Beauty for Ashes

"For unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he might be glorified."—Isaiah 61:3.

February 14th - 19th is the hardest time of the year for me.  My dad passed away on February 14th, 2009 and would have celebrated his 64th birthday on the 19th of that same month.  Today he would have been 67.  Happy Birthday Dad!

Each year for the past two years I have anticipated this time of year with great heaviness and grief.  Being that the anniversary of my dad's death falls on Valentine's Day each year, it's hard to muster up romance when I'm grief-stricken.  Usually what ends up happening is I sabotage any attempt Ron makes to be caring and romantic, because I'm an emotional wreck.  This is what I anticipated this year, but the reality turned out differently. 

The Sunday before Valentine's Day I felt the fog of grief descending.  It became thicker as we approached VDay, so I braced myself (and Ron) for a repeat.  It was all I could do to get Ron a card and write some sweet sentiments down.  I had the card ready for him when he left for work on Tuesday morning, but he didn't see where I left it (fumble on my part).  With his card still laying on the counter and nothing there for me, I went to work feeling pretty depressed.  I was in that "thin layer of tears lining the bottom lid and could burst into tears at any given moment" mood. 

Ron called mid-morning and asked if he could take me out to lunch.  Almost immediately my mood changed.  He let me choose the restaurant, so we met at Chilis and I was greeted with a beautiful bouquet of roses and tulips.  We had a great lunch that ended with Chili's Chocolate Molten cake and all of a sudden I knew that - in the midst of chocolaty bliss - life was going to be ok.  The flowers became a beautiful and fragrant addition on my desk.

The early evening of Valentine's Day was spent at MLKU, the tutoring program with which I help on Tuesday and Thursday evening.  Seeing the sweet faces of children that I love and receiving their Valentine's Day affection and candy warmed my heart.  I mean, how can you not love a face like this:

Thursday night Ron was honored as one of "40 Leaders Under 40" by the Triad Business Journal.  If you know Ron, you know he's not one to "toot his own horn."  With that being said, it leaves ample room for his wife, mom, mom-in-law, and 10 co-workers to toot it for him and celebrate this award with him.  The event gave us a reason to dress up, be with family and friends, network with some uber interesting "under forty folks" and enjoy great food.  Plus they gave us heart shaped clappers, which were too much fun (especially for Susan Milner)!

 

Oh, I forgot to mention that Ron's coworkers made badges with Ron's face plastered on it and decided to wear it to the event.  They gave my mom and his mom one too.  It was great and of course Ron really loved (READ: HATED) the badges.

The next day I was able to enjoy the morning with the best mom and mom-in-law a girl could ask for!  We went to Breakfast Of Course for a delectable brunch: breakfast burrito, french toast, organic yogurt, fruit and what I'm affectionately calling "Heaven's Dew."  For those of you who know me personally, you know that my tea of choice is 99.9% of the time ____________?  If you guessed Earl Grey (with milk and sugar), you guessed right.  I asked for the tea menu at BOC and was intrigued by the Lemon Mango Tea.  I ordered this tea and found heaven's dew!  After going to Piedmont Craftsmen Gallery and Baby's R Us (no, NOT for us), we drove right over to Angelina's Tea and purchased the dew of heaven.  Thanks Mom!

                                    

My all time, hands down, one hundred percent favorite play is Les Miserables.  There are few other stories that so clearly speak to the freeing power of grace and the crippling power of the law than this play (except of course THE story of redemption found in the Bible and which culminates in Christ.  THIS story is from where all other redemptive stories flow).  Ron had been looking for months to see when the play was touring in the U.S., and finally he discovered it was playing in Raleigh the week of Valentine's Day.  Could the heart shaped stars aligned more perfectly?  We got tickets for each other for Christmas and had eagerly anticipated this weekend for months.  In preparation I had been listening to "Les Miserables" Pandora at any opportunity possible.  We drove to Raleigh on Friday afternoon and after several nail-biting bouts with Friday traffic we made it to 518 West for a delicious dinner before the play.  We drove to the theater, found FREE parking (SCORE), and entered into the wonderland that is Les Mis.  I don't think I am exaggerating to say I was as giddy as a chubby kid in a candy shop.  Here's proof: when Ron was in the bathroom, this was what I did.

