Please Stop and Think

One of my goals for this year is to attend a writing seminar.  The other day I was browsing for possibilities and came across a blog called She Speaks.  This was one of those fortuitous stumbles, the kind where you read in black and white something that you just knew was true, but the whole world seems to be ignoring it and so it almost seems like its not true.  Like this one. I mean, didn't we all have the common sense to know this before the U.S. Surgeon General came out and announced it?

So, back to She Speaks.  While it wasn't really what I was looking for, it was a clarion call I readily have taken in hand to join in sounding out.  We have virtually created a world in which we pickle ourselves silly.  And while we might not care enough to make changes for our own sakes (mostly because we're either lazy and/or 'too busy', if we're quite honest), perhaps the fact that we are now so soaked in this "stuff" that our bodies harbor it while we carry our children, maybe this will be enough to prod us to change.

In this day and age, we have absolutely inundated ourselves with an environment of chemical exposure. From our non-stick pans that make our foods slip out easily, to the makeup we feel compelled to slather and lather ourselves with on a daily/nightly basis, to the invisible fumes emanating from our walls and floors and furniture, and on and on and on. 

I know, I know - we have grown up in an environment that grooms and caters to cultivate within us an expectation that what we need will be provided before we even quite know we need it.  With each successive generation, this is becoming more and more "natural" and it is more and more difficult to believe it is for anything but our good.  For those of us who see through this Matrix-like web, it remains a challenge to shake off the lies.  Fortunately for us, there are others who have braved the trail before us and offer hope and encouragement in our attempts to get real and pull back.  Hard choices, difficult decisions, deliberate and intentional efforts are all a part of this way - but we know it is worth it.

I'm like you - I would rather kick back than work; I'd rather have it all figured out and spoon-fed to me than do all the thinking and comparing and deliberating required; I'd rather pamper myself in a bubble bath every time than deny myself and serve.  But I've learned that I can't always have what I'd rather, and sometimes what I'd really truly rather have is the latter... I've found that there are some things that are worth all that working, thinking, comparing, deliberating, denial of self, and servitude.  Sticking our fingers in our ears and covering our eyes isn't going to work for very much longer.  And lest you think I'm all doom and gloom, take the time to read this article that offers ways in which you can begin making changes for your good, the good of those you love, and others.  Just start somewhere, please.

Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters,
in view of God’s mercy,

to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—

this is your true and proper worship.

Do not conform to the pattern of this world,
but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.

Then you will be able to test and approve what

God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

~ Romans 12:1-2