This is also inspired in part by Ann Curry's 26 acts of kindness, and in part by the book I just read, A Year of Biblical Womanhood. The concept of doing something different each month within the realm of giving is something I want to do. I feel called to put as much good into the world as I possibly can. Here are my ideas so far.
1. I'll continue my $10 per month auto-debit sustainer pledge to MPR. This is something I've done for many years, through my unemployment and everything. Supporting something that I enjoy, that I want others to be able to enjoy without having to pay upfront for it, seems a good way to begin.
2. I'll continue to crochet blankets for children in need of healing. I'm about 25% of the way through my first one. I'm not saying I'll actually make 26 this year, but I'll continue working on them and try to at least finish one each month. I'm starting with a larger one for a big kid or teenager. I was thinking maybe I would make 6 adult sized ones and 20 child/baby ones in total.
3a. Each month, we'll give to a different organization or cause we believe in. This may be in the form of money, material donations, volunteer work, anything. I don't have these fully mapped out yet, and opportunities to give should present themselves during the year, if I am looking carefully. I already have 4 or 5 ideas.
3b. I'll plan these out within certain themes. I may do a little more bible research on who specifically we are called to help, but for starters I'm going to work with the sick and hurt in need of healing, the poor and the hungry, those in mourning, and the excluded, oppressed or exploited. Some of these may involve religious organizations, and some may fly in the face of religious organizations. Some may be personal, where we just give something (tangible or not) to a person we know who is in need of help.
Isaiah 58 seems like a good place to begin. The context is that it is a calling-out of hypocrites--people who do religious things in a showing-off way, without kindness to each other or help to those in need. (I also read the entire book of James. It's short, but not short enough that I'm sharing here. You can find it here if you're interested.)
This translation is called The Message.
Isaiah 58
Your Prayers Won’t Get Off the Ground
1-3 “Shout! A full-throated shout!
Hold nothing back—a trumpet-blast shout!
Tell my people what’s wrong with their lives,
face my family Jacob with their sins!
They’re busy, busy, busy at worship,
and love studying all about me.
To all appearances they’re a nation of right-living people—
law-abiding, God-honoring.
They ask me, ‘What’s the right thing to do?’
and love having me on their side.
But they also complain,
‘Why do we fast and you don’t look our way?
Why do we humble ourselves and you don’t even notice?’
3-5 “Well, here’s why:
“The bottom line on your ‘fast days’ is profit.
You drive your employees much too hard.
You fast, but at the same time you bicker and fight.
You fast, but you swing a mean fist.
The kind of fasting you do
won’t get your prayers off the ground.
Do you think this is the kind of fast day I’m after:
a day to show off humility?
To put on a pious long face
and parade around solemnly in black?
Do you call that fasting,
a fast day that I, God, would like?
6-9 “This is the kind of fast day I’m after:
to break the chains of injustice,
get rid of exploitation in the workplace,
free the oppressed,
cancel debts.
What I’m interested in seeing you do is:
sharing your food with the hungry,
inviting the homeless poor into your homes,
putting clothes on the shivering ill-clad,
being available to your own families.
Do this and the lights will turn on,
and your lives will turn around at once.
Your righteousness will pave your way.
The God of glory will secure your passage.
Then when you pray, God will answer.
You’ll call out for help and I’ll say, ‘Here I am.’
A Full Life in the Emptiest of Places
9-12 “If you get rid of unfair practices,
quit blaming victims,
quit gossiping about other people’s sins,
If you are generous with the hungry
and start giving yourselves to the down-and-out,
Your lives will begin to glow in the darkness,
your shadowed lives will be bathed in sunlight.
I will always show you where to go.
I’ll give you a full life in the emptiest of places—
firm muscles, strong bones.
You’ll be like a well-watered garden,
a gurgling spring that never runs dry.
You’ll use the old rubble of past lives to build anew,
rebuild the foundations from out of your past.
You’ll be known as those who can fix anything,
restore old ruins, rebuild and renovate,
make the community livable again.
13-14 “If you watch your step on the Sabbath
and don’t use my holy day for personal advantage,
If you treat the Sabbath as a day of joy,
God’s holy day as a celebration,
If you honor it by refusing ‘business as usual,’
making money, running here and there—
Then you’ll be free to enjoy God!
Oh, I’ll make you ride high and soar above it all.
