An Authentic Blessing for Church Potlucks

Dear Lord thank you for this time of fellowship with dear brothers and sisters. Please bless this food to our bodies. Even though much of this food was produced on factory farms that feed animals foods you did not design them to eat in living in conditions you did not intend, please restore the nutrition. Even though we removed much of the nutrition so it would be easier to manufacture, please help our bodies thrive on foods you did not design us to eat. Even though we added into the food many chemicals that hurt us, help us to not get sick. Even though most of our farms don't follow your plans for healthy soil, please restore the minerals to the fruits and vegetables. Even though we throw away the food scraps so that they can't be composted and enrich soils, reach down into the dumps and restore the biomass to the soils. Even though we eat too much food, help it to not make us overweight or raise our blood sugars. Even though we eat according to the western diet, help us not get the western diseases associated with it. Thank you for leading us to make this delicious food. In Jesus name. Amen.

Book Report, The Marvelous Pigness of Pigs and In Defense of Food

“Sometimes, you read a book and it fills you with this weird evangelical zeal, and you become convinced that the shattered world will never be put back together unless and until all living humans read the book.” John Green

I have been engulfed in a flood of food information. And just like uncle George after Thanksgiving dinner, I am stuffed, so stuffed I could explode in an eruption of facts and anecdotes that would shock the average eater. But rather, I will present the key points of my reading and entice you to read more so that the shattered world can be put back together.

I read The Marvelous Pigness of Pigs, by Joel Salatin, my favorite Christian, Libertarian, tree hugging, farming author.  Joel typically writes books about farming, pointing out the problems in our farming system today. But this book is different. It is his coming out of the closet and preaching to the choir book. And the choir needs to hear.  Joel lays out, what I will describe as, a Christian Theology of Food.

Important points that he makes are:

• For the most part, the church is out of touch with the spirituality of food, and never asks what Jesus thinks about what we eat.
• We don’t vote our food dollars to encourage farming in ways that honor God and His creation.
• The factory farms that we support during church potlucks and fast food meals desecrate the nature of God in the animals He created.
• We should respect the nature that God put into farm animals, and rather than overcome that nature, work with it to enhance the animal’s life so it enhances ours more.
• Just because we can do something, doesn’t mean we should do something.

Next came In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan. I guess I got so spun up with Joel, that I had to know more. Michael has one simple thesis.

Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.

The human body is an amazingly evolved (designed) machine that has proven to work well in various times and geographies with a WIDE array of diets. But there is one diet that, whenever it is introduced to a culture, leads to hypertension, heart attacks, strokes, and diabetes (aka The Western Diseases). That diet is the so called Western Diet with all its processed foods full of salt, sugar, and fat.

Michael all speaks repeatedly of the science of Nutritionism. He is aghast at the sophomoric nature of nutritionism. While we have been able to identify many components of food, we are wholly unable to truly understand it. We believe that, in our wisdom we are able to neatly divide whole foods into neat piles of things to eat and things not to eat in order to facilitate our consumptive, time scarce lifestyles. But what we see is that whole foods are more complex that we understand, and we can not, in our wisdom, improve upon what was created eons ago.

Not only am I stuffed, I am rather frustrated. We have together gotten ourselves into quite a predicament. We have encouraged a food industry to feed us fake food that is profitable for them and detrimental to our health. And we are so caught up in our fake reality that we can’t see that the emperor has no clothes.

And the loud declaration that the emperor is butt naked was precisely what I appreciated about these two books. I strongly recommend Christians read The Marvelous Pigness of Pigs, and everyone should read In Defense of Food.

Tom's Fifteen Rules for Healthy Eating

Recently I have overdosed on reading about healthy eating. The impetus was the stroke I had just over a year ago. I thought I ate pretty healthy, but then I found out I had a ways to go and a lot to learn. As I read, I tried to capture what I was learning. It turned into a baker's dozen rules that I try to live by.

