are going directly into your lungs. This can be overwhelm your immune system, and will take much longer to fight off. If you can reduce that amount by at least 50% with a mask (paired with distancing), you're giving your body a much better fighting chance. You might even give your body a chance to build up immunities.

It is true: studies show that common cloth materials used for masks are only about 50-73% effective at filtering airborne particles, but that is better than nothing! In some situations, 50% really matters. For example, say you go to the grocery store and someone with the virus sneezes nearby. If you were a fair distance away and then walk towards them, that 50% might have been all you needed in that situation to protect yourself from getting ill, because your DIY mask protected you from breathing in those last few virus-filled droplets of water still lingering in the air...

Another concern with cloth masks is that moisture can collect on your mask. Over time, more airborne particles can collect, eventually causing you to ingest or breathe it in, which in some cases can have the opposite effect of protection. Again, that's still better than breathing it in directly, but this is why you should still practice social distancing when wearing them, and also why you should not be wearing the same mask for hours and hours. Two hours is plenty of time to wear a mask.

As a former lifeguard and first-responder, I learned that you breathe out at least 20% of the oxygen you breathe in, hence we are taught in emergencies to breathe into drowned peoples' lungs with the use of a barrier. This tells me you're not going to asphyxiate if you wear a cloth mask unless you psych yourself out, especially since most cloth masks do let oxygen through. People with medical conditions should consult their doctors on this matter. But overall, you should make sure your mask material is a decent enough barrier while being breathable (see facts below).

My research about masks began back in February, when my mother-in-law (who is a dental hygienist) mentioned that her office might run out due to shortages. I wanted to make her something which could act as a barrier for her so that she wouldn't have to be out of work, so I began researching on a medical level. I even made my own prototype with polyethylene materials and had her put it through the autoclave at work to see if it would hold up (it did). I began to learn more and more about masks, filtration, and covid-19. This and discussions with my siblings (doctors, dental assistants, and a microbiologist) has helped me get a handle on surgical masks, how they are used, and how hospitals were/are dealing with mask shortages.

Also--disclaimer--I am not a medical professional, and obviously this should not supersede any medical advice from your doctor or health care professional. I am compiling my research for your benefit. If you find anything incorrect here, please let me know!

A Few Facts About Masks

• Surgical masks are not primarily designed to filter air, but to act as a barrier to prevent larger particles in the air from going directly into the lungs (for example, droplets from a person's breath, or kicked up particles from dental drills)
• Masks designed to filter air are those which fully seal around your nose and mouth. (surgical masks don't seal, but again, still act as a good barrier)
• n95 is a non-woven, spun plastic (polyethylene) material made to filter out the tiniest airborne virus particles. It has been heavily tested and found to be nearly 100% effective at filtering airborne bacteria and viruses. It is the standard material used to make medical-grade quarantine masks. (click here for stats and studies)
• People often use the term n95 to refer to medical-grade quarantine masks made from n95 material.
• Masks with pleats, or that stick out from your face, and have multiple layers are more effective because they have more surface area to filter particles.
• Concerning materials used at home, dish towels were the most effective common material tested at 74% filtering effectiveness (probably due to the threads which stick out, creating greater surface area for filtration).
• Cotton blend t-shirt material comes in second place at 70%
• 100% cotton fabric filters out 51% of virus-sized particles. A lot of people are making masks out of this material because of its breath-ability, but they should also be lining them with filter materials.
• Many baby wipe brands make their wipes out of n95 material. (I do not know which specific brands use the material, so if you find out, let me know!), and can be used as filter material in cotton masks.
• Dust masks also seem to be only around 50% effective.
• No mask is 100% foolproof. Even n95 quarantine masks have a tiny margin of error.
• There are many different kinds of surgical masks which have a wide range of uses and effectiveness and are not all created equal. Again, their main purpose is to be a barrier from splatter or dust. They are usually made from water resistant materials (made from stable, lightweight breathable plastics such as polyethylene) to avoid wet particles sticking to the masks. 
• Due to shortages, many hospitals are using masks in creative ways. For example, at my sister's hospital in Tulsa, doctors and nurses are using lightweight washable cotton masks over their n95 quarantine masks to make the n95's go further. So, call your local hospitals to find out what kind of masks they need and continue to make them and donate them!

