Category Archives: Faith

Blessed to be a Blessing

Faith, inspiration, Karah

blessed to be a blessing

Food Shelf…Saturday?

I’ve been sidelined by illness this week (my husband went to Europe for work and brought me a terrible head cold as a souvenir. He got well relatively quickly, I’m still fighting…)

Anyway, I haven’t forgotten you. I actually sat down and wrote a book review post on Tuesday, but I want to polish that up a bit before I share it. Then on Thursday I had an experience with the Lord that I would like to share with you.

I was laying on the couch, watching a movie – a typical sick day activity, and as the credits rolled I was just overwhelmed by all the excess of this world. I felt sickened by all the stuff and all the resources, all the entitlement and all the waste. I just sat there feeling down about my perspective and the war within my flesh. I know that under normal circumstances I would have gotten off the couch and done something “productive” to satiate this overwhelming feeling that I am spoiled. I would have sorted through some things to donate, mended something to make it last, or just about anything to busy my hands and feel less like a slug who watched Die Hard on Thursday afternoon on a beautiful summer day. But this cold. I didn’t have the energy.

Then I heard a familiar voice in my head, “what does the Bible say?” (Yes, God talks to me now and then in my head. He doesn’t reveal the future or anything like that, but he sends me the gentlest reminders, right when I need them.) I grabbed a piece of scratch paper and a pen, and I started to put down what God says about my relationship with this world:

This world is not my home. Is that a scripture or a song lyric, Lord? A sad amount of my theology/biblical knowledge is actually song lyrics that sometimes aren’t even from the Bible. I’d better google that one. 1 Peter 2:11-12: Dear friends, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from sinful desires, which wage war against your soul. Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us. Foreigners and exiles: This world is not my home

If this world is not my home, I am not going to fit in or be comfortable here: I know where to find this one: Romans 12:2: 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.

This kind of reminds me of Daniel and the exiles in Babylonian captivity. The food of their new world made them sick. A steady diet of what the world has to offer makes me sick. Daniel 1:8-17: But Daniel resolved not to defile himself with the royal food and wine, and he asked the chief official for permission not to defile himself this way. Now God had caused the official to show favor and compassion to Daniel, but the official told Daniel, “I am afraid of my lord the king, who has assigned your food and drink. Why should he see you looking worse than the other young men your age? The king would then have my head because of you.”
Daniel then said to the guard whom the chief official had appointed over Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah, “Please test your servants for ten days: Give us nothing but vegetables to eat and water to drink. Then compare our appearance with that of the young men who eat the royal food, and treat your servants in accordance with what you see.” So he agreed to this and tested them for ten days.
At the end of the ten days they looked healthier and better nourished than any of the young men who ate the royal food. So the guard took away their choice food and the wine they were to drink and gave them vegetables instead.
To these four young men God gave knowledge and understanding of all kinds of literature and learning. And Daniel could understand visions and dreams of all kinds.
I like the “choice food” of this kingdom. I like comfort. I like stuff, especially nice stuff. But it makes me spiritually sick.

This life isn’t about my comfort; I will get no rest here. John 16:33: In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.

I have too much stuff. I feel like I say this a lot. It may be my personal motto. Too. Much. Stuff. Matthew 6: 19-21: Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

I am NOT the hero of my own story. Ephesians 2:8-9: For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast.

We are fully made for heaven while fully living in this world. There will always be a war in each of us between the citizen of heaven’s priorities and the citizen of earth’s priorities. Matthew 16:41: The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. Keep up the good fight, everyone, we not blessed to be comfortable, we are blessed to be a blessing!

thoughts on blessing and this world

 

Book Review: Kisses from Katie by Katie Davis

Book Review, Faith, inspiration,

Book_Review_template

This year for my birthday, my sister gave me an Amazon gift card. I went a little crazy… I bought 6 used books and 1 new one. I only overshot the $25 card by a few dollars (I love cheap used books…). As they began to arrive in the mail, I set up a schedule for all the books I would read this summer. I planned a month of Food Shelf Friday book reviews. But, you know, that dang thesis is still hanging over my head, so reading anything else has to wait…

One of the books I ordered was Kisses from Katie by Katie Davis. I knew very little about it, other than that some of my friends had recommended it, and that it was about an American young woman who had gone to do mission work in Africa. The day after my book arrived and was added to my growing “after thesis” stack, I got an email from the local library that per my request, they had added the audiobook of Kisses from Katie to their e-reader app. Yay! Audiobooks mean I don’t have to wait until my thesis is done; I can start listening right away while I commute! So this week, while driving, mowing, and doing dishes, I worked my way through this incredible story.

