Do Justice, Love Kindness

My mother is an alcoholic and like many alcoholics her journey has been about peaks and valleys. She'd been at a peak for quite some time but with a disease like alcoholism if you aren't diligent a peak becomes a cliff and you suddenly find yourself in a valley. A couple weeks ago my mom found herself in one such valley and took her first steps toward a new peak, she sought treatment. It was Saturday morning when I found out that she'd relapsed and checked herself in to a treatment center two states away from where she lives. By the time I knew what was happening she was already checked into the facility and detoxing, meaning speaking to her was impossible. Within a few hours I got another message from my dad, my parents are divorced but my brother had told him what was happening. He sent a single sentence with a link to an article, "This is the place she's in..." 

What did people do before Google? I spent the next 30 hours glued to my phone as I surfed through dozens and dozens of websites calling this facility out, warning people away and sharing the stories of those they loved who had been through this program. The quickest and easiest way to explain the situation is also the most dramatic and unbelievable, but I promise you it’s also the truth. This place was the front for a cult. After crying and praying and researching and struggling to know how to handle the situation I told my husband I just needed a minute of fluffy pretty life where I didn't have to think. There was just the word of a couple dozen nameless internet people to go on and I wasn't sure how to proceed without knowing for certain what this place was. I just needed a break while my brain bounced back. We went to Target, home of all things wonderful, and I embraced sweet not thinking. For five whole minutes. As I stood in the bathroom textile section I got a call from the friend who had helped my mom seek treatment. As she told me the story of how they found this place tears began rolling down my cheeks. Everything she said was matching up with every account I’d read of how people got lured there, from the lies they tell potential clients to get them in the door down to the scamming tactics they used to fool the insurance company. I looked at my husband who simply said “Let’s go get her.” 

Believe it or not this is just the context of what I want to talk about, this story is just the catalyst for something the Lord placed on my heart. I haven’t gone into detail about what I found online, and from here won’t go into detail about how the Lord showed off in helping me and Aaron get my mom out of there. It’s an incredible story about the power of God and someday I will tell it as it’s own story, and not just the backdrop to something else. Suffice it to say that after the longest day of my life and with the help of three law enforcement officers who I will be eternally thankful for we got my mom out. The more I learned about the place, the more the police shared their experiences and the more she herself told me, the longer the reality of what we had done sunk in all I could think was “How could this happen? How could someone do this to people?"

In an effort to find some kind of satisfying answer I have spent the weeks since this happened reading up on different cult leaders and groups and the psychology of how cults attract and maintain a following. The power of every single cult and cult leader hinges on taking advantage of the brokenness in this world, and the pain of the people in it. Their power hinges on being able to fill a need in someone, that is the bait. When you fill a need for someone they begin to feel something for you, gratefulness, appreciation, even love. 

Be warned, I’m about to say some incendiary things. 

These groups take advantage of a vacuum that is created when the people of God forget that He has charged us to love and care for the people of this world as if they are our own selves. When the Church forgets to care for the needy and feed the starving and defend the defenseless and love every last stranger we open the door for those who would take advantage of the needy and the starving and the defenseless and the unknown. When we forget to shine the light of God’s love in the darkness we leave people alone in their pain and grief, we leave them to those who would fill their needs only to twist them around in deception. 

Maybe you’re thinking I don’t know anyone in a cult or even in danger of being in a cult, but I want to connect it for you: this isn’t just about PEOPLE who would twist and deceive the hurting, it’s about the devil himself. This is his MO, this is how he operates, he offers a counterfeit peace, a counterfeit happiness, he offers lies and deceptions to those in the dark and then twists them around and keeps them mired in untruths and bondage. You may not know anyone at risk to joining a cult but we all know those at risk to believing the enemy’s lies, they are our friends and our families and the people who live on our street and the people who drive next to us on the highway and the people in line with us at the grocery store or sitting next to us on the train.

What would our lives look like if we shined the light that is God’s love into peoples darkness? What would their lives look like? 

Sometimes it feels so big, it feels so overwhelming, how could I make a difference? The Bible says "The light shines in the darkness and the darkness does not overcome it" (John 1:5). The light it's talking about is Christ, the Word made flesh. This passage calls Christ the light of all people (vs 4). This is the same Christ that is inside us, the same light inside us, and this light is designed to chase the dark away. Micah 6:8 says "what else does God ask of you but to do justice and love kindness?" Are there two any better ways to shine a light into someone's brokenness than these?!

Kindness, as simple as a smile and gentle word to the people that you come into contact with each day. Justice, as inconvenient as driving across state lines to literally remove someone from the grasp of evil. Why do we let these opportunities to be inconvenienced for the sake of showing someone else the love of God, and maybe, through that, piercing their darkness, go by? We all do it, a hundred times a day we make the choice to leave someone with their needs and in pain, it seems too big or we don’t have time or feel embarrassed or we simply don’t realize the person standing next to us is on the brink of believing a devastating lie. We leave them in darkness and keep our light to ourselves, and we leave a vacuum for them to be swept up by those that would keep them in that bondage. 