Wearing/handling/washing masks

1. If you are an essential worker who has to be around people all day: make yourself 5 or 6 surgical masks (or buy them), and switch them out after 1-2 hours during your 8-hour workday. Take breaks outside and away from people so you can have time to get fresh air without having to wear a mask. When you get home, throw your clothes--and cloth masks--in the wash and then go take a shower (see # 4 below)
2. While wearing a mask, your breath sucks all the airborne particles towards your face, concentrating it on the front of your mask... so be sure not to touch the front of your mask (I see people doing this constantly), but pull it off from the ear or back of the head, depending on how they stay on.
3. Leaving your nose uncovered is useless. It may utilize your body's natural air filtration system, being slightly better than breathing through your mouth,  but you can still easily breathe virus particles directly into your lungs through your nose as well as breathe virus particles directly out.
4. You do not need to wear masks outside unless you are in close proximity to people, as your breath quickly dissipates in the atmosphere (indoors it does not dissipate nearly as quickly)
5. Keep clean masks in one sealed plastic bag, and put used masks in a separate plastic bag.
6. For washing cloth masks, the CDC says putting them through the laundry is sufficient for cleaning. You can also leave them out for 24 hours for any virus particles to die off (if they are plastic or polyester, leave for 72 hours, preferably in the sun when possible).

Misc. facts

• Washing your hands is far more effective than using hand sanitizer because any remaining living virus or bacteria particles are rinsed away (I wrote a post about washing produce, which will give you more confidence in your common dish and hand soaps)
• Hand dryers in public bathrooms can kick up a lot of bacteria and virus particles, so it's best to just avoid them.

Mask Patterns

These are some good ones I've found so far...

1. CDC's guide for wearing and making face masks . This has a lot of good information and three simple patterns; one is even a simple folded bandana for people with no sewing skills.
2. HOW TO MAKE FACE MASK WITH FILTER POCKET AND ADJUSTABLE WIRE | SEWING TUTORIAL (YouTube). Here's a pattern for a cotton surgical mask with a pocket for replacing filters. It also allows the elastic band to be replaced if it breaks. I have made several of these with some modifications and everyone says these are super comfortable compared to many others. (I use a 16-gauge wire to line the width of the mask with a 1.5-inch slit in the center so you can remove the wire).
3. Joann's also has a simple mask pattern with fusible interfacing. I haven't made these, but I would be concerned about comfort with the interfacing rubbing the face and nose
4. Four different face masks... (YouTube). For a legit quarantine-worthy mask pattern, here's a video of a doctor explaining how mask tests are done, materials she used for four different types of masks, and even gives a pattern tutorial at the end of the mask which passed the test. She does mention, for small chins, this one requires tape to be fully effective. So, if you can get your hands on n95 material (or halyard as she suggests), you might be able to make a legit, fully-effective quarantine mask.
5. While I was waiting for my fabric to come in, I was drying out baby wipes and sewing them into dust masks as liners for grocery shopping (since the dust mask has a decent seal around the face, but only minimal filtration). It only takes 10 minutes to pleat a couple of dried baby wipes and quick stitch them into the inside of a dust mask. These, however, are one-time-use only dust masks because they aren't washable (or, I suppose you can set them aside for 3 days to let the virus die off and then reuse).

I will be updating this when I come across new information. Until then, I hope this helps you on your pandemic endeavors! And if you have more info to share, please do!

Other Sources:

Simple Respiratory Protection—Evaluation of the Filtration Performance of Cloth Masks and Common Fabric Materials Against 20–1000 nm Size Particles.  Some studies on masks of varying materials and their effectiveness against airborne particles as compared to n95 material.

Mask Selection Guide. One company's chart with different masks and their purposes/effectiveness.

Photo by Laura Dewilde on Unsplash

Soap or No Soap? Disinfecting Your Produce

Advice From a Microbiologist Who Studies Bacteria on Plants.

The other day, out of sheer paranoia, I washed all my produce in soapy water. I am a bit of a germ-o-phobe to begin with, so I tend to feel like something isn't clean unless there are a lot of suds. I also know that you're not supposed to wash produce in dish soap because of ingesting residue, but with the virus going around, my paranoia was strong! Then, a few days later, out of the blue, one of my sisters sent an article from the LA Times advising us not to do that (for the very reason that we could be ingesting soap, which is toxic for us), asking for our opinion in the family group chat.

