Because I follow @FairTradeUSA on Twitter, I found out that October is Fair Trade month. [Fair Trade USA has been celebrating all month with giveaways too.] This couldn't be more perfectly timed for what God is doing in me. I've shared about how He is working on the Internal vs External. I've told you also Don't Ever Discount What's Happening on the Inside and that He's refining me. Also, I'm becoming more aware of how my purchases can have global consequences.
Books like This Beautiful Mess and Living the Quaker Way have coincided perfectly with how He is asking me to examine my life in light of Kingdom living. When I live more simply, peacefully, truthfully, communally and with equality for all in my sights...I cannot help but be living out God's Kingdom "on Earth as it is in Heaven". That is a calling we as Christians should always have at the forefront of our thoughts, choices and actions.
Nowhere is God putting this all together better than in the area of coffee. I do love me some coffee! And since I didn't start drinking it until I moved to Kentucky (at 38 years old), I went with the good stuff. For the most part, I have imbibed Starbucks. Yes, they have accumulated a fair share of my money over the last seven years. But here is what God's Spirit began whispering to me a few months ago: If your pleasurable drink keeps people in slave debt, earning slave wages, or supports child labor...why are you drinking it?
In other words, why do I want to support a company or industry that does not pay fair wages to the people growing the product? (To be fair, Starbucks does sell some Fair Trade coffee beans. But what you purchase ready-made in their stores is not.) I say God's Spirit has been whispering, because unfortunately that's about all the volume I've allowed Him to have on this one. But my acquiescence was vital if I am to call myself Kingdom-minded.
And coffee isn't the only guilty harvest...chocolate (cacao beans), sugar, tea, vanilla and a lot of specialty products like moringa, maca powder, etc., should all be grown with fairness for the farmers and protection of our natural resources in mind. Sadly...most is not.
Now...I will concede that there are far too many other abuses of forced labor and trafficking in our world, not with the aforementioned products alone. Just yesterday, my 10 year old Leah asked if there are still slaves in the world. I hate those conversations when you have to demolish your child's innocence. But it was a great opportunity to talk with her about Fair Trade and why I've been buying Fair Trade sugar, vanilla and cacao for some time and have now switched in regards to coffee too. Then this morning, I came across this article that reveals just how horribly rampant slavery is in our world. This afternoon, I watched an old episode of Numbers on Netflix and, you guessed it, the topic was human trafficking.
Okay...okay...I get it: I absolutely need to be aware of how I spend, who gets my money and how the person doing the labor is being treated. I already have my own personal vendettas against Goodwill and Apple, can McDonalds, Burger King and Wendy's be too far behind?
When I think about all the implications of this, I admit...it is very radical. It's the kind of life Shane Claiborne and The Simple Way and thousands of others are attempting to live out daily. Yes, it is inconvenient! Yes, it will greatly reduce my spending (which is a boon for the simple life)! Yes, it will be more time consuming to research before buying or I will have to make my own _______________ (food or merchandise)! But as I've been tempted at least six times in the last two weeks to pull through a McDonalds drive-thru and order my new favorite Pumpkin Spice Latte', my wonderful Abba who is graciously patient with me has firmly...yet lovingly once again whispered, "Will that coffee taste good when you see the hands that have suffered to bring it to you?" Almost every time, I have envisioned a person's face. It has been a different person each time and when I imagine myself looking into their faces and saying, "I know you work backbreakingly hard labor for a pittance (if any) so that I can have this cheap treat...but I'm going to have it anyway"...my van just keeps driving on past the golden arches.
I tell ya'...God is doing something in me. I am weepy at the drop of a dime and I am overcome with His beauty from the ashes and the wonder or what He is showing me. I keep asking Him with increasing passion, "What are you doing to me?" I may not be able to see the end result, nor know the mind of the Creator and His plans...but this I do know: I wouldn't trade the blessing, peace and love that I feel when I'm following precisely in His steps for anything...not even the "World's Best Cup of Coffee"
Books like This Beautiful Mess and Living the Quaker Way have coincided perfectly with how He is asking me to examine my life in light of Kingdom living. When I live more simply, peacefully, truthfully, communally and with equality for all in my sights...I cannot help but be living out God's Kingdom "on Earth as it is in Heaven". That is a calling we as Christians should always have at the forefront of our thoughts, choices and actions.
Nowhere is God putting this all together better than in the area of coffee. I do love me some coffee! And since I didn't start drinking it until I moved to Kentucky (at 38 years old), I went with the good stuff. For the most part, I have imbibed Starbucks. Yes, they have accumulated a fair share of my money over the last seven years. But here is what God's Spirit began whispering to me a few months ago: If your pleasurable drink keeps people in slave debt, earning slave wages, or supports child labor...why are you drinking it?
In other words, why do I want to support a company or industry that does not pay fair wages to the people growing the product? (To be fair, Starbucks does sell some Fair Trade coffee beans. But what you purchase ready-made in their stores is not.) I say God's Spirit has been whispering, because unfortunately that's about all the volume I've allowed Him to have on this one. But my acquiescence was vital if I am to call myself Kingdom-minded.
And coffee isn't the only guilty harvest...chocolate (cacao beans), sugar, tea, vanilla and a lot of specialty products like moringa, maca powder, etc., should all be grown with fairness for the farmers and protection of our natural resources in mind. Sadly...most is not.
Now...I will concede that there are far too many other abuses of forced labor and trafficking in our world, not with the aforementioned products alone. Just yesterday, my 10 year old Leah asked if there are still slaves in the world. I hate those conversations when you have to demolish your child's innocence. But it was a great opportunity to talk with her about Fair Trade and why I've been buying Fair Trade sugar, vanilla and cacao for some time and have now switched in regards to coffee too. Then this morning, I came across this article that reveals just how horribly rampant slavery is in our world. This afternoon, I watched an old episode of Numbers on Netflix and, you guessed it, the topic was human trafficking.
Okay...okay...I get it: I absolutely need to be aware of how I spend, who gets my money and how the person doing the labor is being treated. I already have my own personal vendettas against Goodwill and Apple, can McDonalds, Burger King and Wendy's be too far behind?
When I think about all the implications of this, I admit...it is very radical. It's the kind of life Shane Claiborne and The Simple Way and thousands of others are attempting to live out daily. Yes, it is inconvenient! Yes, it will greatly reduce my spending (which is a boon for the simple life)! Yes, it will be more time consuming to research before buying or I will have to make my own _______________ (food or merchandise)! But as I've been tempted at least six times in the last two weeks to pull through a McDonalds drive-thru and order my new favorite Pumpkin Spice Latte', my wonderful Abba who is graciously patient with me has firmly...yet lovingly once again whispered, "Will that coffee taste good when you see the hands that have suffered to bring it to you?" Almost every time, I have envisioned a person's face. It has been a different person each time and when I imagine myself looking into their faces and saying, "I know you work backbreakingly hard labor for a pittance (if any) so that I can have this cheap treat...but I'm going to have it anyway"...my van just keeps driving on past the golden arches.
I tell ya'...God is doing something in me. I am weepy at the drop of a dime and I am overcome with His beauty from the ashes and the wonder or what He is showing me. I keep asking Him with increasing passion, "What are you doing to me?" I may not be able to see the end result, nor know the mind of the Creator and His plans...but this I do know: I wouldn't trade the blessing, peace and love that I feel when I'm following precisely in His steps for anything...not even the "World's Best Cup of Coffee"
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