Mildly creepy?  Yes, I know.  There's a Les Mis anonymous out there somewhere, I'm sure.  The play was every ounce as wonderful as I anticipated and I was thrilled to experience it with Ron as it was his first time.  I left loving the gospel even more!  Grace frees and the law binds!

We stayed with dear friends, Justin and Sarah Leonard, in Holly Springs on Friday night.  On Saturday we enjoyed a long brunch with them catching up on the past several months.  They are special folks, and it was a treat to see them.  From Holly Springs, we went on to Greensboro to visit with some more great friends, Noah and Tina Forlines.  We hadn't really connected with them since our wedding, so it was great to spend a couple hours hearing about each other's life over an Earl Grey Tea.  After meeting with Noah and Tina we drove back to Winston-Salem, unpacked, took a power nap, and met up with some friends to bowl in preparation for "Bowl for Kids Sake" next weekend.  It was great fun! 

And today I was able to worship with my church family at Calvary hearing Will Toburen faithfully and passionately preach about God's design for the family as well as talk about "The Day of the Lord" with the college ministry.  After several errands, Ron and I ended up having an unexpected night indoors due to the raging snow storm (READ: light dusting that causes any Southerner to panic, stock pile food, and stay home at all costs).

God's grace!  By His grace, the dreary fog between February 14 - 19 turned out to be an incredible week.  I finished this week feeling more blessed than I possibly deserve.  Truly God turned my ashes into beauty, my mourning into gladness, and my spirit of heaviness into praise!

I know you thought this blog would never end, but let me close with one last thought.  I don't mean to imply through this blog that good circumstances equal beauty, gladness and praise.  It is the hope of the Christian faith that even in the midst of great adversity, that one can have deep comfort and peace.  More than rejoicing in good circumstances, I want to join Job in saying, "The Lord gives and takes away; blessed be His name." And with Paul who learned to be content in whatever the circumstances, whether in need or in plenty.  The beginning of the Isaiah passage with which I started this blog points to this unwavering hope: the Spirit of the Lord.  The great gift given to believers at the point of repentance and faith.  It is through the power of the Spirit of the Lord at work in the heart of Christians, that one can enjoy the good circumstances but hope in the bad too, because Christ has beaten death and one day ALL THINGS WILL BE NEW!  That is the hope of this little lady and the purpose of this blog.  So may I be like a tree firmly planted bringing great glory to the Lord!

"For unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he might be glorified."—Isaiah 61:3.

The Morality of Eating Meat

My last post was about a tremendous ministry in Charlotte called the King's Kitchen.  Unexpectedly, the blog started a conversation between a friend and me about the morality of eating meat.  You can read the blog post here as well as her comment.

After some dialogue, Kat graciously sent me a DVD to watch called Farm to Fridge.  I watched the DVD, did personal research, study, and came to the following conclusion.  Below is my response to Kat.

When I posted my blog about The King’s Kitchen I certainly didn't imagine that it would spark a discussion about the morality of eating meat or cause me to deeply discern whether I wanted to continue eating meat.  I did watch the video that sent me (Farm to Fridge); it was horrible. 

There seem to be two issues at play.  First, is it morally wrong (Biblically speaking) to eat meat?  Second, should inhumane industry practices towards animals raised for slaughter deter the eating of meat?

As I’ve studied the first question, I cannot find a compelling Biblical reason to not eat meat.  In fact, it seems that the opposite is true.  Starting in the first chapters of Genesis, God creates a distinction between humans and animals, namely creating humans in His own image and giving them the responsibility to “rule” over the earth as God rules over all.  With that being said, animals are created beings and, like the environment, I think they should be stewarded with care and concern.  And yet there is a sense that creation is meant to be used (not abused) and cultivated for human flourishing and God’s glory.  There is a higher order for man compared to animals.