Of course, the best advice is to grow your own produce to save money and avoid foreign contamination, but not all of us have the right space or time to do that.

My oldest sister spoke up. She is working on her PhD in microbiology, doing studies on the microbiome of plants. In her studies, she has to disinfect plants (lettuce, to be specific) to remove rogue bacteria and microbes that collect on the plant from the air which could throw off her studies. It turns out that the surfactant (SDS or SLS) in regular dish soap has the quality of dissolving the outer lipid membranes of bacteria and viruses (hence washing your hands is very effective!). So this is what they use to disinfect their plants. But, in the process of disinfecting, they have to take special care not to also destroy the cell walls of the plant itself. They do this by washing the plants in a very diluted solution of soap in water. Simple!

If we do that with our produce, there will still be a residue that is left behind for us to ingest, so the answer is to make sure it is minimal (we already ingest soap residue from our own dishes on a regular basis and we don't want to double that!). So, a 1% solution of soap in water actually does make a difference! Her advice was to put a drop of soap in six liters of water and lots of manual rinsing and rubbing (this was a rough guess, but close to something she might do in the lab). Although, be gentle with your greens, as lots of rubbing will break them down and make them go bad quick.

Real talk, I had already rubbed my oranges with LOTS of soap and they have all gone bad super quick (could be that they were already old, or that I completely destroyed the outer cell biome which protects them from getting moldy too fast...)! So, now I am sharing with you all, so you can stop being paranoid like me and know that a little actually does go a long way.

Now, if you're concerned about washing off pesticides, that's a different story. Saltwater is actually the most effective way to do that. If you want to know more about that, you should watch this YouTube video, "How to Make Your Own Fruit and Vegetable Wash." This is an informative video about washing pesticides from your veggies, which also discusses the science behind it! If you're like me, and concerned this would be too much washing for your produce (soap and salt), I've decided to prioritize disinfecting until the pandemic sort of blows over.

Lastly, do not use bleach. This is because the residue it leaves on produce could potentially affect your gut health in the long run.

Hope this has helped!



Photo by Talal Ahmad on Unsplash

Pandemic Vegans

Thoughts on Eating Healthy In Survival Mode

My husband and I have been scouring the scientific studies on nutrition on and off for the past five years now (okay, let's be honest, Dustin is the main researcher, and I'm the glad recipient of his findings). We became vegans in November of 2015. We slowly got rid of everything in our kitchen that was a meat or dairy product and replaced it with whole, plant-based foods; mostly grains, starches, and vegetables. We weren't super strict: we were basically social omnivores and strict vegans at home because some social occasions just called for flexibility. But overall, making this lifestyle change has transformed our lives and made us feel like our best selves.

Dustin and I went shopping the other day, preparing for a whole month of food, and bought as much fresh food as we thought would not go bad before we had a chance to eat it, and then stocked up on the longer-lasting items. And this has had me thinking about survival situations. Actually, more honesty, I've been thinking about prepping a lot in the past year. Obviously if we're willing to be social omnivores, then we are definitely willing to be survival omnivores. If things got really bad, and supply chains forced us to run out of food, you bet I would be crossbow hunting deer and trapping rabbits in the nearby forests until I could get a good vegetable garden going. But I'm getting ahead of myself... I don't think it will come to that, and produce isn't whats running out on the shelves right now, so I know we can still eat healthy while stockpiling.

Here's some helpful tips for those of you younger folk, or less experienced in cooking at home. If you're reading this and you have good insights you'd like to share, I'd love to hear them!

First of all, eat lots of cruciferous vegetables to boost your immune system. This is the absolute best thing you can do to help your body fight covid-19 if you catch it. If you hate veggies, force yourself now to eat things like broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, collard greens, bok choy, etc. If you really can't stand vegetables, try tomato juice. Drinking it twice a day can drastically improve your immune system function, so stock up on that V8, baby! (Watch, Using the Produce Aisle to Boost Immune Function if you'd like to see a summary of the studies on this). Also, if you have some extra cash to spend, get yourself some elderberry syrup or gummies to eat on the regular. This is also highly immune-boosting.