The criteria I used was:

• The rule had to be supported by multiple books and other resources. 
• The rule had to be general rather than specific. 
• The rule had to be reasonable for me to actually follow. 

1. Eat Real. Eat whole foods, cooked from scratch, as much as reasonably possible. (Buy food from chefs, not chemical engineers.)
2. The season is the reason. Prefer in season, local foods. 
3. "Chemical" Free. Minimize exposure to synthetic pesticides, fertilizers, and herbicides
4. Ingredient Jeopardy. For packaged food, each ingredient should be individually available in the grocery store. (No crazy ingredients normal people can’t pronounce or purchase) 
5. Marketing Schmarketing. Don't be fooled by the food industry's marketing machine.
6. Vote my food dollar intentionally to support local, organic, soil building farmers.
7. 1. Partner with local farmers through CSAs.
   2. Buy from local farmers and get to know them (Farmers Markets)
   3. Buy from small retailers with integrity (Mom's, Bear's Honeypot)
   4. Buy from traditional grocers and big box stores only as needed
   5. No convenience stores, vending machines
8. Drink water. Vigorously avoid soda and other industrial drinks with sugar and artificial sweeteners
9. Balanced Carbs. Limit sensible carbohydrates to an appropriate level (juices, whole grain bread). Vigorously avoid empty carbohydrates. Especially 
10. 1. White flour, white rice, and other processed grains
    2. Snack products
    3. Cakes, candy, cookies
11. Healthy Fats. Consume plenty of healthy fats
12. Meet your meat. Consume meats produced in keeping with God's design for that animal. (pastured, natural diet)
13. Veggies. Veggies. Veggies. Eat loads of various vegetables. Limit those with high starch based on energy needs. 
14. Fruitful Fruit. Focus on fruits with high nutritional value. Prefer whole fruit over juices. 
15. Heal your Gut. Load up on raw and fermented foods with great probiotic benefits 

For your interest, here are the books I read recently. You should read them all too.

• Eat Fat, Get Thin by Mark Hyman
• The Marvelous Pigness of Pigs by Joel Salatin (Written to a Christian audience)
• In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan
• The Great Cholesterol Myth by Steven Sinatra
• Salt, Sugar, Fat by Michael Moss

Katniss Everdeen says No to Violence Against Police

There were many memorable scenes from the Hunger Games trilogy, but there one scene that stands out among all others for me and it provide answers to our current racial tensions.

At then end of book three, the rebels from district 13 have finally overcome the capital and the evil Snow is in jail. Without warning Katniss is called into a secret council with the other victors to discuss a yet to be disclosed issue. Coin recommends having a new Hunger Games event with the children of the capitol. As I read these words, as we read these words, our collective hearts sank. We asked how they could possibly want to reinstitute the very thing they had rebelled against?

Peeta is the voice of reason and grace, vehemently opposing the idea.

Katniss thinks: Was it like this then? Seventy-five years or so ago? Did a group of people sit around and cast their votes on initiating the Hunger Games? Was there dissent? Did someone make a case for mercy that was beaten down by the calls for the deaths of the districts’ children? The scent of Snow’s rose curls up into my nose, down into my throat, squeezing it tight with despair. All those people I loved, dead, and we are discussing the next Hunger Games in an attempt to avoid wasting life. Nothing has changed. Nothing will ever change now. I weigh my options carefully, think everything through. Keeping my eyes on the rose, I say, “I vote yes . . . for Prim.”

At this point I was apoplectic. After all that, how could Katniss vote for the Hunger Games to continue? Did Katniss' mom never teach her that two wrongs don't make a right! The vote carried, and the victors left to execute Snow.

But on the way, something changes in Katniss mind. Maybe she remembered life lessons from old. Maybe she just heard herself thinking that nothing had changed. Maybe she just woke up. Maybe maybe maybe.

Somehow, she realized that her vote for the death of innocent children would not bring back Prim, and that the path of violence they had just chosen would plunge their country into a new darkness.

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that. - MLK

So when the long awaited opportunity came to execute Snow, she executed Coin, the new evil.

