Radical Womanhood

Ian Says Hi

2009-07-15T22:53:08-04:00

Literally. Ian Murphy said hi to me today. I called my friend, David Altrogge, who was with Ian at the time and he said, "Do you want to say hi to Ian?" And I heard Ian say hi back to me!

For those of you who have followed Ian's story over the past few years, you'll realize what a miracle that is, for Ian was once supposed to either die or be in a coma for the rest of his life. But our faithful God has worked so many unexplained healings on Ian's behalf. You can read the full story of Ian's accident under the "What Happened' link on Ian's blog. I also recommend reading his girlfriend's Valentine's Day testimony from two years ago, if you are not already familiar with the incredible Larissa Whiteley. Finally, I want to give praise to our ever-faithful Lord who answered the prayers of many people who asked that Ian be able to speak by this past Christmas.

I recognize countless numbers of people are suffering and that these are widespread tough times. But I hope you will read these accounts to remind yourself that we serve the God of the Impossible. May He multiply grace, mercy, and peace to you.

Ian says hi.

What Do You Want to Talk About?

2009-07-14T00:01:18-04:00

So ... it's been five years of me chatting away in cyberspace. Can you believe it?

Yep, five years ago this summer I started the Very Infrequent Blog on my website. It wasn't really much of a blog. I think I would post every month or so. At best. I did it because my friend, Scott Anderson, at Desiring God told me I should blog. (Shout out to you, Scott!) I'm pretty sure I didn't even know what a blog was back then. Then I got really going on Typepad a year later.

Now I have an archive of musings stretching back four years here on Radical Womanhood/ Solofemininity. (Yep, still too lazy to migrate that URL to a matchy-matchy name and link).

I'm amazed that after five years, anyone still visits this blog. But thousands of you do. Amazing! Thank you very much. Your comments are meaningful and encouraging.

Looking ahead, I do have some ideas for future blog posts, but I'd really like to hear from you. So over this next week, would you take the time to introduce yourself and why you read Radical Womanhood? I'd like to know more about you as readers, why you visit, and what you'd like to discuss in the future. I suspect the readership has really changed over five years and if so, I'd like to know more about you. (Even you lurking male readers!)

When the Big Day Isn't What You Pictured

2009-07-10T00:05:00-04:00

I didn't know whether to laugh or cringe when reading about this poor woman's wedding day on the Girltalk blog. It definitely was a perspective adjuster. A woman named Sarah submitted this story--and this is just how it begins...!

My husband, Matt, and I planned on getting married in our church in Lodi, CA, on May 11th of 2007. In Northern California, May is a beautiful time to get married, and boy were we excited! We had a guest list of about 250 people. We absolutely could not wait!
After a 10 month engagement (10 months is too long!!), the day was fast approaching. I scrambled to finish all of the last-minute details. I had spent hours and hours on a slide-show that went through our childhood years and through our engagement. I had procrastinated a bit, and the night before was trying desperately to burn it to DVD....when suddenly my computer crashed. I freaked out, and started to call every friend I had that knew anything about computers. Sadly, my slide-show was lost forever, and my hard drive fried.
That night I couldn't sleep, and was feeling sick. Friends told me that I had "Wedding Jitters". I figured they were right. I got up the morning of our wedding, and crawled to the bathroom. I was running a 103 degree temperature, and was throwing up. This was not the wedding morning I had had pictured. My bridesmaids and I planned on getting our hair done in Sacramento (a 45 minute drive from our town) and having dinner at The Cheesecake Factory before our 7:30pm wedding. So I stayed in bed as long as I could, drinking tea, and praying.
I was finally feeling better, and met my bridesmaids at the church. We drove to Sacramento. I still felt sick, but thought I would be ok. So we got to the hair salon in downtown Sacramento, and everything was going well, and my bridesmaids were looking beautiful, minus one who was running late. That's when I noticed a large group of people around the building next door, followed by about 20 police cars. One of the women from the salon went over to ask what was going on. We just happened to be next to a federal building that had received a suspicious package. The entire block was shut down, and they weren't allowing people to leave--or to come in, as my late bridesmaid found out the hard way.
I panic, and start to feel sick again. I remember thinking, "This can not be happening!" I called my fiance, and told him what was happening. He turned on the news, and the story was on every local channel. I knew then that this was a big deal.