As previously mentioned, this is the autobiographical story of Katie, a young woman from the United States. Katie is a Christian, and she had a heart for people. As a senior in high school, Katie and her mom went on a short-term missions trip to Uganda, where they worked with babies and toddlers in an orphanage. Katie fell head over heels in love with the area and the people. After graduating from high school she went back to Uganda to spend a year working with kids there. Things took off in ways she never could have dreamed. By the end of the year she was foster parenting a dozen little girls, and had started a non-profit organization to provide education for kids whose parents cannot afford the fees required for school. Not bad for a teenage girl, right? As you can imagine, Katie decided to make Uganda her home.

The book covers her first two years in Uganda, and it primarily an outline of her faith journey during that time. It’s full of deep thoughts about the love and provision of God and the call to lay down our lives for His plan. Katie’s story goes by fast, and I imagine it felt that way to her too. After all, we’re talking about a teenage girl moving to another continent, adopting a huge household of children, and starting a ministry all within a year or two. The stories were sometimes hard to hear, and I shed more than a few tears.

It feels like Katie doesn’t have a plan; she just does the next thing that comes up. Maybe that’s her writing style, and maybe it’s true; she certainly seems to have the faith to just keep going through one thing and then another. For me as a planner, that was a bit stressful. I wanted to know where she got the training and supplies to do basic medical care, where and how she shopped for the tons of food she needed to feed her growing household and all the kids that came over for baths and meals.

As a reader, I wished for more detail on the practical side of things. How do they fit two women and (eventually) fourteen girls in a four-bedroom house and still have room to take in guests? How often do Katie’s friends and family members come over to Uganda to visit and help? How does the foster/adoption system work over there, because there is no way the American system would let a 19-year-old kid take in over a dozen little girls.

I also wanted an update, and more pictures. The book ends in 2010, so I was curious about the last six years. After finishing the audiobook, I picked up my paper copy and did find a 2012 mini-update in the back. I was happy to learn more about two of her girls in particular (That’s all I can say – no spoilers!), and I’m sure some digging around online will help me find even more, because I know Katie blogs. I also wished for more pictures. Obviously the audiobook had none, but the paper copy only had a few, and those were tiny. There was no one picture of Katie with all her kids.

My overall impression is that Katie is a remarkably obedient young woman with a heart for God and for people. I laughed and cried, and I really enjoyed her insights, especially about God’s heart for orphans and the poor. If I had a tween/teen daughter, I would definitely give her a copy of this book, or listen to the audio together on a trip.

In a way, I envied her position far from American consumerism and fully dedicated to God and His work. I think the juggling act of American comfort and God’s compassion is tough. Trying to live different without selling all and walking away is hard. Part of me wants to give my life to serving, but the other part of me has a job I want to be good at, a home and yard I want to maintain, etc. Finding the balance between responsible budgeting and responsible fair trade purchasing is hard. Buying local and organic while also saving enough to invest in missions and ministries is hard. I just want everything, even though some it conflicts!

Katie addresses this in her book, and other writers have touched on it as well. They say it just takes faith and doing the best you can now, and then doing the next right thing. For me, it’s hard to accept the imperfections of my life and the truth that I will never get it all right. But a story from Rachel’s Tears (the book about Columbine High School victim Rachel Scott) helps me understand a little better. In her diary (the main source for the book), Rachel recounts a time when she was asked for help by a woman in need, but she felt that she couldn’t. Later she was feeling guilty for not helping the woman, and she felt the Lord explain to her that SHE wasn’t His only resource. He would take care of the woman in need, but Rachel was the one who missed out. We get so caught up in “how can I fix?” when what God is saying is, “I will fix. Would you like the blessing of being the tool I use?”

This is not to say we should go on being lazy because someone else will do it. Yes, God has more than one resource and He will provide, but we miss out on the real reason we’re here when we decline the opportunity to be used. We should be jumping at the chance to know the Father better by loving, serving, and giving side-by-side. You will not have the opportunity in heaven to introduce yourself to God. You should already be quite close by then, and if you didn’t get to know Him on earth, you missed your chance. Besides, we all know enough about statistics to know that not every orphan or starving child has a Katie. There is plenty of need for you and me too!

