Archives by: Gary Hoag

He gives food to every creature. His love endures forever. Psalm 136:25

“We have no better articulation of this pause of gratitude than the hymn of Matthias Claudius:

We plow the fields and scatter the good seed on the land,
but it is fed and watered by God’s almighty hand;
He sends the snow in winter, the warmth to swell the grain,
the breezes and the sunshine, and soft refreshing rain.

All good gifts around us are sent from heaven above;
then thank the Lord, O thank the Lord for all His love.

He only is the Maker of all things near and far;
He paints the wayside flower, He lights the evening star;
the winds and waves obey him, by Him the birds are fed;
much more to us, His children, He gives our daily bread.

We thank thee, then, O Father, for all things bright and good,
the seedtime and the harvest, our life, our health, our food;
the gifts we have to offer are what thy love imparts,
but chiefly thou desirest our humble, thankful hearts.

The hymn begins with recognition of the human work of food production: plowing and scattering seed. But it turns then quickly away from human effort to divine generosity. The refrain affirms that “all good gifts” (surely the gift of food) are solely from God. Our only adequate response is thanks. Imagine production shaped by thanks! And distribution administered with thanks! And consumption paced by gratitude!

The prayers and the hymn constitute pauses that gladly recognize God’s generosity. In our most mature materiality, our gratitude may match God’s generosity. The greed system of accumulation robs food of its sacramental potential. We should not then be surprised that we are left unsatisfied by food that cannot meet our creaturely hunger.”

Matthias Claudius as cited by Walter Brueggemann in Materiality As Resistance: Five Elements for Moral Action in the Real World (Louisville: WJKP, 2020), 38-39.

This hymn serves as a fitting conclusion to our exploration of food production, distribution, and consumption from the perspective of mature materiality.

I have lived on biryani, curry, chana masala, dal bhat, and so other Indian and Nepalese dishes over the past three weeks. I thank God for whatever He supplies.

They have marveled at my capacity to eat whatever they serve, from hot peppers to other interesting flavors. Sharing food has opened the door for relationship.

Join me in treating every meal as a sacred gift from God for enjoyment and sharing with a thankful heart to the God who has supplied it for our good and His glory.

And pray for my safe travel home.

All creatures look to you to give them their food at the proper time. When you give it to them, they gather it up; when you open your hand, they are satisfied with good things. Psalm 104-27-28

The eyes of all look to you, and you give them their food at the proper time. You open your hand and satisfy the desires of every living thing. Psalm 145:15–16

“It is the aim of mature materiality to invite an intentional and disciplined regard for food that is fully attentive to the entire food process of production, distribution, and consumption. In such an awareness, there need be no more selfish “innocent” accumulation of food, for now food takes on marking as a sacramental process.

Food is a sign of the generous abundance of the giving creator. Given that awareness, we are more fully prepared to resist agricultural industrialization and its accompanying chemicals, to resist privilege and entitled access to food for the powerful and wealthy, to resist ideologies of indulgent domination.

For these reasons, table prayers (as both affirmation and resistance) are compellingly appropriate. Such prayers constitute a powerful act of gratitude, acknowledging before we eat that food is a gift that must be received in ways congruent with the God who gives food. In the book of Psalms we are offered two table prayers that fully recognize God as source of our food:

These all look to you to give them their food in due season; when you give it to them, they gather it up; when you open your hand, they are filled with good things. Psalm 104:27–28

The eyes of all look to you, and you give them their food in due season. You open your hand, satisfying the desire of every living thing. Psalm 145:15–16

These utterances are recognitions that food is not produced by us; it is not to be distributed according to our entitlements or appetites; and it is not to be consumed with indifferent self-indulgence. Our prayers of gratitude affirm that we eat in the presence of the God who gives bread to the eater and in the presence of the neighbors whom God loves as God loves us.”

Walter Brueggemann in Materiality As Resistance: Five Elements for Moral Action in the Real World (Louisville: WJKP, 2020), 37-38.

I put the Scriptures in there twice today to drive home the sacramental point they make. Having spent three weeks in contexts where so many people experience hunger each day, I feel convicted of my ignorance and selfish sins linked to food.

I cannot claim innocence linked to the accumulation of food now that I have come to grasp the impact of the production, distribution, and consumption of food in America. I am asking God how this learning must change my living.