Oh, yeah, there's definitely more. You gotta read it. Amazing.

Power to the People . . . Under God

2009-07-09T00:05:00-04:00

I'm feeling a little feisty today. You're forewarned.

It all started with the barrage of inanity that I encountered on my groceries. The worst is always on products aimed at children, which means I will 'fess up to a love of chocolate Teddy Grahams. You get a chocolate fix without too much damage to the hips. Twenty four little teddies for only 140 calories. Lots of good munching. But as I do, I have to contemplate the "fun activity" they promote on the back of the box:

Mom, spark your child's imagination with this fun snack activity! Teddy Milk Float. Pour 1 cup fat free milk into a tall glass or large mug. Add 24 Teddy Grahams, a few at a time. Serve with a long spoon to scoop out and eat the graham snacks, and a fun straw to slurp up the milk.

Really? Spark your child's imagination?! I say, spark a mess in your kitchen. And since when do moms have to come up with ways to help children eat creatively? I thought the job of adults was to model how to eat in a civilized fashion.

Then there's the logo on the Jif peanut butter. "Number one choice of choosy moms." So ... if you don't choose Jif, you don't rank as a discerning mother? What's that all about? The logo doesn't even make sense. I'm just sayin'.

Well, you might say, if you don't like inane packaging, stay away from packaged foods. Fair enough. But recently, the Washington Post ran an article about deceptive practices in organic labeling that was more galling than any banal blather on a cereal box:

Three years ago, U.S. Department of Agriculture employees determined that synthetic additives in organic baby formula violated federal standards and should be banned from a product carrying the federal organic label. Today the same additives, purported to boost brainpower and vision, can be found in 90 percent of organic baby formula.
The government's turnaround, from prohibition to permission, came after a USDA program manager was lobbied by the formula makers and overruled her staff. That decision and others by a handful of USDA employees, along with an advisory board's approval of a growing list of non-organic ingredients, have helped numerous companies win a coveted green-and-white "USDA Organic" seal on an array of products.
Grated organic cheese, for example, contains wood starch to prevent clumping. Organic beer can be made from non-organic hops. Organic mock duck contains a synthetic ingredient that gives it an authentic, stringy texture.
Relaxation of the federal standards, and an explosion of consumer demand, have helped push the organics market into a $23 billion-a-year business, the fastest growing segment of the food industry. Half of the country's adults say they buy organic food often or sometimes, according to a survey last year by the Harvard School of Public Health.

I will admit these are the things that make me wonder how stupid people think women really are. Now we're not the only ones reading inane advertising. Nor are we the only ones buying food for our families. But these examples cited above are targeted at us in large measure. So I rejoice when common people can leverage influence by market forces or through social networking and so forth to bring about change. But even as I say that, I know it's not really a gender issue. Because from the Post's account, it's a woman at the USDA who has been responsible for some of the unilateral changes in the federal standards for organic labeling.

Today, labels on organic infant formula boast that they include DHA and ARA, synthetic fatty acids that some studies suggest can help neural development. But according to agency records, when the issue came before the USDA in 2006, agency staff members concluded that the fatty acids could not be added to organic baby formula because they are synthetics that are not on the standards board's approved list.

The fatty acids in formula are often produced using a potential neurotoxin known as hexane, prompting many organics advocates to conclude that the board would not approve their use if it took up the matter.

In a rare move, Barbara Robinson, who administers the organics program and is a deputy USDA administrator, overruled the staff decision after a telephone call and an e-mail exchange with William J. Friedman, a lawyer who represents the formula makers.

"I called [Robinson] up," Friedman said. "I wrote an e-mail. It was a simple matter." The back-and-forth, he said, was nothing more than part of the routine process that sets policy in Washington.

In an interview, Robinson said she agreed with Friedman's argument that fatty acids were not permitted because of an oversight. Vitamins and minerals are allowed, but "accessory nutrients" -- the category that describes fatty acids -- are not specifically named.

As for hexane, Robinson said the law bans its use in processing organic food, but she does not believe the ban extends to the processing of synthetic additives.

"We don't attempt to say how synthetic products can be produced," she said.

Manufacturers say the fatty acids are safe and provide health benefits to infants.

"We test every lot that comes out for hexane, and there is no residue," said David Abramson, president of Maryland-based Martek Biosciences, which produces the fatty acids used by formula companies.