Before we left to get my mom, my aunt told me "You're being an incredible example of God's love." All I could think was how?? It didn't feel incredible or explemplary, it just felt like what you do when someone you love is in such a terrible place. 

Maybe that's what it's supposed to feel like when you shine the light of God's love into the dark corners of a broken world. Maybe it's supposed to feel like just what you do. Maybe it isn't about the size of the action or how well we know the person, maybe love is just supposed to be the automatic response to everyone in every moment. Yes we would all do these things for someone we know, someone close to us, but what about the least of these? The strangers? Hebrews says don't forget to show hospitality to strangers, some have done this and entertained angels. Christ says what you do for the least of these you do for me. It’s easy to call ourselves Christians and say that we love everyone, but only ever act out that love for those closest to us. If I learned anything driving away from that place it was that not everyone has someone close to them to rescue them. Plenty of people get left behind in darkness. The Bible says that as Christians those people are our responsibility, 1 John 3:17 asks how can the love of God be in someone who does nothing to help someone in need, Isaiah and Jeremiah both say to correct oppression and deliver the poor from the hand of the oppressors, over and over the Bible commands us to take up the plight of the widows and orphans and fatherless, God implores us to become the family of those who don't have one! 

There is always, always something we can do to shine a light in someone else's dark place. And if we do that then maybe we will take a big chunk out of the number of people vulnerable to the lies and deceptions and counterfeits the enemy sells, there will be less people willing to sell their loyalty to false prophets and twisted men set on binding others in their brokenness. If we do that we will strike a blow for the Kingdom of God and we will truly be fulfilling the call of the Lord on each of our lives. 

For me I feel so convicted, the people still back there in that building weigh on me heavily. We're working with local police and the district attorney there to get that place shut down. But it doesn't feel like enough. I want to be someone who brings light in the darkness before the situation gets that desperate. It is my prayer that everywhere I go the Lord would open doors for me to be a light, big or small, that my eyes would be opened to the endless opportunities to show someone the love of God, the light of Christ that drives out the dark, and that I would be courageous enough to step into those moments, every time. 

{all verses quoted are ESV}

The Year Without As Much Stuff

We are almost a full month into 2015. I can’t even believe that. I know I’m a few weeks late on the new year/new goals posts, but truthfully I wasn’t sure I was going to share this. And truthfully it’s something we started before the new year.

My husband and I have made an official decision about 2015. It will be The Year Without As Much Stuff (yeah I’m working on a better title, currently taking submissions). The parameters of this goal are simple: anything we CAN buy used we do, and anything we CAN’T buy used we reevaluate the importance of and try to go without. The whys of this goal are less simple. Most people assume it’s about money, but that is not even remotely close to what it’s about.

Let me explain in a way most people (or at least women) I know will understand. Let’s start with Target. Now listen, I love Target. Like, deep in my bones, all the memes are true, I want to sleep there after hours love. L. O. V. E. So I’m heading to Target because the bakery there sells these really incredible shortbread cookies filled with dark chocolate. I can only get them at Target and I need almond milk anyway so I pack up the kids and head out. My three year old, Gabe, wants us to get the BIG cart but it’s a snowy yuck day and they’re all wet and I have nothing to wipe them down with so we have to settle for the regular sized cart and he is pouting as I set him in the basket end and his pouting pushes his sister, my one year old named Lula, into pouts as well. We aren’t two feet into the store when I realize this may not be worth it for the cookies. Conveniently most Targets have a Starbucks inside them and I’m pretty sure a sugary frothy warm cup of goodness is just what I need (that’s on the menu, just ask for it). As I’m standing there waiting to order my son see’s the chocolate milk and stops his pouting and angelically asks if he can have one, so I get him one because he did say please and chocolate milk is a once in a blue moon treat and I’m here for my once in a blue moon treat so why not. While we wait for my drink to be made I notice that the new line of cold cup tumblers are on display and the old new line of cold cup tumblers is on clearance for 20% off and $10 is a bargain for a cup that used to be $12 and as anyone who knows me can attest I am a sucker for a cold cup. It’s a weird obsession, I know.

Okay, now on to the cookies and the milk. And maybe just a quick peruse through the clearance clothes. I don’t need anything in particular at the moment but a bargain is a bargain and double plus bonus when a bargain is also cute! And sure enough, all their wintery delightful sweaters are somewhere between 30 and 70 percent off. I grab two. I love a good cardi.

And just for good measure I’m going to swing through the dollar spot, because, hello, everything is $1-$3! And look! Fuzzy winter socks, cute chalkboard stickers, washi tape and kids sunglasses! Man! Alright, I’m done, I swear, wait, baby clothes, NO! I’m done. Heading to the cashier now. Man, this was a really productive trip to Target, I think to myself as I pay for all my new awesomeness.

