ONE DAY WITHOUT SHOES

“NO Shoes” Awareness:

Background: In 2006, American traveler Blake Mycoskie befriended children in Argentina and found they had no shoes to protect their feet. Wanting to help, he created TOMS Shoes, a company that would match every pair of shoes purchased with a pair of new shoes given to a child in need. One for One. Blake returned to Argentina with a group of family, friends and staff later that year with 10,000 pairs of shoes made possible by TOMS customers.

At Issue: Many children in developing countries grow up barefoot. Whether at play, doing chores or going to school, these children are at risk:
• A leading cause of disease in developing countries is soil-transmitted diseases, which can penetrate the skin through bare feet. Wearing shoes can help prevent these diseases, and the long-term physical and cognitive harm they cause.
• Wearing shoes also prevents feet from getting cuts and sores. Not only are these injuries painful, they also are dangerous when wounds become infected.
• Many times children can't attend school barefoot because shoes are a required part of their uniform. If they don't have shoes, they don't go to school. If they don't receive an education, they don't have the opportunity to realize their potential.

What Can You do?

The first thing that one can do is become aware. Toms Shoes “One Day Without Shoes” is an awareness project. “One Day Without Shoes” is Tuesday April 5, 2011. You can learn more by watching the video at this website: . You might even be adventuresome enough to spend your day (or part of it) without shoes.

The second thing one can do is give a gift to help a barefoot person have shoes. For example, one could buy a pair of Toms shoes to have a “one for one” pair go somewhere in the world. Or one could give one or more pairs of new shoes to a homeless shelter or any helping project.

April 2011 Sketchings

“SPRING FASHION SHOWS!!”

I find Spring a marvel of God’s redemptive resurrection power. New life springing up out of winters death at every corner. Seeds sown in death growing to life. Buds popping out on what appear to be lifeless limbs. Green blades of grass surging forth from ground bedraggled with the guck of winter.

Spring’s redemptive resurrection power becomes a simple prelude to the Easter announcement. Miracle of miracles. Neither death, the devil, or a tomb could hold him in! Jesus rose from the dead so that believers can know the transforming power of His Spirit, of resurrection life and experience our own spring renewal each day!

I liked this little piece by Jan Kane. I spotted it in a hospital lobby one day.

“Spring Fashion Shows”

“Spring is a really choice time to put on a fashion show. A time when nature begins to arouse from her winter death-like sleep and burst into her own splendid show of color and life.

“Tulips and daffodils dance in their new spring hats, covering the hillsides with a rainbow of color.

“Forsythia are proud to display their new yellow frocks.

“Magnolia and flowering crab compete with each other to see who can come up with the most beautiful spring outfit.

“And tall graceful trees, not at all embarrassed about their high hemlines begin to display their glorious green; starting out with a delicate pinafore or light green soon changing to a lush forest green robe.

“This yearly display is always very moving, for it is a reaffirmation of Christ’s rising from the dead and his promise that we too, through his grace and mercy, shall have an eternal spring after our winter sleep. We too shall be gifted with life after death.

“As winter drags on, I begin to get bogged down in small worries and plans for this and plans for that. By the time winter ends, I have everything planned out for the next ten years and I’m worrying about all the details now.

“But as spring blossoms, I feel a great relief and joy. I feel like running and enjoying and savoring the changes that each day brings. The new leaves on the trees, the flowers sprouting up through the ground, the early blossoms.”

With you, I’m waiting spring’s full miracle. And even more so the more wonderful miracle of Easter.