Several groups have filed complaints with the USDA saying they think that the inclusion of the fatty acids in organic products violates federal rules and laws. And they say that Robinson did not have the authority to make the decision on her own.

"This is illegal rulemaking -- a complete violation of the process that is supposed to protect the public," said Gary Cox, a lawyer with the Cornucopia Institute, an organics advocacy group.
Cox and others make the same argument about other decisions by Robinson and several members of her staff.

In 2004, Robinson issued a directive allowing farmers and certifiers to use pesticides on organic crops if "after a reasonable effort" they could not determine whether the pesticide contained chemicals prohibited by the organics law.

The same year, Robinson determined that farmers could feed organic livestock non-organic fish meal, which can contain mercury and PCBs. The law requires that animals that produce organic meat be raised entirely on organic feed.

After sharp protests from Leahy, Consumers Union and other groups, Ann Veneman, then agriculture secretary, rescinded these and two other directives issued by Robinson.

The orders were signed by a staff member, but Robinson took responsibility, saying she had made the decisions unwisely without consulting organics experts, certifiers or the standards board.

I failed, and take this as a learning experience and do not want it to happen again," she told board members in 2004.

Earlier this year, however, Robinson issued a series of directives without consulting experts, certifiers or the board. She said that because the issues were urgent, including one on food safety, she had to act quickly.

In an interview, Robinson said she believes the federal program's main purpose is to "grow the industry," and she dismissed controversies over synthetics in organic foods as "mostly ridiculous."

Still with me here? This is a long blog post, but if you're like me, you are too twitchy to make the jump to outside links. So that's why I included most of this article. I wanted to be fair to what was being said about this issue.

I think the last paragraph is key. Robinson believes her mission is not to protect consumers, but to grow an industry. Wow. And I was under the delusion it was the other way around since we taxpayers fund the USDA.

That's why I'm grateful for the kind of system that we have where we can demand accountability of our government. It's not the greatest, but it does work on many occasions. And there are times when the "special interests" we can complain about so often are actually our own special interests. As in those who lobby to make sure organic food is actually free of the additives we do not want. Especially in baby formula. Because if I were buying organic baby formula I would definitely not want hexane to be ANYWHERE in the chain of production. That's why I would choose organic. Get it? That's what really choosy moms do. They choose to keep their children away from potential neurotoxins whenever possible.

When you find out how things really are not what they seem, it can be tempting to float a teddy graham in a glass of milk and try to forget it all. Or to organize a people's collective and become a professional radical activist. One of those two. Power to the People. Slurp.

Then I take a deep breath and remember that all of this is under God. All that's done and said and written and manufactured and consumed--every word, deed, and thought--is done coram Deo. I can't possibly be vigilant enough to protect myself or my loved ones from every bad or deceptive action taken by others. Or even protect them from every silly or banal marketing slogan. I have only a certain amount of time in the day to gather information and then I must make a decision and go forward, trusting God for the outcome. Just as the Proverbs 31 woman is commended for doing, we women are all called to watch over the affairs of our households (v. 27), but this is not done as though we are the last line of defense. It has to be done acknowledging the limits of our creatureliness. We are not omniscient. It might seem that Google can provide that edge, but it doesn't. Really. We can't be paralyzed by either a lack of or a surplus of information. We have a responsibility to do what we can with what is in front of us today, trusting God for the tomorrows He sovereignly supervises.

Youthification

2009-07-08T00:05:00-04:00

True confession: I always thought people wore those powdered wigs in days gone by because personal hygiene wasn't as popular/accessible as it is today. It turns out there was another factor involved that I never considered, one that rebukes the obsession with youth of our current culture.

In his book, Growing Old in America, Andrew W. Achenbaum, says that a positive view of aging existed in America for almost two hundred years. The elderly were typically esteemed in their communities and were consistently presented to young people as examples. Old age and what it represented were so esteemed that people actually found artificial ways of appearing older (powdered wigs being the best known example). Achenbaum's comments point us to the difference between our cultural perspectives and Scripture's.
The Bible looks at youth and aging in the exact opposite way from our culture. While the Bible esteems the vigor of the young, it views old age as a sign of blessing and repeatedly calls on us to honor the aged (Isa. 46:4, Lev. 19:32, Prov. 23:22, 1 Tim. 5:1). The tendency of modern Western culture to despise aging and to worship youthfulness is one subtle perspective on life. In Scripture old age is a sign of God's covenantal faithfulness. It is also connected with functional wisdom. We, on the other hand, crave youth, dread getting old, and quickly put out to pasture all those who have lived long enough to have acquired some functional life-wisdom. This ageism is part of the oxygen of our culture. We all breathe it in daily, and it has affected the way each of us views who we are and where we are going.

