Day 28: Simple Living From the Inside Out

"'Do you realize that everything that goes into a person from outside

cannot defile, since it enters not the heart . . . But what comes out of a person,

that is what defiles.  From within people, from their hearts, come evil

thoughts . . . '"  (Mk. 7:18-23)

Since I finished writing last night's entry I have felt like a boxer in the ring who keeps getting pummeled by a hard left, hard right and another hard left. It all has to do with the quote about fasting that I concluded with yesterday, "We cover up whatever is inside us with food and other good things, but in fasting these things surface."

The first hard left came courtesy of a passage from Mark's Gospel.  I have mentioned before that in my prayer I have been using Tom Wright's book Mark for Everyone which takes passages from Mark, offers some historical context and then some reflections that help offer some fresh perspectives for today.  Upon reading today's passage (transcribed, in part, at the top of today's post) the notion of "inside" immediately stood out to me.  "We cover up what is inside" . . . "what comes out of a person, that is what defiles."  Yesterday selfishness rose to the forefront as the thing that is inside of me that I choose to ignore.  The passage from Mark seems to reaffirm that thought as selfishness leads to so many decisions and actions that cause pain to others.  It seemed to me then that this may be something I need to examine further.

Then I received the hard right.  A group of students who went on a service trip to the Dominican Republic last summer planned a prayer service for the entire school community today.  The theme of the prayer service was "Fair Trade." Three students spoke eloquently of their encounters with poverty in the DR and each concluded how the experience has changed them forever; how the privilege they enjoy in life causes them to think each and every day about kids their age who are working on banana plantations for next to nothing.  They encouraged us all to nurture an awareness of where our food and clothing come from and to consider buying "Fair Trade" items whenever possible.  

This hit me very hard.  I buy fair trade coffee and, occasionally, fair trade chocolate.  But I cannot think of a single article of clothing that I wear that I can confidently say was not made by a twelve year old child somewhere in Latin America or Asia.  To me, this may be part of the "inside" stuff I am covering up.  How much does my selfishness guide my purchases as a consumer?  Why do I continue to consume without taking the responsibility of learning more?  How can we as a culture continue to ride on the backs of the world's poor who work hard to provide us with the things we 

want both cheap and now?  Making a conscious decision to live more simply had been on my mind the remainder of the day.

And then came the second hard left.  Right before dinner tonight I ran across this article online about . . . you guessed it, living more simply.  Do these kind of connections happen everyday in my life and I just miss them?  Or is Someone trying to tell me something important through this whole fasting business?

I am not in any position right now to make any kind of definitive conclusion about what all this means.  I think seeds are being planted that will take much longer than Lent to germinate.  But perhaps the simplicity of fasting is causing me to look more to the inside, the result of which may have lasting effects on the outside.