Join me in abandoning self-indulgence and instead embracing sacramental gratitude for God’s provision of food supplied not by my hand but His, not procured by my power but His, and not bestowed for my benefit but for all people.

The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. Genesis 2:15

“Mature materiality will invite our growth toward our personal reidentification so that we no longer understand ourselves as consumers who are authorized (and required!) to consume in uncurbed ways. Mature materiality may offer two alternative identities to us.

First, we may grow into an identity as citizens and members of the community. That identity, on the one hand, means that our consumption of food is always with and in the company of other members of the community. Eating in companionship
with the economically isolated may cause us to think differently about extravagance and indulgence that is in stark contrast to the eating prospects of our economically isolated neighbors.

(The term isolated is used to indicate that the problem we readily label as “poverty” is the result of being cut off from economic resources that are necessary to live a viable life in our society. The phrase economically isolated is preferable to poor because it points to the systemic causes of such a condition.)

As citizens we never eat alone, in isolation, but always with our neighbors who are present at the table with us or who await an invitation to the table with us. On the other hand, identity as citizens specifies that we have an obligation to participate in the formation of food policy and practice that impinges on local possibilities. Such an obligation may lead to engagement with lobbying efforts for policy, such as Bread for the World, an enterprise that aims to redefine policy and practice toward a more equitable distribution of food.

A second identity toward which we may grow through mature materiality is to accept ourselves as creatures of God along with other creatures of God. This will cause us to be aware that we are a part of not only a food chain but also a food network in which all creatures are entitled to adequate food.

Our role as creatures, according to the Bible, is to “till” and “keep” the earth (Gen. 2:15), that is, to cultivate and preserve the earth as the giver of food in abundance. When we eat alongside other creatures and when we take responsibility for the entire network of eating creatures, we may consider our consuming habits very differently.”

Walter Brueggemann in Materiality As Resistance: Five Elements for Moral Action in the Real World (Louisville: WJKP, 2020), 36-37.

“Listen to another parable: There was a landowner who planted a vineyard. He put a wall around it, dug a winepress in it and built a watchtower. Then he rented the vineyard to some farmers and moved to another place. When the harvest time approached, he sent his servants to the tenants to collect his fruit. The tenants seized his servants; they beat one, killed another, and stoned a third. Then he sent other servants to them, more than the first time, and the tenants treated them the same way. Last of all, he sent his son to them. ‘They will respect my son,’ he said. But when the tenants saw the son, they said to each other, ‘This is the heir. Come, let’s kill him and take his inheritance.’ So they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. Therefore, when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?” “He will bring those wretches to a wretched end,” they replied, “and he will rent the vineyard to other tenants, who will give him his share of the crop at harvest time.” Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the Scriptures: “‘The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; the Lord has done this, and it is marvelous in our eyes’? “Therefore I tell you that the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people who will produce its fruit. Anyone who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; anyone on whom it falls will be crushed.” When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard Jesus’ parables, they knew he was talking about them. They looked for a way to arrest him, but they were afraid of the crowd because the people held that he was a prophet. Matthew 21:33-46

“Mature materiality will invite fresh reflection on food consumption. Our current consumerism defines individual persons in our society as “consumers,” as those who have both a right and an obligation to consume, to eat, to devour, to own, to occupy, to accumulate, to store up. Consumerism takes the world as an object that is available for full use and exploitation by human “masters.” It is, moreover, taken to be an inexhaustible resource, so that we as “masters” are free to use and eat without restraint or limitation. This is most evident in our consumption of fossil fuel for the sake of indulgence and “national defense” that, according to dominant national capitalism, must not be limited in any way. Indeed, we have arrived at a tacit agreement that consideration of the environment that in any way limits economic growth is illicit. An outcome of that passionate commitment to uncurbed consumption is that we get industrial food that is beset with chemicals that do damage to consumers as industrial production does damage to the soil. Such an ideology of consumption causes us to reperform endlessly the tale of Lazarus and the rich man. There can be no curb on consumption for those who have leverage and resources.”

Walter Brueggemann in Materiality As Resistance: Five Elements for Moral Action in the Real World (Louisville: WJKP, 2020), 35-36.

