Artisan Cheese Lust

I've had a problem for a few years, one that I'm not quite proud of. It's time to come clean. 

I lust after artisan cheese.

Whether I'm in a fancy Whole Foods-type market or a Walmart supercenter, my eyes and feet are drawn to the case of cheese. Forget those insipid blocks of Great Value mozzarella—this is the real stuff. 

Fresh, blue, round, soft, goat, herb, gouda, manchego, tallegio, stilton...the list goes on and on. I love looking and touching and examining these cheeses, but never actually purchase one because the prices make me gag. $6.00 for that? So I drool in silence.

Why Killing Cattle Doesn’t Work

Do you ever find yourself reaching an intense spiritual high one moment, only to crash and burn the next? Perhaps you get some wonderful inspiration from a time of prayer and meditation, you make all kinds of fresh resolutions, and then you’re faced with another human being. Then your true colors show when you hit the roof about a tiny problem, or you gripe or gossip, or you do exactly the opposite of what you’d just been intending to do.

Cow, a photo by Atli Harðarson on Flickr.

That’s the story of my life, unfortunately, and it’s coming clear during this time of fasting and prayer. Just as I think I’m doing something wonderfully holy (giving up snacks and dessert—yikes!), I mess everything up by some act of disobedience.

I suspect that I’m not the only one who experiences  this. In fact I know  I’m not the only one, just from looking at the ancient Israelites. You have probably heard the phrase “obedience is better than sacrifice,” but do you know where it comes from? Those are the words of Samuel, the prophet of the Lord, spoken to King Saul after a particularly nasty incident involving the Amalekites. God had commanded Saul to utterly destroy these people, along with their possessions and animals. Saul was more than willing to fight the Amalekites and went out in obedience to God’s command, but when it came to slaughtering all of those perfectly good cattle and sheep—he just couldn’t do it.

For Samuel it must have been like watching a train wreck in slow motion. He was incredibly upset at Saul’s act of outright disobedience, and finally cornered him. What was the king’s excuse? He said that the animals were meant as a sacrifice to the Lord. That sounds wonderful, right? Read Samuel’s response and listen for the frustration in his voice:

Droughts and Fasting

My first few days of the challenge have been interesting. I've tried some interesting new foods (the kind of things that my sponsored child in Ghana would eat), cut down on portion sizes for certain meals, and tried to focus on plainer/more natural/cheaper foods. In addition to the diet changes I've changed up my working habits somewhat. Instead of starting an evening of cleaning offices by turning on podcasts, I play soothing Gregorian chants and try to concentrate on prayer. I struggle with my thoughts constantly straying, but I feel better just for shutting off the constant barrage of information and letting myself think. 

Ideas happen to come to you when you think, and one idea that came to me recently concerned the drought that has been plaguing Northwest Arkansas (the whole Midwest, actually) for several months. Record high temperatures for weeks on end, no rainfall, the sun beating down like a hammer and cloudless skies laughing cruelly in our faces--it's been a time of testing. This summer has taught us several important things:

40 Days of Solidarity With The Poor

I'm scared to death of posting this, but I'm going ahead anyway. For the next 40 days I will be on a journey. It’s a journey that I've needed to take for a long time, but I've been stubborn and afraid. Now is the time to put all of that behind me and trust in my loving Heavenly Father.

Image from picturesofpoverty.com

Quite a few incidents led me to this decision, which I need to talk about. I’ll start by saying that I’ve discovered what it’s like to ignore something so much that you know it’s something you should pay attention to. For months—years, perhaps—I’ve had a sneaking antagonism toward fasting. If I don’t eat I tend to get weak and headachy, so going without food is a very unpleasant experience, plus who wants to practice that kind of self-denial for any period of time? Nevertheless, I kept coming up against fasting in the Bible, in conversation, on the covers of books, in sermons, etc. The more I heard and saw it mentioned the more I gritted my teeth and reiterated all of my objections. It’s an outdated practice. It’s not healthy. I don’t need that. What it really came down to was that I didn’t have the necessary self-control.