The Cost of a Wedding Dress and Following Jesus

Two days ago, I bought a wedding dress. Such an exciting milestone in life! I get to marry my best friend, and now I don't have to worry about what I'll wear!
As someone who can't stand shopping for clothes, I have to admit I was somewhat dreading the process. Since my fiancé and I are going for a low-budget wedding, I was hoping to spend as little as possible on the dress. These factors brought me to..... online shopping! If it's not my favorite, I might as well not have to leave the couch!
As I was scouring the internet for the perfect garment to don for my forthcoming nuptials... Queue: Dressember! Ah, Dressember. The increasingly popular movement of women in dresses (and now men in neckties) fighting to end modern-day slavery in the month of December. While I don't participate in the dress-wearing, I have many friends and relatives who do. They are wonderful people who inspire and encourage me to advocate for truth, justice, and love.
It is here that a flashback is necessary. I love telling stories, but they don't exactly run in straight lines. The scene opens in the hallway of my quad in my dorm at college. Some friends and I were discussing Dressember, justice, feminism, Harvey Weinstein and the scandals in Hollywood, and a whole slew of other topics. At some point, we got to the question, "how far does it have to go?" An important question. If I say I care about justice and ending modern-day slavery, do I have to research where all the things I buy, from my skinny jeans to my chocolate, were made and only buy fair-trade and ethically sourced products? If I'm an advocate for ending a culture of sexual harassment, is it still okay for me to watch movies produced by people know for sexual misconduct? What about movies whose plot lines rest on the objectification of women? How far does it have to go?
Often, as I consider such questions, I come back to Jesus' words in Luke 14:25-34. Here, he speaks to the people who say they want to follow him and tells them to first "count the cost."  What does it cost to follow Jesus?  In the church, we talk a lot about sacrificing time, "fleshly desires" (whatever that might mean), and trading things like jobs that pay money for jobs that make a difference. My commentary on that interpretation is not the point here, but I will say I think that way of looking at it misses something. If Jesus declared freedom for captives, befriended the outcast and sinner, and ushered in a kingdom where the first would be last, does following him not require the same from us? And the cost of that might mean buying products that are more expensive because they were made by people who were treated like the human beings they are and compensated fairly for their labor.
With all this on my mind, I went to buy a wedding dress. Come to find out, the fashion industry and the wedding industry are major culprits in modern-day slavery, as well as having a terrible environmental impact. Cheap wedding dresses raised numerous red flags.
I had to count the cost, not only of a dress, but also of following Jesus.
After hours of research, I decided to go with a vintage dress. Vintage is just a fancy way of saying old and used, but of course, that doesn't necessarily mean in poor condition. My other option was to go for a dress that I could guarantee was made fair trade and ethically sourced, which is a great idea but out of my price range. After counting both costs, I ended up finding a lovely vintage dress from Etsy that checked off all my boxes and even fit the budget!

I don't know what the cost of following Jesus is for every situation in my life. I know that I don't always get it right. Sometimes I'm just tired or selfish or completely over-thinking it all. But following Jesus isn't about getting it all "right" or "wrong," it's about walking through life with him. Ultimately, Jesus gave himself to cover the cost of all the ways I fall short. 

A Jesus Story: Jesus and the Gentile Woman

Back in March, I had an assignment to write a small-group teaching on something from the life of Jesus. I wanted to do something a bit out of the box for a regular "teaching." At the time, I was a part of the cast of the musical Godspell which brings the life of Jesus into a modern setting. I was daily being presented with the story of Jesus- translating the sometimes seemingly "lifeless words on a page" of the Gospels into encounters with a living, breathing person that could have happened just moments ago they are so real. So, I decided to take a story that I have a hard time understanding, study it, read some Bible commentaries on it, look up a few key words in their original Greek (as I've been taught as a "responsible" Bible student) and rewrote it. 

Taken from Matthew 15:1-28 (ref. Genesis 12:1-3; 22:15-18) NLT: 

Jesus is out in Genesaret, doing his thing, healing people, casting out demons, and the religious teachers decide his is a prime time to ask him a question. (v. 1)

“Excuse me, Jesus. Why don’t you make your disciples follow all the ceremonial rules? They are very important traditions. Our great-grandfathers made them up themselves.” (v. 2)

“Why do you obey your grandfathers instead of God? Those rules they made up to “help” people “obey” the commands of God really just reinforce disobedience. Hypocrites! The traditions you follow help you serve yourselves while the commands of God are meant to show you how to love people the way God does.” (vv. 3-9)

Well, the disciples can’t handle this.

“Jesus! You just offended the religious teachers! They are, like, the chosen ones of God’s chosen people!” (v. 12)

“Guys, look, anyone that wasn’t planted by my father will be rooted out. Sure, they seem like the top dogs. Really, though, all they are is blind mice who decided they could see better than the rest of the blind mice, and are leading everyone into a hole.” (v. 13-14)

And the disciples are just like, “Whoa. Sweet… We still don’t get it.” (v. 15)

So Jesus takes them on a little trip, up north. (v. 21) Now they are in an area with a much lower concentration of “the chosen people” and far more Gentiles (the ‘un-chosen”). Well, one of those Gentiles – a woman, so pretty much the most un-chosen of all the un-chosen – hears that Jesus is there. Like the religious teachers in Genesaret, she also finds this to be the perfect opportunity to ask Jesus something. But this woman is on a totally different page. She is desperate. She comes to Jesus crying and begging.

“Jesus! Lord! Son of David! Please help me! My daughter is in torment! She is constantly tortured by an evil spirit! Would you heal her? Please?” (v. 22)

But he totally ignores her. This is out of character for Jesus. He acts like she doesn’t even exist. She goes on, pleading, begging, “Jesus, please! My daughter!”