Jesus spoke pointedly to those in authority. So do I. This week I have had the privilege of speaking with and uniting in historic meetings the influential Christians in the four main networks of Nepal. They “never” work together everyone says. In the meetings God has opened their eyes to a new way of functioning as stewards following standards.

When we don’t serve as stewards, we act like Masters who do nothing but consume. Brueggemann raises our awareness to the arrogance of such behavior and how it functions with no curbs and does nothing but destroy the environment and leave poor people in a wake of damage. I raise awareness to these issues because most people just consume in ignorance.

Christians do well to look in the mirror and ask hard questions about their own consumption. Those in positions of influence have the opportunity to point communities of people in the direction of stewardship and standards rather than serving as masters and consumers. Ask God to guide you to mature materiality with regard to consumption.

And notice the cryptic ending. Brueggemann states, “There can be no curb on consumption for those who have leverage and resources.” So what if we deploy our leverage and resources rather than hold on to it? Perhaps the way of obedience and generosity frees us from this dangerous cycle. Thanks God.

There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day. And at his gate lay a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, who longed to satisfy his hunger with what fell from the rich man’s table; even the dogs would come and lick his sores. The poor man died and was carried away by the angels to be with Abraham. The rich man also died and was buried. In Hades, where he was being tormented, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham far away with Lazarus by his side. He called out, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am in agony in these flames.’ But Abraham said, ‘Child, remember that during your lifetime you received your good things and Lazarus in like manner evil things, but now he is comforted here, and you are in agony. Besides all this, between you and us a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who might want to pass from here to you cannot do so, and no one can cross from there to us.’ He said, ‘Then I beg you, father, to send him to my father’s house—for I have five brothers—that he may warn them, so that they will not also come into this place of torment.’ Abraham replied, ‘They have Moses and the prophets; they should listen to them.’ He said, ‘No, father Abraham, but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.’ He said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.’” Luke 16:19-31

“It is easy enough to transpose that dramatic inequality in food distribution in the Bible to our own contemporary food distribution. In our practice, the wealthy can enjoy an abundance of lavish foods while subsistence workers (on a very low minimum wage) and others who are “left behind” get the leftovers from such distributive practices. This arrangement of food distribution is reflected in the parsimonious practice of “food stamps” that is a grudging policy of food distribution. And now the imposition of work requirements on the hungry reflects the dread of some wealthy that “some needy person might get something for nothing” from our vast abundance of food! The imposition of work requirements on the vulnerable is matched by generous government grants designed for the most advantaged producers!

That intentional inequity that happens daily in our society occurs on international scale as food becomes a weapon for the rich nations against the poorer nations. Food becomes an instrument of manipulation and extortion. That inequitable practice of food distribution calls to mind the parable of Jesus concerning a rich man and Lazarus, who “longed to satisfy his hunger with what fell from the rich man’s table.” The parable proposes that the rich man and his ilk are held to the demanding expectations of the Torah while Lazarus is embraced by Father Abraham, a stand-in for God’s compassion. The parable suggests that parsimonious food distribution leads to an alienation that does not and cannot come to a good end, while the tilt of God’s rule is toward those who hunger and are eventually blessed.”

Walter Brueggemann in Materiality As Resistance: Five Elements for Moral Action in the Real World (Louisville: WJKP, 2020), 34-35.

As I type this, I must admit that I spend more days each year in undeveloped countries that lack clean drinking water, shelter, and food for the average person. I see the ineffectiveness of parsimonious food distribution. People should not send help. Handouts only fuel local corruption and external support dependency. How can we achieve good ends? Follow the example of Jesus. Go help or send helpers who build disciples.

I have chosen to give my life to doing the work of helping people like Lazarus (whose name means “God helps”) in the hardest places and teaching them to follow Jesus with integrity and to turn brokenness into blessing by following His ways. Join me through your giving or service. Simultaneously, let us tell rich people dressed in purple to store up their treasures in heaven through generous giving while they still have time.

What will you do? Most take the parsimonious path by default. Don’t let that be you. If you fit in the story as having more than enough resources to live, give, serve, and love, then either go help or send helpers. God is watching. If you have insufficient resources and you identify with Lazarus, then cry out to the God who helps. God sees, hears, and will move toward you with compassion. Calling for His help for our work in Nepal.

