7 things I'm doing in chaotic times

a few might surprise you

I am supposed to be writing a paper on literary criticism of Ezekiel but it is going to be 80 degrees today and I’ve lost my will to read a text book for God. I wanted to do a “sustainable Sunday” post yesterday but then all my neighbors came over for freezer Sunday (formerly known as the artist freezer Friday) and we laughed until we cried about my friend cracking our neighbor’s toilet into three pieces, flooding their basement. It’s a long story, but they’ve never invited us back again. And mostly all we do is ask her how she did it and she says, “I just sat down.” Whatever, Hulk!

literally the least fancy of all time, but the best! No one cares about your not clean house. They just want to be together.

Regardless, in this season of looking around like what planet am I on as an American, the chaos does a couple of things from me:

1. Every day, I should be in the habit of praying for wisdom. That’s a freebie as far as the Bible is concerned. Rarely is the Bible formulaic but I’m pretty sure this is one of the only times God says ask for wisdom and I’ll give it to you. We don’t need more pontifications on why you think people are idiots for voting the way they did, we do need more wisdom in how to live amongst each other in one of the most polarized environments we’ve ever lived in. If you’re going to speak up, may it be prophetically or at the least, may it stick closely to the teachings of Jesus. That' means, knowing your bible. Read through any book you choose in one sitting, and it will become a very cohesive text. You will see where people take things out of context and you will be able to identify false prophets and cherry picked verses.

   

2. Guard against hate in my heart. It is very easy for me to look around and pair an ideology to a person instead of them being made in the image of God. When this thing implodes, we’re going be left as a people to rebuild together¹. We either practice empathy and compassion and humanization now, or we certainly won’t have that skill later on. Then what different are we after all this? End of the day, we will all still be Americans. End of the end of the end of the day, we are all made in the image of God. If you want unity, it can be mostly found in the latter ideology.

3. I don’t live in fear, But I do live in reality. The reality is, I have been far too engaged in consumerism than is necessary. I have lately decided I will not be shopping at big box stores when possible, and instead will choose to buy from my favorite companies directly. In many cases, I noticed it was cheaper priced than amazon! I am not lining billionaires pockets as far as is possible by me. Everything I need for years is already in my jam packed house or if I need something, I can buy at my not for profit thrift store who puts their money back into the community. Double whammy, thank you. I have never really “voted with my dollar”, but because this country intermingles its capatalism with God, then I will fight in a way they respond to: MONEY. It’s fine if you love capitalism and want to build a country on it, I have done well in the system, frankly. However do not slap God’s name on it. If you want a “Christian nation” based on Christian ideologies, then look no further than Acts where the rich sold everything they had to make sure the poor are cared for. Look at how Jesus mostly didn’t have a typical 9-5 job and was given money by wealthy women to live while he healed the sick for free and fed them free lunch while they were learning from Him. Look at how Jesus didn’t point people to Caesar because He was too busy helping others and He knew every human King, for the most part, was a disaster and eventually became corrupt with power. He is the only King who can handle power: And when He has it, he makes the poor the top and the rich the bottom. Not a great capatilism poster child!

4. Again, I do not live in fear, but the reality is, food insecurities may be our near future. So that means, I am making a working garden: meaning, we can eat what it produces and so can my neighbors. The reality is that we eat too much processed food and grocery prices are difficult. We buy eggs when we can from our friends who have chickens, we bought a 1/4 of a land grazing bison and had it butchered directly from a farm and the ground meat was $3/lb. So not only are we changing who we buy from (still love Costco or a local grocery store and shop there when needed), it’s helping the bottom line. Back to the garden, many plants reproduce, in fact, all plants reproduce with seed. But store-bought lettuce regrows itself 3 times once you cut it if you put it in dirt or water. Arugula is a wild woman and will outshine anyone duplicating herself. I saved seed from last year when I let my lettuce bolt and have 4 years of seeds from 2 romaine plants. And if the Market levels out, then who cares, I just became a better gardener with less impact on the environment.²

   

   you can grow more garlic by setting the bulb in water, letting is sprout, and then planting it in dirt. Each sprout will make a new bulb!

5. Reorients my values. I have done well in selling products to my audience. Particularly to drive people to amazon, target, etc. My 2 biggest money makers are no longer it, because I refuse to link them. I am still in contract for a few that will direct traffic to amazon, and while that is ok(I want to keep my word), I have asked if we can send directly to their website. Yes that hurts me, but now that my values are reoriented, I will no longer do that—at least for a bit.

   However, I am still an artist and a small business, so I do want to keep my art prints available for people to purchase, which will happen late March(I hope!). I think it means, I am being more intentional in my directing. Maybe it won’t always be like this, but for now, I need to pull back. I am also still a writer and can be directly supported via a paid subscription via Substack—many of your favorite writers can be supported directly here. What has been fun about reorienting my values, is that it has allowed more wiggle room to support artists I love directly or pay a little more for dog food at the local pet store. It also allows me to be more generous in giving to organizations in need, as I’m not spending as much. To me, that feels life-giving and perhaps if we all reorient a little, it would be good for our whole nation. Maybe we all need to buy less cheap stuff made in factories with unfair wages and horrible working conditions. Seems wise?

6. Logistics aside, it is has never been a good idea for Christians to be in bed with the government, to side with authoritarianism, to oppress the poor and the foreigner, and to dehumanize one another in the name of Christianity. Doing this ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS lands us on the wrong side of history. It is no secret that I am a registered republican who leans moderate and who critiques evangelicalism when it doesn’t align with the teachings of Jesus Christ it so loudly professes. I do a lot of that over on threads if that’s your jam. But I critique both sides, as an equal opportunity employer. I have said that for so long, I didn’t realize it was a DEI joke. Baddding Chinnnnng.

7. Everyday when I pray for wisdom, I also pray that God would be merciful and show me ways in which I need to repent and am deceived. I pray for my enemies, sometimes through gritted teeth. I pray for the poor and the foreigners in our land who are afraid, homeless, or going back to dangerous environments. You may not like them here but you can pray for their safety at the least. You may not like your enemy but you can pray that God reveals Himself to them in a powerful way. You may think you’ve found the rightest way there is, but you can at least pray that if there is error, God will show it to you mercifully.

We also have a podcast, if you’d like to learn some of the things we’re learning in Seminary.

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I have ruffled enough feathers for today, so I’ll see myself out. However, it helps if you like this or comment on it if the Spirit leads.

P.S. Earth is Ghetto, I wanna Leave is the best song of all time.

Thanks for hanging,

Jami

1. It is my opinion that democracy is more fragile than we think and can not handle the chaotic whiplash or wildly ideological actions without thought for real consequences to the people— pair this with heinously uncompassionate mandates and it’s a recipe for disaster. Ideologies taken to the furthest left or right produce “Holy wars” where dehumanization is rampant and confusion thrives. So it is my opinion that America can not handle this for much longer. Bc all this was done in the name of capitalism, it will be crushed by the very same thing: the economy. But I guess time will tell.

2. The reality is also that I am privileged to live with a yard, be able to buy 1/4 of a bison upfront, or not shop at places like Walmart with affordable pricing that people rely on. That is very real, as are food deserts. My goal this summer will be out of the abundance of my garden, I can give to a local food program/bank where everything is mostly processed.