10 days after

my last post was from the night before Mackeil was born. that was ten days ago and a wild ten days it has been. in the spirit of my last post here are some things I have learned or "re-remembered" in the last ten days...

• when changing a newborn baby boy's diaper you must be prepared for an inadvertent stream of liquid coming at you. I hear it's something about cold air. it is best to use the new diaper as a shield when this happens but sometimes your hand is your only defense.
• there actually is a reason why some people keep a coffee pot next to their bed.
• moms are incredible people. their capacity to love most likely can not be measured. moms, grandmoms, it doesn't matter, they can all kick it into overdrive.
• it is amazing how quiet a house can seem when 2 of 4 kids leave for a night of vacation bible school. i forgot how quiet a house with just 2 kids can be.
• even the love of a mom can be tested at 4am when a kid is awake and won't eat.
• friends are really good. and some of the best friends are family.
• paradoxically, it is both easy and hard to believe in total depravity when living with a newborn baby.
• there is no good reason for me to be awake when I will most likely have to get up twice with Mackeil in the next 6.5 hours before starting my sunday.
  

the night before

here are the thoughts going through my mind the night before my wife is scheduled to be induced into labor.

• I sure hope there are enough beds available that we actually get in.
• We finally decided on a name!
• I've really enjoyed conversations with my wife lately. I love her more and more. I hope we don't let jockeying for sleep time in the coming months drive a wedge between us.
• Why am I still up when we are scheduled to go into the hospital in 5 hours?
• At least 2 sets of friends have said that the transition from 3 to 4 kids is not too bad. I hope they're right.
• I wish we would have gotten our third child potty-trained before bringing home another diaper-maker.
• We are incredibly blessed as a family.
• I really hope I get to share some good news and put some cute pictures up here soon and that everything will have gone well.
• The Lord is good. We put our trust in him.
  

World Food Crisis

I have been doing some research on the world food crisis. It is amazing what can happen throughout the world with us knowing very little about it here in the U.S. Basically, millions of people around the world are going hungrier than before because the cost of nearly every food staple has risen dramatically in the last year. If someone went to the market with all they had before and bought a 10lb bag of rice, now they can only afford a 6lb bag of rice with the same amount of money.

Why is this happening? Well, it's quite complicated but here are some of the reasons from what I've read:

1. rising energy costs - the higher cost of fuel means higher transportation costs associated with delivering food. in addition, the cost of petroleum based fertilizers has skyrocketed. finally, the increasing use and demand for bio-fuels (i.e. corn based ethanol) is taking away from the supply of food.

2. the weather factor - drought in places like Australia (one of the world leaders in wheat production) has had a major impact on supply levels. also, many tropical areas in the world are experiencing shorter growing seasons due to warmer and drier conditions. this is a factor we have little to no control over though many would point to the environmental effects of Global Warming.

3. increasing demand -
a.) part of the current food crisis is in response to positive developments. over the last several years many sites are reporting that millions have escaped poverty, especially in population heavy countries like China and India. this is good news! thankfully, many of these people are able to add meat and dairy products to their diets. that is good but it means the quantities of these foods gets spread thinner and demand rises.

b.) the corollary to this is that as demand for meat rises on a global level the demand for grain to feed livestock rises as well. often debated, it take somewhere between 4-16 lbs of grain to produce 1 lb of beef. and chicken requires roughly half the amount of beef though still substantial amounts.

4. governmental policies (wading into deeper and more controversial waters) -
a.) government subsidies in many countries encourage overproduction and distort prices. this makes it impossible for farmers in other countries to sell their goods at the cost of production, let alone for a liveable wage. this forces these countries to become dependent on imports (presumably cheaper) to feed their populations. when world food prices rise however, the infrastructure to produce their own food doesn't exist and they are dramatically affected.

b.) some grain producing countries enact policies prohibiting certain exports when global food prices rise. they do this understandably to keep domestic food prices under control. what that means for the rest of the world though is that less food is in the markets and so as demand rises (or even remains) supply decreases relatively and prices go up.

c.) countries have to make policy decisions on where to focus their development assistance. underinvestment in agricultural productivity is contributing to supply levels not keeping up and therefore higher prices.


So what can we do?

Consuming Jesus - Part 3

This was a pretty good book. I think Metzger is at his best when he is analyzing history and culture as the beginning of the book does. He does a great job of looking back and showing how the church got to this moment of being consumed by consumerism. It's effects are so wide-ranging, it's almost the water we're swimming in, without even knowing.

From there, the author goes into how the church should live out its calling in this consumer culture, that is separated, by and in large, by race and class. In my opinion, this is where Metzger's writing is weaker. He is synthesizing the work of others such as John Perkins, William Cavanaugh, and Marva Dawn. Not that any of it was bad but I thought the first half of the book was more compelling.

I would recommend this book to anyone who has an inkling of the effects of consumerism on the church in America but wants to explore its implications further and begin to live counter-culturally, resisting the commodification of the church . I was especially challenged in regard to the mono-cultural tendencies of the small group movement.