Solomon’s provision for one day was thirty cors of choice flour and sixty cors of meal, ten fat oxen and twenty pasture-fed cattle, one hundred sheep, besides deer, gazelles, roebucks, and fatted fowl. 1 Kings 4:22-23

“Next, we may consider the processes of food distribution. When food is grown locally, it will most naturally be delivered locally. Such local distribution makes it possible for consumers to deal directly with local producers. Locally grown food, moreover, is much more likely to be marked by compassionate neighborliness wherein food is more generously shared with neighbors who may lack resources or purchasing power. Such distribution readily becomes a practice of genuine neighborliness. Our primary modes of food distribution wholly lack such a compassionate sensibility.

In the pressured world of industrial production, distribution follows the familiar trajectories of wealth and poverty. As a result, those with great resources are able to enjoy vast accumulations of rich food. Such a capacity for accumulation is evident in the Bible when Pharaoh deprives the peasants in his domain of their means of production. Consequently, food distribution depends upon a food czar (Joseph the Israelite!) to mete out food according to the whim of Pharaoh.

Pharaoh’s practice of keeping surplus food for himself, moreover, is replicated by his King Solomon, who enjoyed a lavish table that featured a vast inventory of meats, the very food denied to the peasants. This extravagant surplus of food depended on the productivity of agrarian peasants who worked the soil for subsistence income. At the same time, this royal practice denied to those same peasants any access to such an extravagant diet.”

Walter Brueggemann in Materiality As Resistance: Five Elements for Moral Action in the Real World (Louisville: WJKP, 2020), 33-34.

The events far exceeded expectations in Kathmandu regarding attendance and response. We had the largest attendance for an accountability event in history at 120 accountants, lawyers, pastors, ministry workers, and other professionals.

Additionally, our Stations of Generosity training yesterday we trained 60 pastors, trainers, and other ministry workers from all 7 provinces of Nepal to spread it through their networks. Thanks so much for your prayers. Off to Pokhara today.

Regarding food distribution, I remember while growing up that the flood of California and Mexican tomatoes, which had little flavor, to the markets in the Midwest caused prices to drop and led to the closure of many local greenhouses.

So, while the mega farmers likely had lavish tables like Solomon, the little local growers had to shut down and find other work. Today’s post is not about the plight of the American farmer but about something deeper.

It links to two things. First, the practice of keeping surplus for self runs contrary to the teachings of Christ. Second, the desire for growth and gain with an insensitivity to the impact on others.

If we possess these two traits we look no different from the world. Furthermore, we should not bear the name Christian or say we align with Christ because such actions don’t reflect any reverence for God or love of neighbor.

Do you see those who are skillful in their work? They will serve kings; they will not serve common people. Proverbs 22:29

“Mature materiality will lead us to pay much greater attention to the modes of food production in which we participate by our choices of foods and our practices of eating. If we are in thrall to a notion of scarcity, we may embrace industrial production on the assumption that greater productivity will overcome scarcity. If, however, we are alive to God’s abundance we may have confidence that land, respected and wisely cared for, will produce the local food that is required.”

Walter Brueggemann in Materiality As Resistance: Five Elements for Moral Action in the Real World (Louisville: WJKP, 2020), 33.

Yesterday I mentioned Dr. Milan Hluchý of Czech Republic. I want to tell you a few stories about him that illustrate this idea of confidence to inspire you toward creation care.

Milan has spent years mastering the art and science of organic plant protection for the vineyards of Czech Republic.
On the art side, he has growers plan a flower mix in every other row to pumps energy into the soil below the surface and bring good insects and pollinators.

On the science side, he instructs the release of mites that, for lack of a better expression, eat the bad bugs. So, what does this have to do with generosity?

It took years for Milan to generate the research to show the negative impact of industrial production and the positive impact of organic plant protection. But over time, the data showed increased yield, increased quality, increased resistance to diseases and other challenges. And best of all, the data has given confidence.

I chose today’s Scripture because it reflects Milan’s story. Recently he met with the President of Czech Republic and even spoke to officials of the entire European Union. Why? They now see the negative implications of the use of chemicals in food production – such as the loss of biodiversity – and want to go organic to increase yield and quality.