You are right that there is no explicit command to eat meat in Genesis 1 and 2, but on the other hand there is no explicit command to not eat meat.  It is not mentioned.  The only prohibition is to not eat the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.  Perhaps God’s ideal was for Adam and Eve to be vegetarians in the Garden of Eden, but there is ample Bible text post-fall that suggests that, while eating meat may not be ideal pre-fall, it is minimally permissible post fall. 

The fact that God’s first act of redemption or covering was to slaughter an animal and use it to cover the nakedness of disobedient Adam and Eve I think suggests that there is a permissibility in the functionality of animals even when it means their death.  This continues all throughout the Old Testament with hundreds of years of animal sacrifices that God ordained to cover the sins of the Israelites.  While these animal sacrifices could not suffice for the continued sin of God’s people, Jesus, the ultimate sacrifice, is called the Lamb of God, who had to die to take away the sins of the world.  There is a profound spiritual truth in this physical reality.

Biblical wisdom states that “everything is permissible, but not everything is beneficial or constructive (I Cor. 10:23).  This passage is directly linked to a passage about eating meat.  The issue in this text was not the morality of eating meat itself, but eating meat that had been sacrificed to idols, which I think transitions nicely to the second issue of whether we should eat meat that has been produced under inhumane conditions.  This is really where I have wrestled.

The practices that are highlighted in the video you sent me are deplorable.  Certainly I think they should cause us to question the industry.  When I started to process the images I saw in the video, I was left with a lingering question.  How standard are these practices?  The reason for this question stems from a concern to know how normative these practices are in the meat industry.  Every endeavor of human hands is going to be tainted in some way by sin.  Every industry is going to have some stain of sin, sometimes large sometimes small.  Do we throw away the baby with the bathwater? Do we throw out the entire industry because of isolated malpractice?  For example, do I reject the public school system because there are perverted teachers and administrators who use their position to prey on students?  While I hate the practice, I can understand that there is still good in the industry at large.  I think the same can be said for the meat industry. 

The conclusion that Paul makes in I Corinthians 10 is telling:

1 Corinthians 10:23-32
²³ “All things are lawful,” but not all things are helpful. “All things are lawful,” but not all things build up. ²⁴ Let no one seek his own good, but the good of his neighbor. ²⁵ Eat whatever is sold in the meat market without raising any question on the ground of conscience. ²⁶ For “the earth is the Lord's, and the fullness thereof.” ²⁷ If one of the unbelievers invites you to dinner and you are disposed to go, eat whatever is set before you without raising any question on the ground of conscience. ²⁸ But if someone says to you, “This has been offered in sacrifice,” then do not eat it, for the sake of the one who informed you, and for the sake of conscience— ²⁹ I do not mean your conscience, but his. For why should my liberty be determined by someone else's conscience? ³⁰ If I partake with thankfulness, why am I denounced because of that for which I give thanks?  ^{31 32} Give no offense to Jews or to Greeks or to the church of God

Several conclusions from this passage:

-          The earth is the Lord’s and everything in it.  He has given human’s authority over the earth as He has authority over us.  This is God’s premise for allowing man to eat meat.
-          Eating meat is an issue of conscious.  I would say it’s inappropriate to make a matter of personal conscious or a wisdom issue a matter of conviction for everyone.
-          Where it would be offensive to eat meat (or not eat meat), you should oblige out of care for others.
-          Whatever we do, whether eating meat or anything else, we should do it with a mindset of bringing great glory to God.

This is a Biblical defense of the morality of eating meat.  I understand that there could be other motivations to eat or not eat meat.  I simply wanted to lay out a Biblical motivation, because that is what motivates me personally.

So where do I land on this issue.  While I do think it is Biblically permissible to eat meat, I do question the treatment of animals that are raised to slaughter.  I’m still investigating the nature of mistreatment in terms of whether these are commonplace practices and standards or isolated instances of abuse.  While I do not have a problem eating meat, I have substantially limited my meat consumption unless it is served to me or I have purchased the meat from a humane butcher or local farmer.