Beauty on the Backroads

Stories of grace for life's unexpected turns

Archives for March 2013

5 on Friday: Blog posts to challenge your Easter thinking

In the course of a week, I read a lot of stuff on the Internet. Here are some Holy Week related posts I found valuable to challenge my thoughts about celebrating Easter. blog note

  • Forget bunnies and chocolate, how about iPads and flat-screen TVs? This post by Eugene Cho raises the question: Is the Gospel enough?
  • This post by Jen Hatmaker made me cry. “What if we calculated the money we’d spend on new clothes, anything having to do with a bunny and chocolate, and used that investment for great good, pouring out for someone in need of mercy? Maybe instead of matching outfits from Dillards, we invest in family t-shirts benefiting someone’s adoption, someone’s mission for Christ. Perhaps rather than time and energy spent on ourselves, we ask: “Who can our family serve? Where can we put our hands and hearts to use in Jesus’ name?”  Who in your city desperately needs hope but won’t find their way to the sanctuary Sunday filled by people dressed to the nines?”
  • Sarah Bessey wrote this post which challenged me to a life less full, especially during Holy Week. “And I think we need more theologians with a poet’s heart: a little imagination when we speak of God never hurts.  The best art leaves a bit of silence, room on the edges, for interpretation and response. It is often in the white space of art where I find the Holy Spirit, hovering, stirring, waiting.”
  • And this one, by Rachel Held Evans, is for those who show up on Easter with more questions than answers.
  • This last one isn’t an Easter post, specifically, but it’s one I read recently that I can’t get out of my head. It’s by Preston and is posted over at A Deeper Story. A mixture of beauty in the mess of life. A story of the Eucharist. (WARNING: Contains language some might find offensive. But it’s used purposefully.)

What have you read on the Web lately, Easter related or not?

960 million people went to bed hungry last night

So did I.

But not for the same reason.

In a world where 1 in 7 people battles hunger daily, I’m one of the “lucky” ones.

Yesterday was Compassion International’s One Meal One Day campaign, an annual event that encourages people to skip a meal and donate what they would have spent to their work in a country whose people experience extreme hunger. This year’s focus: Ethiopia.OMOD_2013_children

First let me say this: I don’t usually fast. It’s a discipline I’ve not practiced much since college and I almost never look forward to it. Especially as a stay-at-home mom where the food is readily available all day long and the kids need regular nourishment. Plus, I’m cranky when I’m hungry. All good reasons to not do it, I know.

But this seemed like a challenge I could handle. And I wanted to do it. When it came time to decide which meal to skip, I chose dinner specifically so I could go to bed hungry. When’s the last time I did that on purpose?

Some thoughts:

  • I made pork chops and sauerkraut for the rest of the family. I’m not a big fan of sauerkraut. Maybe I did that on purpose. And maybe I’m ashamed that I can choose to skip a meal because I don’t like the food being offered. Who, if they were truly hungry, would turn down food of any kind? 2012 UGANDA IT WORKS+
  • My stomach started growling almost as soon as I started cooking dinner, as if it instinctively knew I would be denying it.
  • Hunger does strange things to your senses. I had to run to the store after “dinner” and when I came back, I was sure the air in town smelled like root beer. Root beer? Weird.
  • When I told my husband my plan to not eat after I started making dinner, he said, “So you’ll drink water. I could put some dirt in it for you.” We chuckled and maybe that makes us insensitive. Truth is, unclean water is a reality for 880 million people around the world. No laughing matter.
  • My husband also ate ice cream and a cupcake in front of me while we watched TV. I think I handled it okay. No one lost an arm.
  • When I woke up this morning, I barely remembered that I hadn’t eaten for 15 or 16 hours. Does a person eventually become accustomed to hunger?
  • I wish I’d known about this event earlier so I could have enlisted more of you to participate. Be forewarned, next year, I’ll be recruiting a team.

Even if you didn’t skip a meal, you can donate to the cause here.

And if you’re interested in sponsoring a child through Compassion, you can click on the banner on the side of the blog and start searching for a child to support.

Skipping a meal and donating a little bit of money doesn’t seem like a big deal with a big impact.

But it’s something.

And when a whole bunch of somethings come together, they can have a greater effect.

My parting words?

Do something.