But what the biggest barrier to going organic? It’s the chemical companies. They have cast what seems like a spell over the industry. Yet, the tide is turning. How can the average person make a difference? Pay more to buy organic. And do it with confidence that the food will taste better and God will see your care for creation.

And your care for creation might just keep the world habitable for your children and children’s children should our Lord Jesus Christ tarry His return.

Thanks for your prayers for our program work in Nepal. Yesterday’s event went off with great success. Today we train workers from across the nation with Stations of Generosity. Pray for a day filled with personal transformation.

God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.” Genesis 1:28

“In mature materiality it will be useful to trace the crisis of scarcity/abundance all through the process from farm to table. First, we may consider processes of food production around the question of scarcity and abundance. This issue comes down to a contrast between the family farm and industrial agriculture.

It is not romantic to notice that food locally grown on family farms or through local gardening efforts sustained society for a long time. The industrial revolution, however, introduced more advanced technology and larger farm equipment that made it possible (and necessary?) for a single farmer to manage larger farming tracts.

But of course, investment in more costly equipment made it necessary to maximize production, and the maximization of production required the purchase of more acreage that in turn displaced the family farm. Production was further advanced by chemical fertilizers and by food cartels that control farm production through contractual arrangements and that have no interest in the farm, the land, the farmer, or even the quality of the food.

The illusion of industrial agriculture is that such production could feed the world and indeed must feed the world, because the harvest of local efforts is taken to be too modest and therefore ineffective. The outcome is food that is “bechemicaled” (what a marvelous word!).”

Walter Brueggemann in Materiality As Resistance: Five Elements for Moral Action in the Real World (Louisville: WJKP, 2020), 32.

I grew up in Ohio and my family ran Hoag’s Greenhouses for 82 years. We grew tomatoes and cucumbers in a hot house or greenhouse setting. People would drive for miles to come buy our tomatoes and cucumbers for the quality of the flavor and because we used organic growing methods rather than chemicals.

Along with most growers, we previously used chemicals, as experts told us too. But I recall switching to more organic methods to care for the soil and increase quality and yield. We implemented nutrient feeding, drip irrigation, and even released “hit bugs” to eat the white flies rather than spraying dangerous pesticides.

Why write about the bechemicaled nature of food production today in contrast to farm to table production? Our first task as steward relates to creation, and we are killing. World authority in organic plant protection, Dr. Milan Hluchý of Czech Republic has taught me that if we kill it with poisons we destroy ourselves and any hope future generations.

Generosity comes into view as creation care. Pause and ask yourself: What patterns in my purchasing and my stewardship can avoid polluting and poisoning God’s creation?

Work is going well in Nepal. We have sensed many spiritual attacks so please keep our team in your prayers. Today’s an historic day. We host the accountability event with influential Christian workers from every province in the nation. We pray to activate a working group to bring peer accountability to Nepal.

In the evening quails came up and covered the camp, and in the morning there was a layer of dew around the camp… When the Israelites saw it, they said to one another, “What is it?” For they did not know what it was. Moses said to them, “It is the bread that the Lord has given you to eat… I will be standing there in front of you on the rock at Horeb. Strike the rock, and water will come out of it, so that the people may drink.” Moses did so, in the sight of the elders of Israel… They asked, and [God] brought quails and gave them food from heaven in abundance. He opened the rock, and water gushed out; it flowed through the desert like a river. Exodus 16:13, 15; 17:6; Psalm 105:40–41

“It will be useful, in mature materiality, to reflect on the compelling power of the narrative of scarcity. For many in the “clean plate club,” eating is required because of “starving children in Africa.” Beyond that, however, is the relentless insistence of consumerism that we are entitled (because we are Americans) to have more and own more and eat more.

The ideology of consumerism intends both (a) to affirm the legitimacy of satiation and (b) to attest that we do not yet have enough to be satiated and must still secure (purchase) the next offer of satiation. The hope of mature materiality is that we may be disengaged from and resistant to that distortion of reality.

The ground for such disengagement and resistance is rooted in trust in the creator God and the generativity of God’s creation that is the primary story line of the Bible. That biblical story line has its pivot point in the narrative of wondrous manna in Exodus 16
.
In that narrative Israel is in the wilderness, cut off from the food supply of Pharaoh. Very quickly the newly departed slaves, in their anxiety, yearn for Pharaoh’s food supply. In the wilderness there are no obvious life-support systems. In that very place that seems utterly bereft, however, bread is given . . . and meat . . . and water, all the necessities for life!”