Have you read this book? Do you follow Katie Davis’ blog? Share your insights in the comments!

Yes, you can! Strength for the Heavy Burdened

Faith, inspiration, ,

Just a reminder, if you’re looking for the perfect Mothers Day, graduation, birthday, or “just because” gift, check out the Nourish Hope necklaces at www.hannahkallio.org/nourish. Each necklace provides 150 meals starving people through Venture. They’re beautifully hand-crafted from sterling silver and other quality materials, and available in four color choices.

 

Yes You Can

I know you. I know that you’re tired, and over-scheduled, and that you have a lot of things pulling for your attention. I know that your family requires a lot of you, that your employers/teachers think they should be the most important thing in your world. I know you get sick, that you have seasons of tight finances, and that sometimes you just feel powerless. I know you have unlimited heart – but limited resources.

I know you because I am the same. I have a family, job, grad school, bills, car trouble, cold and flu season, church obligations – all of it. I get it, I really do. I know you’re not lazy or uncaring, you’re just stretched too thin. So today I just want to encourage you. I want to remind you of your value and your power. So take a deep breath, grab a cup of coffee, and let this truth sink into your weary soul.

 

God is WITH you and He is FOR you:
– Deuteronomy 31:6 “Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the LORD your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you.”

– Isaiah 41:10 “So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.”

– Romans 8:31 “What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?”

I remember as a small child not being able to see in a crowd, and my six-foot-four-inch dad picked me up and set me on his shoulders. I couldn’t make myself tall enough to see, but he offered me his height. All I had to do was accept his help. God offers you His strength, His comfort, His peace, His hope. You don’t have to do life on your own. He is more powerful than anything you face, and he is on your side.

You need others, and that’s a good thing:
– Psalm 68:5-6 “A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in his holy dwelling. God sets the lonely in families, He leads out the prisoners with singing;”

– Genesis 2:8 “The Lord God said, ‘It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.’”

– Exodus 17:10-13 “So Joshua fought the Amalekites as Moses had ordered, and Moses, Aaron and Hur went to the top of the hill. As long as Moses held up his hands, the Israelites were winning, but whenever he lowered his hands, the Amalekites were winning. When Moses’ hands grew tired, they took a stone and put it under him and he sat on it. Aaron and Hur held his hands up—one on one side, one on the other—so that his hands remained steady till sunset. So Joshua overcame the Amalekite army with the sword.”

God knows we need other people. We need them to share life, and to help each other. Don’t fall for the lie that you can do life on your own and handle everything by yourself. You need people like Aaron and Hur who held up Moses’ arms when he grew too tired to do it himself. Needing others isn’t weakness, it’s humanity. We were designed this way. Even in the perfect Garden of Eden Adam needed the companionship of Eve, and God knew that. He didn’t scoff at Adam for not doing it all on his own, He understood, and He made a companion for Adam. Recognizing that you need the community and support of other people isn’t weakness or failure, it’s honesty and self-awareness. We were created for community.

You are not too old:
The popular verse Jeremiah 29:11, “I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not harm you, plans to give you hope and a future,” was written to the elders living in exile. God wanted to remind them that He had not abandoned them. They were not too old or too far away. God still had plans for them, good plans for their future.

You are not too young:
1 Timothy 4:12 “Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith and in purity.”

In the Bible, we see story after story of God using men AND women, teenagers like Daniel, David, and Mary, older people like Moses, and Abraham and Sarah. There is no peak point where you are useful to God. If you’re breathing, you can play a part. “Let EVERYTHING that has breath praise the Lord!” (Psalm 150:6, emphasis mine)

You have the power you need:
2 Corinthians 12:9 “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”

2 Timothy 1:7 “For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love and self-discipline.”

Acts 1:8 “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

Matthew 16:19 “I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”

You have the power and the authority you need in this life. Not because you’re super special, but because God lets you use His name and His authority to do His work.
I hope you can hear my heart today. I want so badly for you to get this. You are enough because God is more than enough. He offers you His strength, and His power. He puts you in relationships with people who can support you and whom you can support. He has plans for you no matter your age, gender, or financial status. All you need to do is let go and let God – John 16:33 “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”