I’ll make you feast on the inheritance of your ancestor Jacob.”
Yes! God says so!
Copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Eugene H. Peterson
2. I'll continue to crochet blankets for children in need of healing. I'm about 25% of the way through my first one. I'm not saying I'll actually make 26 this year, but I'll continue working on them and try to at least finish one each month. I'm starting with a larger one for a big kid or teenager. I was thinking maybe I would make 6 adult sized ones and 20 child/baby ones in total.
3a. Each month, we'll give to a different organization or cause we believe in. This may be in the form of money, material donations, volunteer work, anything. I don't have these fully mapped out yet, and opportunities to give should present themselves during the year, if I am looking carefully. I already have 4 or 5 ideas.
3b. I'll plan these out within certain themes. I may do a little more bible research on who specifically we are called to help, but for starters I'm going to work with the sick and hurt in need of healing, the poor and the hungry, those in mourning, and the excluded, oppressed or exploited. Some of these may involve religious organizations, and some may fly in the face of religious organizations. Some may be personal, where we just give something (tangible or not) to a person we know who is in need of help.
Isaiah 58 seems like a good place to begin. The context is that it is a calling-out of hypocrites--people who do religious things in a showing-off way, without kindness to each other or help to those in need. (I also read the entire book of James. It's short, but not short enough that I'm sharing here. You can find it here if you're interested.)
This translation is called The Message.
Isaiah 58
Your Prayers Won’t Get Off the Ground
1-3 “Shout! A full-throated shout!
Hold nothing back—a trumpet-blast shout!
Tell my people what’s wrong with their lives,
face my family Jacob with their sins!
They’re busy, busy, busy at worship,
and love studying all about me.
To all appearances they’re a nation of right-living people—
law-abiding, God-honoring.
They ask me, ‘What’s the right thing to do?’
and love having me on their side.
But they also complain,
‘Why do we fast and you don’t look our way?
Why do we humble ourselves and you don’t even notice?’
3-5 “Well, here’s why:
“The bottom line on your ‘fast days’ is profit.
You drive your employees much too hard.
You fast, but at the same time you bicker and fight.
You fast, but you swing a mean fist.
The kind of fasting you do
won’t get your prayers off the ground.
Do you think this is the kind of fast day I’m after:
a day to show off humility?
To put on a pious long face
and parade around solemnly in black?
Do you call that fasting,
a fast day that I, God, would like?
6-9 “This is the kind of fast day I’m after:
to break the chains of injustice,
get rid of exploitation in the workplace,
free the oppressed,
cancel debts.
What I’m interested in seeing you do is:
sharing your food with the hungry,
inviting the homeless poor into your homes,
putting clothes on the shivering ill-clad,
being available to your own families.
Do this and the lights will turn on,
and your lives will turn around at once.
Your righteousness will pave your way.
The God of glory will secure your passage.
Then when you pray, God will answer.
You’ll call out for help and I’ll say, ‘Here I am.’
A Full Life in the Emptiest of Places
9-12 “If you get rid of unfair practices,
quit blaming victims,
quit gossiping about other people’s sins,
If you are generous with the hungry
and start giving yourselves to the down-and-out,
Your lives will begin to glow in the darkness,
your shadowed lives will be bathed in sunlight.
I will always show you where to go.
I’ll give you a full life in the emptiest of places—
firm muscles, strong bones.
You’ll be like a well-watered garden,
a gurgling spring that never runs dry.
You’ll use the old rubble of past lives to build anew,
rebuild the foundations from out of your past.
You’ll be known as those who can fix anything,
restore old ruins, rebuild and renovate,
make the community livable again.
13-14 “If you watch your step on the Sabbath
and don’t use my holy day for personal advantage,
If you treat the Sabbath as a day of joy,
God’s holy day as a celebration,
If you honor it by refusing ‘business as usual,’
making money, running here and there—
Then you’ll be free to enjoy God!
Oh, I’ll make you ride high and soar above it all.
I’ll make you feast on the inheritance of your ancestor Jacob.”
Yes! God says so!
Copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Eugene H. Peterson
We're starting off big in January. I'll write another post at the end of each month with what we did. This is going to be harder than I thought...already failed at the "quit gossiping about other people's sins" part the other night. Oh well. Start over tomorrow, right?
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