As you read below, today was QUITE the day. When Bethel Erickson and I were given the task to plan this trip for Go Now Missions and the TX Hunger Initiative , I have to admit that I felt a bit convicted. For the last 2 years now I have been learning more and more about food, justice and being a good steward of what God has provided. Amidst this learning and conviction I have continued to live a fast-paced life: go to this class, go to this job, grab a bite to eat through a drive-thru, run to this class, go volunteer, go to another job, go to church...... This has not been a typical week for me but a typical DAY.
Although I have absorbed continuous knowledge through serving and through the classroom about ministering to those suffering and living poverty and hunger across the globe and across the street, I do not think I have let myself sit with my learning and my convictions long enough for it to truly permeate my lifestyle.
Sure, I can serve out of conviction when I am paid but what if what I have learned and what God has been teaching me and showing me truly became a part of my lifestyle?.....who I am and who I am becoming?
I do not mean that I hope to start volunteering more during my off hours or signing up for another program at church. That is great but I'm talking about something perhaps more simple and for me maybe even a little deeper...
I'm hoping that over the next few weeks God speaks to and through me so that I will wake and up and his Church will to. As Lucas Land (former Truett Student and intern at the World Hunger Farm) reminded us this morning, God gave us Sabbath as a gift to remember all that he had done for us, His people.... to remember the creation story... and his acts of deliverance.... in order for us to stop long enough to let it soak into our hearts so we would desire to share with one another as we move forward to continue living into the Christian story.
This next three weeks these amazing girls have committed their lives to will be a Sabbath away from our typical lifestyles and schedules. It is a chance to experience many things, to soak them into our hearts and to listen and be expectant to hear God and see God at work. When I think about the future of the Christian story and what my great-grandchildren will look back and say the legacy of the Western Church left them...
I pray they say that privileged Christians in the US began to wake up and realize that they no longer knew God as a provider, Creator or as the God of justice because they had factories, preservatives, hormones and exploited workers filling all of the roles for the items they needed in life at a lower cost. As they began to understand that their poor health resulted from the effects of such processed food, as they began to understand their purchasing choices were keeping highly processed foods in high demand and causes fresh food to not be affordable to ALL people in addition to sometimes causing oppression to domestic and international workers harvesting this food and working in the factories processing it....... they did not continue in their old ways of living.... but they supported each other to affect change in their own lives and eventually in their society.
They awoke to a new interpretation of a call to moral living that included ‘Doing Justice’ through daily choices.
I understand that in order for the above to take place, I have to have the courage to step into a new lifestyle TODAY. Not one of convenience and instant gratification but one of obedience to the God that gave me one life and one body, one world and one call to 'be' the church to those around me, loving them through everything I do.
I do not think I will master this soon or ever…but perhaps the Christian life is all about listening and living in the struggle together. Would you pray for me the next few weeks?
Mallory Homeyer
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