How I Became an Advocate for the Hungry

Faith, Karah, personal growth

how I became an advocate

For about eighteen months I have been coming here every week to talk with you about hunger and poverty, and to provide knowledge and hope so we can make a difference. As time has passed, more and more of you have joined me on this journey. Thank you so much for that. Bringing hope to the hungry is going to take more than pastors and government programs; bringing hope and lasting change is going to take all of us working together. It is my promise that I will never use guilt and sad pictures on you, but will simply make you aware of hope and solutions. I have said this before and will say it over and over for the rest of my life: your guilt does not help anyone, nor does it trick God into thinking you’re humble. Guilt is a waste of time. If you recognize that you are not doing what you should, that’s conviction. If you act on that conviction to do better next time, it did it’s job. If that conviction just makes you feel bad, that’s shame, and shame helps no one, including you. If something I say hits a nerve with you, ask yourself if you need to do better next time.

So as we have been on this journey together, I have told you very little about myself and how I ended up creating Food Shelf Friday. So today, a little “get to know Karah” and “how did we get here?”

One Sunday morning in the spring of 1983, when I was 4, I asked Jesus to come into my heart and be my best friend. I vividly remember looking to my left, out a second story window, and seeing the sun shining on a budding tree (this is how I know it was spring), then looking down to my feet, which were dressed Sunday-style in ruffly socks and dress shoes, and which did not reach the floor. I raised my hand with the other kids and prayed along with the children’s church teacher.

That’s the heart of my testimony as a Christian. It seems boring compared to the dramatic stories of healing and deliverance that you hear from public speakers, but I like to think  it saved me from a lot of trouble over the years. And as a parent, I know that is the testimony we all want our kids to have!

When I was 9, my dad became a pastor, so obviously my world was the church world growing up. I took part in lots of outreaches, and did lots of work for the church. I’m not saying this to talk about how great I am, quite honestly most of my childhood volunteering was less than voluntary (#pklife). My point is that I tried lots of stuff. I gained experiences even if I didn’t really appreciate it at the time.

Skip ahead a few years and I found myself somewhere very new and unfamiliar. I was married (met my husband at church), and we were attending a really big church. It was a good church, but for a small town pastor’s kid, it was a whole new world. I found it really easy to come and go without digging in. When someone would make an announcement that they really needed help in this ministry or that, I would look around at the auditorium of people and think, “someone else will do it.” I became lazy hiding in the anonymity of a crowd.

Outside of church I dabbled in a few service projects with the MOMS Club chapter, but I was really wandering aimlessly. I was restless. I wanted a mission.

One Sunday we were sitting in the balcony, and a pastor spoke on finding your place in kingdom work. I was in a blah place, wandering the proverbial wilderness. The pastor said, “Your role in the kingdom will not surprise you. The gifts, talents, and interests you have are clues to what you are supposed to be doing. God gave you those gifts, they’re part of your calling.” I was grumpy and cynical at that point, and I dropped my head and prayed bitterly, “God, I make good cookies; what are you going to do with that?”

Every time I tell this story, I laugh at myself, and I imagine God chuckled too, because that day marked a new path for me, one I didn’t even realize I was on. I started to notice the hungry. Food drives at church or in the schools caught my eye. People begging on the side of the road tugged at my heart. Funeral lunches and meals for friends with new babies took on deeper significance. I don’t remember exactly when I realized it, but hunger became my heartbeat.

I didn’t jump right in and start doing something about it. I was busy caring for my family and finishing school (insert laugh here – I’m STILL trying to finish school…). I did just enough to appease my guilt. I didn’t get it. I needed a lifestyle makeover, not a one-and-done service project.

In the fall of 2014, our church (a smaller church we fell in love with a few years ago) participated in Hope for Dinner for Venture Expeditions. That practice, giving up regular meals for rice and beans, inspired me. I decided to get serious about a life dedicated to hunger relief. I started this blog, and I began to read and study hunger and solutions instead of hiding my head in the sand.

So that’s how we got on this journey together. I’m a long way from perfect: I still waste resources and step on toes now and then, but I’m learning and growing. And as Maya Angelou said, “Do the best you can until you know better. And when you know better, do better.” We don’t have to have it all figured out today. We just have to keep learning and keep responding to what we learn. Thank you for joining me on this journey!