You know who does notice? The disciples. She is driving them crazy! They are annoyed. The are offended. Who does this woman think she is, clearly she is not good enough for Jesus. But oh my goodness she is annoying! So they go to Jesus.

“Seriously? Do you not notice this woman? She is driving us nuts! Make her go away!” (v. 23)

So Jesus finally turns to her and he says, “Look, don’t you know I’m here to help the chosen people of God?” (v. 24)

Finally! He is acknowledging her! She runs through the crowd, falls at Jesus’ feet, and begs “Please Lord! Help!” (v. 25)

But he seems unmoved, “would it be right for me to take food from the children to throw to dogs?” (v. 26)

Talk about offensive. But do the disciples care now? No! She’s not a chosen one. Good for Jesus!

But this desperate woman doesn’t give two pennies about being offended. She knows what power Jesus has. She believes that he can do anything. The smallest bit of power from him can end the torment her daughter faces day after day.

“I know, you’re right. But dogs are allowed under the table to pick up the scraps that would fall from the children.” (v. 27)

“Dear woman,” Jesus has made his point to his disciples. He now pours compassion on the woman, “you have such great faith. Your request is granted.” And immediately her daughter was healed. (v. 28)

This woman had gone through life knowing what it was like to be a dog under the table. She knew she wasn’t one of the “chosen”. But she loved her daughter. She loved her daughter and she understood something about God that the religious teachers, and even the disciples, had missed. When God chose Abraham and his descendants, the people of Israel, he had a special purpose for them. He wanted to bless the whole world through them, and use this chosen people to shower his love onto all people. (ref. Genesis 12:1-3; 22:15-18)

Gluten/Dairy Free Cinnamon Apple Muffins

Just before Thanksgiving 2016, I found out that I am sensitive to gluten and dairy. This was after over a year of feeling sick almost every time I ate, or didn't eat. Now, since I have an amazing mom, who both is fantastic at baking/cooking and loves me, my mom came up with a gluten/dairy free muffin recipe so that I could eat more than lettuce and water. I thought I would share this greatness with y'all.

Gluten/dairy Free Cinnamon Apple Muffins

yield: 2 doz.

Preheat oven to 375F

• 2 c. Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free 1 to 1 Baking Flour (They aren't paying me to say this. This 1 to 1 mix is great in GF baking because all the extra stuff is already added in to make it a close flour substitute. The texture is pretty smooth as well.)
• 2 tsp. Baking Powder
• 1/2 tsp. Salt
• 1/2 c. Coconut Oil (Or other butter substitute. Even butter, if you're okay with dairy! Coconut oil definitely lends a distinctive flavor)
• 1 1/4 c. Sugar
• 2 Eggs
• 1/2+ c. Almond or Coconut Milk
• 1+ tsp. Cinnamon (I usually add more- I love cinnamon!)
• 1 tsp. Vanilla
• 1 Green Apple - Peeled, Cored, and Diced

1. Whisk together dry ingredients and set aside.
2. In a large bowl, cream together sugar and coconut oil until fluffy.
3. Add eggs, one at a time, then vanilla, beating well.
4. To the sugar mixture, alternately add 1 cup of the dry mixture, the milk, then the rest of the dry mixture, mixing well between additions. 
5. Fold in diced apple.
6. Fill greased, lined muffin cups 3/4 full.
7. Bake 20-30 minutes or until light golden brown. (This gluten free flour stays much lighter than regular flour when baking. So, if you are waiting for it to get as dark as a recipe baked with regular flour, it may burn)

Enjoy!

Hope

There is a whole lot of pain in the world right now. And there are a great many voices speaking into that pain. It is most likely that my voice will just be one more amongst the millions adding to the noise. I am okay with that. It is not my hope to be the loudest voice, but rather to be a glimmer of love and hope amidst the overwhelming darkness and hatred we are seeing today.

For about an hour this morning I watched the live feed of the rally before the Women's March on Washington. Because it was on Facebook, I also got to see the live feed of comments. For most of the time I watched, I literally sat in tears. I was watching a war between love and hatred, justice and oppression, play out before my eyes.

This is not a war between men and women, democrats and republicans, or white people and everyone else. I recognize that there is an inequality of power and rights. I may be naive and idealistic and have no real understanding of just how deep the cracks in the system run. You may not agree that anything is wrong, But whether we are fighting for or against change, if the weapon we use is hate, we are wrong. As soon as we begin to take away the value of another person because of who she is or what he has done, we are wrong.

What is especially disheartening is the response of so many in the name of God. Do you know what you are saying when you call another person "trash" or "useless" or "idiot" or any of those other terrible things that are being thrown around? That person is God's baby. When we are friends of God, we will not call his children "garbage" or say that they were better of dead. Can you imagine going to a friend's house and saying that to her face about her two-year-old who pulled your hair?

I am certainly not trying to minimize the pain and injustice that some people cause. It is ugly and downright evil much of the time. And I certainly do not mean that we ought to sit back and watch it play out as it will. But we do need to remember whose children we are, The Teacher we follow did not call down curses on the people who murdered him but rather said, "Father, forgive them for they do not know what they are doing."

So please, love people today. Spewing hatred, criticism, negativity, and conflict only adds to the chaos. If we are going to spread the Kingdom of God on the earth, we cannot be so lazy and selfish as to look just like the rest of the world. We carry hope within us. Hope that the world will not always look like this. Hope that even the worst people and worst situations can be saved. Hope that love will win and light will drive out the darkness. Let's be people of hope.