(From Paul David Tripp's Lost in the Middle, pp. 83-84).

Proving Wisdom

2009-07-06T12:00:00-04:00

It's been interesting, to say the least, to read the news lately--it's been a parade of puzzling decisions and bizarre actions by national figures. I have to admit that some of these reports have tempted me to slap my head and say out loud, "What were you thinking?" But really, the capacity for such delusional thinking exists in all of us. Like toddlers who "hide" while only covering their own eyes, we think we're not as obvious as the next guy when we do bone-headed things.

This is nothing new. Consider Solomon, biblical figure, collector of proverbs, ruler of Israel. God granted him immense wisdom, but he still made many bad decisions for his own life. In fact, he made many bad decisions on a colossal scale. He didn't just marry one unbelieving wife. He married hundreds. And though he built an amazing temple for the Lord, he ended up worshiping many foreign gods. Nevertheless, the grace on his life to seek wisdom and communicate it to us in the book of Proverbs points to God's glory and not his own. It is God alone who is the source of wisdom.

I've been thinking about this for the past day, ever since Josh Harris kicked off a series on Proverbs at Covenant Life Church. He made five points from Proverbs 1 that really resonated with me:

God's grace toward sinners gives us confidence to seek wisdom.
We must choose wisdom.
Wisdom comes from God. Solomon asked for wisdom, but it is God who bestowed it.
Wisdom is for living. It is knowledge in action. It is put on display when we make choices and perform actions.
You are only as wise as your next decision. You prove your wisdom in what you choose today.

The last point hit home for me because it not only illustrates the gaps in Solomon's life, it illustrates the gaps in the lives of those who have been savvy enough to become national figures and then become national disgraces. It also characterizes you and me, even though we may not merit national attention. Wisdom is proved in daily decisions: Shall I linger in conversation with that attractive but married co-worker? Shall I eat that item? Shall I sleep in or go to the gym? Shall I read my Bible or flip on the TV? Shall I spend that money or give it away? Each decision may seem small but it turns our lives in directions that we either celebrate or regret later on--especially on the day we give an account before the Lord.

I think it's a human tendency to want to coast for awhile. We will work hard for a season, but then we want to kick back and ride on past efforts. But the foolish decisions made today create foolish tomorrows. Yesterday's wisdom is so easily undone by the next decision. Even though we must daily choose wisdom, the good news is that God is eager to supply it. "If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him." (James 1:5 NIV)

Leftovers

2009-06-30T00:05:00-04:00

An outstanding post yesterday from John Piper on the Desiring God blog (the emphasis is mine)...

After Jesus had fed both the 5,000 and the 4,000 with only a few loaves and fish, the disciples got in a boat without enough bread for themselves.

When they began to discuss their plight, Jesus said, "Why are you discussing the fact that you have no bread? Do you not yet perceive or understand?" (Mark 8:17). What didn't they understand?

They did not understand the meaning of the leftovers, namely, that Jesus will take care of them when they take care of others. Jesus said:

"When I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you take up?" They said to him, "Twelve." "And the seven for the four thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you take up?" And they said to him, "Seven." And he said to them, "Do you not yet understand?"

Understand what? The leftovers.

The leftovers were for the servers. In fact the first time there were twelve servers and twelve basketfuls left over (Mark 6:43). The second time there seven basketfuls left over—the number of abundant completeness.

What didn't they understand? That Jesus would take care of them. You can't outgive Jesus. When you spend your life for others, your needs will be met.