Good Friday – It Is Finished

Faith, inspiration, ,

good friday

Today is Good Friday, and I would be remiss if I didn’t remark on the incredible weight of this day. On Good Friday we remember the sacrifice that Jesus made when he died by crucifixion to pay the required blood sacrifice for the sins of the world. We’ve heard that message so many times that maybe we forget to appreciate the enormity. Here are some of the key elements of Easter weekend to ponder and appreciate.

 

1.Jesus was fully God, and he gave up the majesty of heaven to lead a normal human life: Jesus Christ, the son of God, firstborn of heaven, willingly left his throne on the right hand of his father, put on human form, and left heaven. Heaven! I don’t know about you, but when I get there I’m sure not leaving to come back here if I can help it! He came in the form of a baby, the weakest state of human existence, at a time when the infant mortality rate made adulthood anything but certain. Jesus had physical illnesses in his life, we can safely assume. He went through growth spurts and puberty. He worked with his hands beside his carpenter-step father, Joseph. He loved his friends and endured losses.

Hebrews 2:14-18
Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil— and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death. For surely it is not angels he helps, but Abraham’s descendants. For this reason he had to be made like them, fully human in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people. Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.

 

2. Jesus’s perfect sinless life is an example for us of how to live: From his birth in the stable of Bethlehem until his crucifixion some thirty years later, Jesus never sinned. As a parent and former childcare worker, this is stunning to me. Jesus made it through the terrible twos without lying? Went through his teenage years without stealing or lusting? It’s too late for me and you to achieve perfection, but we can rest easy knowing our high priest, Jesus, knows the temptations of human life and resisted them. He can empathize with us – not mere sympathy but full-on, me too empathy, and he knows how to fight temptation.

Hebrews 4:15-16
For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin. Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.

 

3.Jesus’s undeserved death was a sacrifice he was willing to make for us: As he spent his earthly life in occupied Israel, Jesus was certainly familiar with the slow, torturous death of crucifixion. They didn’t make up this punishment just for him; he and his followers knew Rome’s power and brutality all their lives. By accepting God’s will and his fate, Jesus allowed himself to go through agony because he knew that a blood sacrifice was the only way to pay the penalty for sin and create a bridge between God and mankind.

Matthew 27, Luke 23, and John 19 all tell the story of Jesus’s crucifixion

Isaiah 53:5 (a prophetic statement of who Jesus would be):
But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed.

 

4.When Jesus’s earthly body died, death did not bring relief from his suffering: Jesus bore the weight of the sins of the world when he died. The deepest pain that Jesus felt during his crucifixion was the separation between himself and God. “Father, why have you forsaken me?” he cried out (Matthew 27:46). Our sins separated Father and son.

The Bible doesn’t say a lot about what happened to Jesus during the three days he was dead, but considering that he was carrying the weight of our sins, and looking at hints left throughout the New Testament, it is generally believed that he went to hell, the logical penalty for sin. So, torture brought death, but death brought no peace. Jesus battled three days and defeated the power of death and hell.

(No single verse really explains this specifically, so I’ll refer you to an article from Christianity Today that sorts through it.)

 

5.Jesus understood our weak faith and lovingly helps us understand: Jesus defeated death and came back to earth before ascending to heaven so he could tell mankind about his victory. The job was done: sin was paid off, and death was defeated. Jesus could have risen right up to heaven and gone back to his throne, but in his great wisdom, he knew that the disciples and his other followers needed to see with their own eyes. Their faith was shaken by the crucifixion – they had just watched their friend and leader die. It seemed like the dream was over, and they were foundering. Jesus knew that humans are weak like that. When he rose he went to his followers, showed them his scars, hugged their necks, and shared a meal. Then he stuck around for forty days (remember the Lent post? 40 days is significant – he was preparing them for the next part of their journey). He taught and he encouraged, and he prepared the disciples to lead without him before he ascended to heaven.

John 20:19-20:
On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jewish leaders, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” After he said this, he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord.

 

As we end the Lenten season and the festivities of Holy Week, meditate on these truths:

  1. Jesus was born for the human experience.
  2. Jesus lived without sin to be our example.
  3. Jesus was willing to suffer for us.
  4. Jesus defeated sin, hell, and death.
  5. Jesus rose and appeared so that we could be part of his victory.

 

What parts of Jesus’s life, death, and resurrection speak to you today? What truths of Holy Week leave you in awe? Share your thoughts in the comments. Happy Easter!