If you are vegan, don't forget to stock up on your vitamin B supplement! <-- very important

Fresh foods are extremely important. If you're looking for longer lasting fresh vegetables, buy cabbages, gourd-type vegetables like butternut squashes, and root vegetables like carrots, potatoes, and onions. Citrus fruit and apples will last quite a while. You can freeze your bananas, but be aware they do still turn brown after a couple of weeks. And definitely do not store your bananas with other fruit or veggies. bananas produce gases that speed up the ripening process...

Buy your normal one-week or two week load of fresh veggies, and then buy your longer-lasting fruits/veggies in larger quantities and then your dried foods in bulk. You can also buy freeze-dried and dried foods, but that can get pricey. If you have a dehydrator, you can stock up on those fruits... Mentally prepare for some monotony later on in the month(s) as your supplies dwindle. (Rice and beans for the win!)

Here's another thought: simplify! Dustin's grandparents have become experts at making delicious food with just salt and pepper and a few basic ingredients. I think this is the way to eat for cheaper and to make your groceries last longer. Dustin and I LOVE spices and flavor, but we are also learning to enjoy subtle natural flavors. This month I developed a dish that is only cabbage and noodles and salt and pepper (and a dash of curry and soy sauce). Since I don't have butter in my fridge, I found out that cabbage has a lovely buttery flavor when sauteed. We are learning to cut back on our more spice-heavy recipes so we can make our food last longer.

Also, don't despair... You can actually live and survive on potatoes or rice and beans for a long time. I believe if you go too long, you can come out with some real deficiencies... But you'll be fine for a few months. The same goes for other unprocessed whole grains, and legumes. They have a lot of basic vitamins and nutrients you need, even some protein. Ideally, you should eat widely and get all kinds of nutrients from different foods. But in survival mode, you can make it if you're stocked up on a few basic whole grains, dried beans, and potatoes. Lentils are particularly jam packed with nutrients (stock up!). I'm also learning recipes for split peas and fava beans.

(soak those beans overnight and rinse before use even if you have an instant pot... soaking removes the enzymes which give you gas... your family members stuck in quarantine with you will thank you later.)

Quinoa is an awesome little grain jam-packed with protein. But it can get pricey, and for various reasons, I'm concerned about supply chains here.

Also, you can re-grow things like green onions and herbs. Store your cut bunches of herbs in the fridge with the stems in a cup of water and cover it with a bag (or use an herb-saver). That will give your herbs at least a whole extra week in your fridge.

I haven't even talked about canning yet, which is something I want to eventually do from my kitchen. It's not as good as fresh foods, because you lose some nutrient content, but it is definitely better than having no vegetables at all! Canned foods are what got our grandparents through the winters before refrigerators.

These days, the only canned foods Dustin and I buy are tomato-based (like sauces, salsas, and various forms of tomatoes) or nut butters, jams and jellies. Most American canned foods are packed with too much salt and sugar. Plus, fresh foods taste so much better. But, in survival mode, canning is a great way to get through. Dustin's grandparents have an entire shelf of foods they have canned themselves, and these foods last for years. My favorite is their canned asparagus. One of these days I am going to buy all the necessary equipment and start a seasonal canning habit. Until then, I'm relying on my stockpiled dried foods for the long haul.

I'd love to hear your thoughts on how you are preparing for the next couple of months during this weird apocalyptic lockdown.


Photo by Ella Olsson on Unsplash

Robbing the Giver of Joy

Giving a Little is Not a Bad Thing...

I have a lot of guilt associated with giving. Most of the stories I’d been taught about the joy of giving were on an Ebenezer Scrooge scale, where the impact of giving is massive. Well, I’m not a millionaire who can change people’s lives with my money, so, what I had always seemed pitiful. And what good was I really doing with my measly dollar when I passed a homeless person on the street? They couldn't do anything with just a dollar! What joy I might have experienced from giving was overshadowed by this shame. 
I eventually devoted my life to giving. I reasoned that instead of money, my time would be valuable enough to make a difference… I spent a great deal of time serving the poor and being a spiritual guide and counselor—all things which I found brought me great fulfillment.