Walter Brueggemann in Materiality As Resistance: Five Elements for Moral Action in the Real World (Louisville: WJKP, 2020), 31.

The new header photo features Kathmandu. I am here for historic GTP meetings with representatives of the various Christian alliances along with many skilled lawyers, accountants, and other professionals. Today, they travel from the 7 provinces to this city. Tomorrow is the big meeting. Appreciate your prayers.

And no I cannot see Mt. Everest. This is the rainy season so there are many clouds. It’s okay. I am looking to a different mountain for help. My help comes from the LORD, maker of heaven and earth.

I find it brilliant that Brueggemann starts with “the compelling power of the narrative of scarcity” when most Christians start with the reality of God’s abundance. Why? I have found as both a biblical scholar and Christ follower that I don’t find myself in Scripture or society unless I look at the bad examples and wrong thinking.

The narrative of scarcity guides the unbridled consumerism and accumulation in modern American society. It says, “You have to look out for number one.” Between the lines this thinking says, “There is no generous God looking out for you.”

Then Brueggemann moves us to the manna story. I love the manna story of the Old Testament. When we read the manna story alongside the Lord’s Prayer we discover that the God who invites us to trust Him for daily bread has a track record of trustworthiness.

Ponder the sinfulness of the scarcity mindset and the patterns it causes us to embrace. Ask the Holy Spirit what needs to change to grow in trust in God’s abundance. Ironically, the antidote to the gluttony and greed – patterns linked to scarcity and promoted in society – is generosity. Giving helps disengage. How might you grow your giving today?

[Jesus] said to His disciples, “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat, or about your body, what you will wear. For life is more than food and the body more than clothing. Consider the ravens: they neither sow nor reap, they have neither storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds! And which of you by worrying can add a single hour to your span of life? If then you are not able to do so small a thing as that, why do you worry about the rest? Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will He clothe you, you of little faith! And do not keep seeking what you are to eat and what you are to drink, and do not keep worrying. For it is the nations of the world that seek all these things, and your Father knows that you need them. Instead, seek His kingdom, and these things will be given to you as well. Luke 12:22-31

“In the Gospel of Luke, the parable of Jesus in Luke 12:13-21 revolves around a warning against greed that is then expanded by the instruction Jesus gives to His disciples in the next paragraph (vv. 22–31). Jesus offers a contrast to the practice of scarcity for His disciples who are invited to God’s abundance. He witnesses to a trustworthy abundance that gives the lie to the scarcity imagined by the farmer in the parable. He summons His disciples out of the narrative of scarcity and into his alternative narrative of abundance. That abundance, Jesus attests, is grounded in the generative capacity of the creator God who supplies adequate food for birds, for lilies, and for those who “strive for God’s kingdom” (v. 31), that is, a realm of justice, righteousness, and mercy. Thus the work of mature materiality concerning food is to move our mindfulness away from an imagined scarcity that evokes excessive accumulation and satiation to a trustworthy abundance that permits us to be free of worry about what we shall eat (v. 22).”

Walter Brueggemann in Materiality As Resistance: Five Elements for Moral Action in the Real World (Louisville: WJKP, 2020), 31.

I traveled from India to Nepal yesterday. I am safely here for GTP program work to activate a an accountability and generosity movement with meetings in Kathmandu and Pokhara now through 10 September 2025 .

I just love that right after the rich fool narrative Jesus reminds us not to worry.

Our Father in heaven has the “generative capacity” to meet the needs of every bird, nourish every flower, and sustain every human on planet earth. We get to either place our trust Him or in ourselves.

In Him we can count on “a trustworthy abundance that permits us to be free of worry about what we shall eat.”

Just sit in that truth for a while. Marinate in the reality.

I got news whilst traveling that my dad has prostate cancer. I’d appreciate your prayers for him. I don’t know many details but with the news my mom urged me to keep my trip plans. Hang in there, dad. Keep looking up.

I give thanks for my mom and dad who taught me not to worry about anything but to pray about everything.