You may have noticed things look a little (okay A LOT!!) different around here! Not only is there an amazing beautiful new design by the amazingly talented Mindy of Simply Designs, but you’ll also notice a new tagline underneath Live Renewed, and some different categories in the navigation bar. So, I wanted to give you the inside scoop on the new direction and vision I have for this blog.
Recently, I was watching a documentary about child labor in the chocolate industry as research for a post I wrote for Keeper of the Home – An Ethical Response to Child Labor and the Chocolate Industry. My six year old daughter came and sat next to me as I watched.
At first, I was unsure whether I should let her stay to see and hear about such a terrible topic: children being taken from their families and made to work on chocolate farms in dangerous conditions for usually no pay. I thought maybe it was too much for her.
I watched her as she took in the words and pictures on the screen, her brow furrowed. “What does trafficking mean mom?” “What do they mean ‘child labor’?” Her eyes searching mine for an explanation.
I began to explain to her, in the most simple and straight-forward terms I could, what the movie was about. “There are bad people in the world.” I told her, “People who care more about money then they do about other people. And they use people, like children, to get more money for themselves.
“But there are also good people in the world. People like the man making this movie who want to help those children. They want to tell people what is happening so that we can do something about it. That’s why he made this movie.” I explained.
She nodded in understanding and turned back to the movie. After a few more minutes she looked over at me and said, “Mama, I want to be like that man when I grow up.”
My eyes still fill with tears as I remember that moment. And I knew right then I had made the right decision to let her watch with me. Because that’s what it is about. Inspiring compassion for God’s people around the world. Believing that you can make a difference. And she can start believing that at the sweet and tender age of six.
The past few years of my life have been some of the MOST eye-opening and life-changing for me. Learning about issues of poverty, injustice, suffering, and hardship in our country and around the world, and then looking at our wealthy, consumerist, self-absorbed culture that just keeps moving as if these things don’t exist or matter. Because they don’t really effect us, we are numb to them.
My heart has been shattered, ripped open, and stomped on. The realities of this world are often too much for me to bear. And I’m trying to figure out what my response should be as a follower of Christ.
I think the hardest part for me is that there are no easy answers. But here’s what I believe I can do:
Live with Compassion. Care for Creation. Impact your World!
So this has become the new tagline and direction for this blog. I am intensely passionate and excited about it, and at the same time, incredibly nervous and scared. Because this is serious, friends.
This is extremely hard stuff to talk about, yet I know I am being called to start the discussion. And frankly, it kinda scares the hell out of me.
Because these issues are SO complex. I have no idea how to write about them, what to say about them. Heck, I don’t even know what I think about them most days. Except that when I really sit and think, tears well-up in my eyes, pour over and run down my cheeks, and my heart bursts with both deep sadness and intense compassion.
The thing is, I have obviously not experienced any of these issues first hand. I have no earthly idea what it is like to live with extreme poverty, hardship, suffering, or injustice. So who am I to write about these topics?!
All I know is that this is not the way any of us were intended to live, and so I must do something, anything, to try to make an impact, to make a difference in the life of another person. Even if just one.
And I hope to inspire you to do the same.
This is where my broken heart pulls me. That even in the midst of my busy life with three kids and working from home, and soccer and dance and bible study and church leadership and on and on, I can’t just say “I’m too busy” or “I’ll think about that when my kids are little bit older.” How can I say that when people are suffering this exact moment? How can I ask another person to wait for me while I get on with my comfortable life?
I think that’s true for many of you too. You want to make a difference, to impact your world. I hope this will become a place where we can figure out what that looks like for each of us in our own corner of the world.
It is with great humility and even greater hope that I share this new tagline and direction of the blog with you: Live with Compassion. Care for Creation. Impact Your World! I want this to be a place where we are all spurred on and inspired to make a difference – for ourselves, for our families, and ultimately for our world. Let’s explore what that means for us. I’m so excited to see the difference that we can make… together.
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To go along with my new design I also have a new and improved email service for my posts. When you sign up to receive new posts by email, you have the option of choosing to receive an email each day there is a new post (usually about 3x per week), or just one email per week with a recap of the week’s posts. I’d love to have you subscribe and join with me on this journey to live with compassion, care for creation and impact our world!
Simply fill out the form below to subscribe!
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I’m so glad you and your daughter had that experience! My son was 4 1/2 when Food, Inc. came out, and when he heard me telling someone that I was planning to see it, he said he wanted to go, too. I explained that this movie would show “animal killing factories” and that it would be scary and yucky and maybe too much for him. He insisted that it wouldn’t, and I ended up taking him. It didn’t freak him out, but it made a BIG impression and really increased his cooperation with our family’s avoidance of factory-farmed food and especially ground meat. Turns out that until he saw the film, he had not believed me when I said a hamburger can kill a little boy. Now he is 9 and actually brags that he has never eaten a hamburger or hot dog! He thinks about environmental and ethical considerations when we’re deciding what to buy. I wouldn’t want to overload him with consciousness-raising documentaries, but I’m glad we saw that one together.