When I moved to Israel, things were different. I was specialized in ministry, and not directly serving the poor. And I was running three ministries, which gave me no extra time to do so. And in Israel, homeless people are much more audacious and pushy. They put on a frown and ask you, “Will you be righteous?” as they shake their cup of coins at you. You’d think, as someone who served the poor and homeless for seven years of her life, that I would have learned how to deal with these feelings and know what to do. But I found myself being overwhelmed. In the short five-minute walk from my apartment to work, I passed two or three homeless people every day, and more when I would pass by our own soup kitchen on the ground floor. Even more who would come up to pray in our prayer room. In the grocery store and market, they would be there huddled with their cups. When I would sit down to eat outside at a restaurant with friends, homeless people would come to our table asking for our spare change, always appearing just as our food was arriving at the table for maximum guilt. The restaurant owners wouldn't shoo them away; this was a normal thing in Israeli culture. Homeless people were in every place I went.

Because of this overload, I went through a strange process. At first, often I would just pull the biggest bill out of my wallet and put it in someone's cup, but I couldn’t afford to do that. And I couldn’t cope feeling emotional every time I saw someone in need, compelled to do something I couldn't afford. So because of this, I stopped giving altogether. And that made me feel worse. It made me feel bad about my own lack of generosity. I found myself directing this guilt at the homeless people themselves, being angry at the mere presence of them, acting insulted when they would ask for spare change, especially at the restaurant! I justified my anger by saying to myself that they are probably scammers or using the money to get alcohol… or worse, I would shut down and feel nothing.

I knew this was wrong—it wasn't me. I had become a miser. I wanted to be generous, but I realized I had a lot of guilt in this area. I wanted to overcome this and have a healthy mindset about it. I wanted to be a cheerful giver, but I didn't know how to be. I finally mentioned my guilt to a friend and counselor, Katherine Snyder, and she said something that hit me...

It's okay to just give a little.

           It's almost hilarious how simple and obvious this is, but somehow it had never occurred to me. It was so significant because finally a spiritual leader wasn't acting like the ghosts of Christmas past, present, and future. I wasn't being pushed to "be radical" and give my left arm for those who don't have one. I wasn't being made to put myself in someone's shoes and see how terrible their life is compared to mine. And I wasn't made to feel like I wasn't enough... 
God does not expect us to live in guilt, and Katherine pointed this out. She also said that just as I don't want others to live in poverty, God doesn't want me to live in poverty by giving too much! She suggested that, since I care about this, I should be more intentional and carry spare change so I could give something when the opportunity presented itself. And just that simple advice freed me.

I started taking change from my coin jar and bringing it in a separate coin purse while out on the street for that very reason. I was able to still contribute something while being freed from having a moral crisis five times a day.

Katherine helped me see that this is a Biblical principle. Leviticus 23:22 says: “When you reap the harvest of your land, do not reap to the very edges of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest. Leave them for the poor and for the foreigner residing among you. I am the LORD your God.” God laid out a reasonable way for us to regularly help those in need. He tells us not to be stingy, and to give our extras. It truly IS a good thing even when it doesn't look like much.
So what if the person on the corner might be scamming you? So what if her jacket looks expensive? So what if he got a haircut? So what if they have some possessions you think they ought not to have? So what if they waste your charity on beer? 

Why does a person have to have no dignity in order for us to feel better about giving?

          God didn’t say, "monitor and guard the edges of your field to make sure only the poorest of the poor are getting the benefit"… He also didn’t say to withhold your extras so they can't turn around and use it for wine... We want to feel that we are actually helping someone, so we want them to use wisely the little money we give them. It’s ironic, but on some level our withholding is motivated by compassion. If you want to give, and that kind of thing truly concerns you, there are many other ways to give than to hand your dollars to un-vetted homeless people. For example, so many homeless people just need a pair of socks. Women in shelters often go without feminine products. Someone on the street might just need a couple of quarters to wash their clothes at the laundromat. These are small but important things, to which we can all relate. Of course there are so many more ways to give...

My point is that many of us are subconsciously told our extras are not enough, and often that discourages us from giving entirely. Even outside of the church, American generosity is extreme; you see TV shows where people are given entire houses or life-changing make-overs, or new vehicles. We see regular people given checks for thousands of dollars to enable them to reach their dreams. It's exciting, heart-warming, and so beautiful. When we can make a difference, we shouldn't hesitate! And it is SUCH a joy!
In contrast, seeing all that extreme generosity can make our extras seem pitiful and not worth giving. But that's not true. It's worth it! Most of us are living just within our means and only have little to spare. That's okay. Let's have joy in giving what we can. If you’re like me and you do care, putting on a proud façade is just an unhealthy way of coping with that desire to give. Sure—your spare change won’t transform someone’s life forever. But it doesn’t have to. It might just get them through to the next meal, and that’s everything to someone who is hungry.