She saw that healing can never come from more violence and revenge. It can only take us down deeper in to a chasm of pain.

The Dallas Officers were innocent. Their families were innocent. Theirs deaths make the problem worse, not better.

Let us stand together behind our police and support them. They do a wearisome job for our sake. Thank them and respect them. If you have a business, how can you encourage them? If you know their kids, how can you bless them. Be a constructive, rather than divisive voice.

Likewise, let us lovingly help those citizens that feel disenfranchised to heal.

Whatever problems we have will not be solved through violence; they can only be solved through our words tempered with grace and the Golden Rule:

Do unto others as you would have them do to you. - Jesus

Collins, Suzanne (2010-08-24). Mockingjay (Hunger Games Trilogy, Book 3) (p. 368). Scholastic Inc.. Kindle Edition.

Telling Lies

“Telling lies about others is as harmful as hitting them with an ax, wounding them with a sword, or shooting them with a sharp arrow.”

Proverbs 25:18 NLT

http://bible.com/116/pro.25.18.nlt

We would generally not equate lying with these physical injuries but I think the writer is correct. 

I recall recent discussions in our family about the cranky family member and the rude one and the... I struggle with applying unfavorable labels on each other. What I mean by a label is a description of who they are as opposed to what they are doing. It is a subtle but, important distinction. When a person is acting badly, they may need correction. The person correcting has two options. They can say, "You are a bad person acting according to your bad nature. Stop it." Or they can say, "You are a good person acting badly in contrary to your good nature. Stop it." Is the person bad, or are they just acting badly?

 I think when we use labels to describe who another person is, rather than correct behavior we may subtlely encourage the person to demonstrate  that unfavorable character quality. In a sense we lie about that person. We call them something that is less than who they are, a lie we tell about them. 

Let us all learn to call people names that call them to a higher standard. Let us use names that are not lies, but bold visions. Let us correct behavior, and mold character. Let us recognize the difference between who a person is and how they behave.

Lord, don't let me lie about family and friends. Help me not label them, when I just need to correct behavior. Help me differentiate between bad character and bad behavior.

Priests Ruling with Iron Fists

“A horrible and shocking thing has happened in this land— the prophets give false prophecies, and the priests rule with an iron hand. Worse yet, my people like it that way! But what will you do when the end comes?”
‭‭Jeremiah‬ ‭5:30-31‬ ‭NLT‬‬
http://bible.com/116/jer.5.30-31.nlt

Jeremiah says the priests rule with iron fists and the people like it.

Let me first give a disclaimer: This is one verse and a more careful study is called for before developing a theology. And I have a personal bias for what I am about to say, so I am not impartial. Nonetheless, I want to think about what the verse may imply. And it is my journal, so I get to do what I want.

I think this ruling with an iron fist happens today and a lot of people like it today also. When I was a wee one, I used to think that the church was the only institution and I was unaware of the business world. As I grew I began to see the business world learning from the church. Servant leadership was all the rage. Lead like Jesus was a popular topic. Then I started to see how the church was learning from the business world. Mission statements and leadership training were catching on. I completely endorse this cross-pollination. I think that both institutions are better for it.

Yet I think that we need to reevaluate some aspects of this. I always thought that a best practice in one sphere would be appropriate in the other sphere. So I endorsed complete transfer of best practices. However, I have changed my mind. I now think that appropriate best practice transfer is better. The church and business are not the same; they have many similarities and overlap all over, but they are also distinctly different.

This brings me to one area, guided by Jeremiah’s verse, where I think we got it wrong. It can be very healthy for a company to have strong top-down leadership for a company to be effective, and stay focussed. However, I believe that same strong (iron fist) leadership in the church is counter-productive. Yet people generally like it a lot. Strong top down leadership is comfortable because we are told what to do. We don’t have to think, and all the risk is on the leader and his leadership team to decide the right path. Yet a basic tenet of Christianity is the individuals connectedness to God and individual direction from Him. This is the fundamental difference with a business.