Blessed Is the One

2009-06-29T08:00:00-04:00

On Saturday, I spoke to the women of Grace Community Church of Ashburn, Virginia, on the topic of being contented or contentious. We began worshiping the Lord in song with one of my favorite worship songs, "Blessed Is the One." I can never get that song out of my head whenever I hear it, so it's been two days now of pondering these wonderful truths:

Blessed is the one whose sins are overcome
Whom God has sheltered deep within His grace
Blessed is the one who trusts in God the Son
His steadfast love the sinner’s hiding place

Jesus, Your blood covers all my sin
Jesus, Your love draws my heart to sing
What a Savior, Jesus

I will always hide at my Savior’s side
I find my refuge in His sovereign care
When the waters rise, God will hear my cries
His steadfast love will hold me safely there

What I love is the poetic emphasis on the steadfast love of Jesus. Without that as our heart's focus, it is nearly impossible to be contented. May that be your focus today, too.

("Blessed is the One" is from the Psalms CD by Sovereign Grace Music. You can listen to the song, download the sheet music, or purchase a CD or MP3 from the Sovereign Grace store.)

Make Every Effort To Be Self-Controlled and Steadfast

2009-06-25T00:15:00-04:00

At the beginning of the year, I was reading 2 Peter and was struck by a verse that I thought might be what the Lord would have me focus on in the coming year. Halfway through the year, I was reading through 2 Peter again and found myself struck by the same passage. It says:

His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire. For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. (2 Peter 1:3-8)

This passage assures us we have been granted precious and very great promises through which we become partakers of God's divine nature, as recipients of His divine power. For this very reason, we are called to develop qualities that will prevent us from being ineffective or unfruitful in our knowledge of Jesus Christ.

What struck me is the way some of these qualities are listed--knowledge must be supplemented with self-control and self-control with steadfastness. These are not the qualities of our age. Self-control and steadfastness are dusty qualities from a previous age. We like brotherly affection and love, but not the virtues that require self-denial or hard work. And by "we," I do mean "me." I like to gather facts and data, to grow in knowledge about a topic, but I am less enamored of doing the hard things that are required to be self-controlled and steadfast. Yet those areas in which I'm least likely to apply myself are the very areas where my witness is undermined or ineffective.

Can I discipline myself into these virtues? Hardly likely. These virtues are the result of faith and they characterize those who will have lifelong fruitfulness. But they are not the result of self-effort. They are the result of those who daily look to the One who can grant to us all things that pertain to life and godliness. Yet, paradoxically, we are called to make every effort to develop them--we aren't to grow slack and presumptuous about our fruitfulness.

So let's encourage each other today with the Lord's faithfulness in what He calls us to do. What I'd like to know is how you've seen others pursue the Lord for self-control and steadfastness. What testimonies do you have about God's grace at work in your friends or family? Let's celebrate these evidences of grace together.

Thinking About Water

2009-06-22T13:26:26-04:00

Last week, I became ill with a 24-hour gastrointestinal infection. I have no idea how I came down with it, but as I was recovering I thought about a documentary I saw a month or so ago. It's called "FLOW," and it is about the looming water crisis in our world.

During one of the interviews, an expert in water safety said that many of the random "stomach bugs" that we contract in the U.S. are actually infections from our water supply. Knowing the aging water supply infrastructure in the Washington, D.C., area and its increasingly common water main breaks, I don't doubt this to be true. But I did some digging online, anyway, and found this candid statement from a Canadian health organization:

The risk of microbial disease associated with drinking water is presently a priority concern among North American water jurisdictions. Numerous past outbreaks, together with recent studies suggesting that drinking water may be a substantial contributor to endemic (non-outbreak related) gastroenteritis, demonstrate the vulnerability of many North American cities to waterborne diseases and have fuelled ongoing debates in Canada and the United States concerning the need for stricter water quality guidelines, changes in watershed management policies, and the need for additional water treatment.

If you think drinking bottled water is a solution, according to this documentary, there's even less oversight in the bottled water industry. I am cutting down on my bottled water consumption for that reason, as well as the concerns about harmful chemicals in plastics and environmental impact.

But a larger issue that should be of concern to Christians is what is happening with water rights in developing nations. This documentary definitely had a particular viewpoint, but even so, it presents an issue that we should become familiar with. I know many Christians who are involved in raising money for wells and other water supply solutions--for example, one of my friends asked that people give to a water charity rather than provide birthday gifts--and this is commendable. But I also think we could benefit from educating ourselves on the larger issues regarding water rights. So I recommend that you check out this documentary (available now on DVD) and from there continue your research. I think it will be one of the pressing concerns in this century.