Productive.

What exactly did I produce, you ask? Well, one sunny, cold, self-reflective morning I asked that too. And the answer? Waste. All kinds of it.

I want to stop here and say something really, really clearly. This post is not meant to shame anyone. I’m not interested in convincing anyone of anything. What I’m interested in is talking about how I felt after I had this epiphanous moment. So understand that anything I say from here on out is directed at me and not you, if it pricks at you, impacts you or challenges you, then truthfully I’m glad, but my intent here is to explain me, not condemn you.

There are a million reasons for me to change this behavior of buying more than I need in myself, to teach my children differently. But here my top two.

Kingdom mindedness - I crave a simple life, not small, but simple. Look at John the Baptist. The man ate bugs, he slept in the desert and wore the same clothes everyday. But his life was anything but small. Sometimes I think we mistake the number of options we have in any area of our lives for the size of the life that we’re living. The more clothes we have, the more gadgets we have, the more hip wall art or trendy accessories we gather, the more we start to see those things as some sort of announcement that we’re doing well, that we’re doing something big. I want to live a genuinely big life, a life where God is at the center of it, where my actions and thoughts and everything I do glorifies Him and contributes to His kingdom. And sometimes less options and more simplicity is more conducive to that. I never want to be blinded by how much I have and be fooled into complacency, to be deceived into thinking I’ve accomplished something. Warren Wiersbe talks about being Kingdom minded, and I don’t think it’s possible to be Kingdom minded if my life and home are cluttered with distractions of this earth. Please hear me say I am not against things. I love things. But I am against the over abundance of things. Think of it this way: if what I treasure is one earth than I am earth minded, I will over complicate my life and focus on the small facts of my temporal situation. But if what I treasure is in Heaven, then I will be Kingdom minded, I will focus on the eternal things and live a simple but big life.

19“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. 20“But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal; 21for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. - Matthew 6:19-21

Social Responsibility - This is a big umbrella, and a lot falls under it. When I buy something I’m using my money to say that I approve of that company. When I spend money at a company I am saying I’m on board with how much or how little they monitor their supply chain, how they treat their workers, how their manufacturers and textile factories treat their workers, their company policies and their environmental impact. I’m not only supporting them I am supporting the companies they support in all of these categories as well, and so on and so on. That’s a lot of responsibility. But it doesn’t end there. After I’ve bought this something, say my hypothetical sweater from Target, and I’ve worn it a few times and it’s okay, but one day it doesn’t make it through the spring cleaning purge. Into the bag it goes to be donated to Goodwill or the Salvation Army. That’s not so bad, right? Except only 20% of the clothing donated to Goodwill makes it into stores. Annually the US exports over a billion pounds of used clothing, most of it heading to impoverished nations. Which also doesn’t sound so bad, right? Do you remember the old adage, give a man a fish and he eats for a day, teach a man to fish and he eats for a lifetime? The problem with flooding third world countries with cheap used clothing is the impact that it has on those local economies, and even their cultures. In her book Overdressed: The Shockingly High Cost of Cheap Fashion Elizabeth Cline examines the cultures of the areas where these used clothes end up and discusses the shifts in the economics and cultures there. The more affluent some of those areas become the less interested they are in our cast offs, meaning our solution to this problem is rapidly coming to a close, and the poorer some of those areas become, the bigger the problem our used clothes become for them to get out from underneath poverty. I can’t justify being part of this cycle.

17Learn to do good; Seek justice, Reprove the ruthless, Defend the orphan, Plead for the widow. - Isaiah 1:17

But are either of these better or worse than simply throwing away my used clothes, putting them in a landfill? I believe that this planet is the Lord’s, and that He has given us dominion over it, to steward it, not to destroy it. I believe that He cares deeply for this world He lovingly created and that how we treat it is a matter of honoring Him. I am not in the habit of destroying gifts that God puts in my care.

1The earth is the LORD’S, and all it contains - Psalm 24:1a

I know this has been long, and here is the end, I promise. After all this thought, and all this research, I approached my husband and shared my heart with him, and we made a commitment that for the next full year we would not buy anything new, that we would live in such a way that honored the gift of this planet, and that did not contribute to injustices visited on oppressed people. This is long road and this is first step, small and shaky, and it’s deeply, deeply personal. I am not condemning anyone or prescribing a lifestyle for anyone. I am simply sharing where my heart is, a commitment we’ve made, and the things that spurred us to that commitment.

(Image Source; image credit: Sarah Lazarovic)

For more information on the book Overdressed click here.

To find out more about the companies you support click here.

If you’ve made it this far let me know in the comments and  I will personally send you a little surprise as a thank you for reading my uberpost.