I think that God would prefer a bottom up leadership in the local church where the primary role of leadership is to prepare the people of the church to do ministry. But there are some big challenges to do this. This model does not fit well with the mega-church. People are generally very happy to outsource our christian life to a church staff. Most pastors, as I would, don’t want to be less in control and less the center of the church. As people we generally evaluate a church on the program and the leadership, when the most important commitment is to the people in the body you join.

So where does that leave us? I think the best thing is to be a leader in your sphere of influence. Are you a parent? Lead your family. Don’t just go with the flow. Do you live in a community? Yes. Be a leader there. You don’t have to be in charge to give some leadership. Are you in a ministry in a church? Offer leadership there. Start making decisions. Think. Pray. Evaluate. Discuss. Then trust yourself to make decisions. Do ministry. Show Jesus to others outside of church programs.

Lord. I rant. Sorry if I go overboard. I feel strongly about this and I think we are of one mind. Please help me and the rest of your church to be little leaders. Help us to not be so institution focused. Help me know if I am full of poop. Love Tom

Apple and Protein Pancakes

 I  decided today that I wanted to serve a delicious AND more protein dense AND better fat pancake to my family.

I replaced the wheat flour with a mixture of almond meal, quinoa flour, and whole wheat. What I discovered is the our magic bullet, single serving mixer is also great at turning dried grain into flour. I poured dried quinoa into the mixer and shortly it was flour. It seems like the same idea will work with many grains to make quick flours.

Ingredients

Flour Mixture

2 parts whole wheat

1 part almond meal

1 part quinoa flour

3 whole eggs

636g (2 3/4 C) milk

84g (6 Tbsp or 3 oz) coconut oil melted

375g (3C) Flour Mixture

43g (3 Tbsp) baking powder

8g 1T vital gluten

1t cinnamon

3/4 tsp salt

Apple

Mix everything except the apple.

Slice the apple in thin slices. Use a mandolin slicer if available.

Place the apple slice on the pan and pour the pancake batter over it. Cook it as you would any pancake.

I put coconut oil instead of butter on it and left off the syrup. The apple gave it enough sweetness that it was very tasty.

Cauliflower and zucchini mash

1 cauliflower head

2 zucchini peeled

3T Butter

.5C cheddar cheese

.5t garlic salt

.25t pepper

Cook the cauliflower and zucchini until very soft

Process in food processor or with stick blender

Add balance of ingredients 

Serves 6-8

Church Cure?

“Learn to do good. Seek justice. Help the oppressed. Defend the cause of orphans. Fight for the rights of widows.”

Isaiah

1:17

NLT

http://bible.com/116/isa.1.17.nlt

In Isaiah 1 God rants about how bad the spiritual life of Israel had become. He slams the sacrifices, the festivals, and the incense. He had big issues with things He had mandated. He then gave a fix for the problems. Interestingly the fixes were not related to the ceremonies and rituals themselves. The cure was to good for others. 

I think that we can make an analogy between our modern church and the Hebrew rituals. We talk a lot about fixing church and making it better. Well we should. But if we listen to Isaiah here, he might help us some. God did not ask for better buildings or worship bands or even better sermons.  God's direction here to improve church was to improve what happens outside of church. 

God wanted them, and us, to work more for justice for others to make our church better. 

By extension, I think God is also implying that church should not be the pinnacle spiritual experience of the week. Church should be the place where a bunch of bedraggled Christians get together after BEING the church for six days. We get to decompress and encourage one another. We show love to each other after a week of doing hard loving. 

Interestingly the creation story is similar. After six days on mission creating stuff God took a rest, his sabbath. So should our sabbath be, a finale for a week of living on mission. Maybe we need to think about church as the last day of the week instead of the first, a well deserved rest rather than a show to start things off. 

So let's take the focus off our weekly church service and focus on the big six and see if our church service becomes much better too. 

Lord help me to live six days doing good and bringing justice to the weak so that on the seventh day, church can be great. 

Love

Tom