(Read Part 1 called, "Robbing the Doubter of Faith,")

Photo by Tom Parsons on Unsplash

Using Ads to Terrorize

Why Sandy Hook Promise went too far...

School shootings are a real fact of life that Americans need to face head on. They’ve been a reality since I was a kid, and are becoming an epidemic.

Originally, I was writing this as a response comment to a friend who posted the video, but it got long, and had some real points, which I thought were worth a whole blog post. Because this ad doesn't just raise awareness of school shootings, it also betrays the morality of how to raise awareness of issues... So if you’ll humor me this rant, I do want to talk about the fact that this advertisement was designed specifically to both instigate anger and produce terror... which I find inherently wrong. For context, watch the above YouTube video (warning, it contains content portraying a school shooting).

This ad takes everyday objects and shows how they might be used in horrific circumstances. I would expect that from entertainment like movies and TV shows, but not from an advertisement. It is, however, extremely effective in raising awareness of school shootings, I will grant that... because it uses product tropes the way no one has (or should, frankly), which is new and shocks the audience into real emotion. That’s really creative. The audience expects another bland commercial about more stuff, but they are suddenly plunged into a hunger-games-esque murder scenario... and this is jarring. It induces extreme emotion. It challenges our sense of security. Then we're forced to see what some kids have actually gone through. It's interesting because you can't produce the same results with movies or TV shows because we're all usually prepared to watch what we're about to watch. We use movies and media to escape from reality. Ads are part of our reality and seek to reach and represent the individual. Using an ad to produce this effect gives you the ability to truly catch the audience off guard because those kids represent our kids. It’s both a mockery of American consumerism and a slap in the face of our insistence on willful ignorance. So on a creative level, I can appreciate it, and believe it accomplishes what it sets out to do. 

With the outrage culture of modern media, maybe Sandy Hook Promise feels this is the most effective way to get people’s attention. They are merely using the language of outrage which we're already primed to respond to. And this is a sad reality we also have to consider. But what does it say about our culture if even the benevolent institutions resort to fear-mongering and terrorizing in order to further their cause?

Often ads do point to disaster; they may show a scenario where the product saved a life... but usually the result emotion is relief or a sense of security for owning the product, not pure horror in which the product may be the only last connection point you have with your child who is facing certain death... they never go THIS far, because that would actually be evil. If crippling fear of death is how you advertise your products, you’ve got to be some sort of heartless monster...

This ad is not necessarily evil because it isn't selling products, but is actually trying to raise awareness, and points to itself as an organization which honors those who suffered, and offers counselling, information, and perhaps even viable solutions to the problem. I watched it a few times because of my outrage and in order to analyze it, which kept the issue of school shootings in the forefront of my mind. Then I looked at the website to see what on earth they were all about--to see if their cause was even good. I found helpful resources and felt a sense of duty to do something. In that sense, they did point to a good end, and probably got more results than they might have if I wasn't so incensed (sadly)...

But the end does not justify the means. The first watch produced instant tears, extreme horror, and then outrage at the consumerist way it goes about expressing the very real danger kids face. You could argue it even dishonors those who have experienced these events by placing emphasis on the objects themselves... for the sake of irony, or for making a point about how we need to be outraged to care (feel free to dispute that). You don't produce genuine concern by first insulting people. And the type of outrage it produces may inevitably sabotage the organization's end goal because the ad itself challenges the status quo of how advertising is and should be done... and not in a positive way. 

What other ways will people now use ads to hurt or terrorize people, and steal peace from peoples' homes? 

Furthermore, this is a traumatic piece! According to a news article, this ad plays on major TV networks and across digital platforms... This means there are people who will only watch it once and be stricken with grief and horror and fear. If this appeared on TV or as a YouTube ad, and I had kids who were watching, I would be TICKED. Home should be a place where kids can take refuge, where ads aren’t also terrorizing them. We shouldn't be terrorizing each other to raise awareness, even when there is a real threat to our kids' lives... This organization--of all people--should recognize that. Must we live in a culture where terrorism is accepted simply because it is used for good causes?

Inducing terror is the business of terrorists, and should not be the goal of the anti-terrorist.