T. O. M.

Blunders, Grace and Humility

Maybe you’ve seen the new story of an awkward moment between the second-ranking general in the US Army and Valerie Jarrett, White House adviser. Both were dinner guests at a White House dinner when this incident occurred.
Ms. Jarrett was seated at a table when Four-star General Peter Chiarelli happened to walk by. Ms. Jarrett saw only the striped pants of his dress uniform mistaking him for a waiter. So she asked him to get her a glass of wine.
This is where it could become a “really awkward moment” –- rebuke, embarrassment, chagrin. You can use your imagination to picture the possible next scenes.
Instead, the general smiled, walked away and came back with the glass of wine that had been requested. In his brief absence, Ms. Jarrett had been advised of her blunder. Beet red and holding an acute sense of needing to set the matter right, she began the apologies to General Chiarelli. With a degree of class, good humor and in order to defuse her discomfort, General Chiarelli acknowledged her honest mistake and invited her to a meal at his home.
Questioned about the gaffe, the General told a CNN reporter, "It was an honest mistake that anyone could have made. She was sitting. I was standing and walking behind her, and all she saw were the two stripes on my pants - which were almost identical to the waiters' pants, really. She apologized and will come to the house for dinner, if a date can be worked out in March."
General Chiarelli displayed a whole lot of class in this situation, more than most people would be able to muster under the circumstances. In fact, columnist Bob Green captured that sense in a title, “4-star general, 5-star grace.”
Too often our emotions get in the way of a truly humble and graceful response to such situations. Too often we react in less than helpful ways to cover our own embarrassment or our own pride.
Jesus walked the way of humility to serve others. The “Son of God” wasn’t embarrassed or to prideful to stoop to the level of humanity to serve our deepest need – the gift of grace to over come our sin. And in his living, dying and rising, Jesus gave us an example for our lives. The example is summarized in I Peter 5: 5 (NLT) "Serve each other in humility, for 'God opposes the proud but favors the humble’.”

“Spring Training”

While driving the other day, I was listening to reports on professional baseball’s spring training camps. The conversation was about the “basics” that the teams were practicing that day: soft lob throws, fielding dribbling ground balls, keeping the foot on the bag while catching a ball, hitting balls off a tee, fielding easy pop flies. I was taken by the fact that these seasoned players, with probably thousands of these skills accomplished over a lifetime of play, were spending their time practicing the basic skills of the game. These professionals, who have moved above hundreds of others in the game of baseball, are spending their time and energy doing fundamental, even kindergarten (hitting balls off a tee) drills.

Of course, the truth is, no matter how many times one has successfully accomplished a skill, one needs to get back to those basic skills in order to build the foundations necessary for game day situations and for skills that are more complex and difficult.

I think we all understand spring training and pre-season camps.

But when it comes to our faith life, we seem to act the exact opposite. We seem to believe that when we have learned the fundamental skills can coast for the rest of our lives. We somehow think we can be a “professional” in our faith with the things we learned in Kindergarten or third grade or fifth grade. We seem to think that there is no need to return to “training camp” once in a while to brush up on the fundamentals of prayer, devotion, Bible reading. We don’t want to let anyone think that we should be working on the fundamentals of worship, generosity, service or witness. We seem to quickly reject that notion that it would be helpful for a quick drill on being loving, friendly or passionate Christians.

You know, the church has its own version of “Spring Training”. It’s called “Lent.” Lent is a time for professional believers to take a bit of extra time to brush up on the basics. To return to the Lord who is full of grace and mercy and deepen the ties we have with our Lord. It is a time to practice the basics of a few of the disciplines of our faith – worship, prayer, Bible reading and study, generosity (see our Lenten Devotional booklet), service and witness. It is time to review the basic and fundamental event of our salvation – the passion, death and resurrection of Jesus. Lent sets the tone for brushing up on the fundamental principle of faith – as humans we are imperfect and we depend on the love of a perfect God to save and redeem us. Lent is an opportunity to wrap our arms around the fact that Christ has already wrapped his arms around us. It is a fresh new time to re-acquaint ourselves with ourselves and a chance to re-frame ourselves as a children of almighty God.

Professional ball players brush up on the fundamentals of the game to give them the foundation for a “winning season.” Professional believers use Lent as a time to brush up on the fundamentals of faith to insure the depth of faith that wins over sin, death and the power of the devil and brings us to the title of victory in everlasting life.

Here’s hoping to see you out and about for “Spring Training.” Here’s hoping to join you in the basic, fundamental process of being who we are called to be, the beloved of God.