How I Practice Simplicity

As I've mentioned in previous posts, I have chosen to live in a simple manner, as is the Quaker way.

For those who have asked, these are the ways I practice simplicity in my life:

• I don't buy things I don't need: I do not need an iPad for example because I have a laptop, an MP3 player, a phone, etc, ergo an iPad is an unnecessary expense. It's indulgent to buy things you don't need for the sake of having it or because it makes you cool, whatever
• I don't allow myself to become addicted to products/commit idolatry by becoming devoted to material things: this might sound silly, but if you have to have every Apple product no questions asked, you're addicted to technology. If you find yourself buying products you don't need or hardly use because Apple made it and you pour money into their products, you are effectively worshipping Apple because your hard earned cash will go to them without reason
• If I need something, I buy it on a budget: I hate to admit that I'm dependent on my phone, but I am. I feel unsafe if I leave the house without it. What happens if I break down? Get lost? Need an ambulance? So owning a phone is essential. But that doesn't mean I need to spend £500 on an iPhone and update it every time a new model is released. That's extravagant. My last phone cost £30, it was a touchscreen, it made calls and texts. Sorted
• I try to avoid excess: I don't need to buy 15 tops if I only need 5. So I don't. If I get bored of my clothes or they are too worn, I donate them to charity if possible or throw them out. Then I buy more. There is no need to buy more clothes than you need, nor is there any need to dump your clothes because they're out of season. Does it really matter at the end of the day?
• I try to make my money go further: I would never buy an item of clothing for some extortionate amount, £200 is definitely too much, but even £40 if you could buy the same thing for £15 I find is a waste. If I can buy 4 dresses for £20 instead of 1 dress for the same price, I do
• If I wear designers, I don't pay designer prices: this overlaps with other points, but basically I grab designer labels like Ralph Lauren, Aeropostale and Vans when they have sales. If shoes from supermarkets cost £10 and you can get designer shoes for £10 in a sale then go for the label if you like it. It costs the same as unbranded shoes
• I try to spend money productively: I don't spend stupid amounts of money on things like alcohol and partying. I drink sometimes and I go out to clubs etc. But I'm not one of those people that spends £40 in a night out on drinks or £40 a week to get into clubs

I think that's everything for now on how I practice simplicity :)

God Works in Quaker Meeting

I just wanted to share quickly today one of the ways we can see that God works regularly in Quaker Meetings.

Today in Meeting, a man stood up to give ministry (for those that don't know, ministry is when a person feels moved by God to stand and speak about something. It's what they feel God is telling them to say, not what they just want to stand up and talk about. A lot of people say they don't even know what came out of their mouth during ministry). He read a section from Advices and Queries in 'Quaker Faith and Practice' on simplicity.

It was interesting because this ministry spoke to me. Often ministry will reach at least one person in the room, occasionally everyone will relate directly to the ministry given. It just shows that it is God using the people in the room to say what he wants to say and what needs to be said. What the people gathered there are feeling and thinking is often responded to by God via ministry.

A friend of mine told me a story today of when she was feeling depressed over a long period of time. One day in Meeting, every ministry given was about helping those in need, comforting those suffering with depression. It confirmed to her that God knew how she was feeling and the ministry helped others reach out to her for the support she needed. Amazing!

Today's ministry spoke to me because this week I have been thinking about simplicity. How I live simply in the Quaker way. (I will do a separate post soon on how simplicity is in my life). But I was thinking about it this week because I was shopping for new clothes and trying to decided what was an appropriate amount to spend on an item of clothing and how much I should spend overall.

Is there any difference in spending £100 on 10 items of clothing or spending £100 on 1 item of clothing? This ministry spoke directly to me because it said 'do not be led into buying things you do not need nor things you cannot afford'. It answered some of my questions. If you don't need it, you shouldn't spend a penny on it. If you do need it but you can't afford it, drop it.

It just goes to show that God knows what's going on in your life and he does find ways to communicate! My God is there with me every week in Meeting.

My Take on Abortion

Recently this has been a topic of conversation among me and a friend. I will summarise my view and then explain why I hold this view. I do not agree with abortion under any circumstance, at any time during pregnancy.

Why?

1. Because there is no such thing as an 'accidental' pregnancy. If your condom breaks, you could have been taking the pill at the same time, or even have the implant. It's called 'double dutch', using 2 methods of contraception at once to prevent pregnancy. If you use the condom properly and take your pill properly in the first place, they're unlikely to fail anyway. If you're still worried. DON'T HAVE SEX! There's no excuse for abortion.
2. It could damage the woman permanently. Both physically - you may find it hard to conceive in future, if at all, your chance of miscarriages increase and emotionally - you don't know how you will react to what you're doing. Guilt, regret, sadness, depression can all set in at any time and stay there.
3. It's the biggest kick in the teeth you could ever give someone who is unable to have children for a legitimate reason (e.g. not someone who had an abortion before). While others are desperate for a child to care and love on, others stupidly get pregnant and terminate it. How nice.
4. You are taking a life, abortion is murder even if you'd like to live in ignorance and pretend it's not

"But what if you get pregnant from rape? That's harsh" my answer to this is: the woman's been raped, she's unlucky, if she's pregnant she's even more unlucky. Do you really think giving her an abortion will help anything? You might physically damage her, which will remind her forever more of her ordeal. You might emotionally damager her, do you want her to feel sad or depressed even further because she aborted? She wouldn't have to keep the child. There's always adoption.

"But what if the child has a disability?" Firstly, it's not always certain that the baby does. I know people who were told their baby would be born with down's syndrome. He wasn't. What if he was aborted? I know another couple who were told their baby would be born club-footed. Around 64 babies a year (I read in The Times circa 2009) are aborted due to club foot. That isn't even serious. This baby was born club footed and by the age of 2 this had been corrected via physiotherapy and corrective footwear. He is now 20 years old, walks fine in normal shoes and you can't tell by looking at him or his feet that he was ever club-footed. If we try to wean out 'disabilities' and imperfections before children are born, we might get it wrong and we do for a start, but how will that make those who are born with disabilities feel? And lastly, if you can't deal with your child having an issue, are you really ready to be a parent?

"But it's the woman's body, she should get to choose what happens" sorry, but you are in control of your body. If you don't want to be pregnant, take precautions, it isn't rocket science. It's not as if you walk along minding your own business and all of a sudden "oh crap, I'm pregnant". If you can't take precautions, don't have sex. And ignoring the instructions on pill packets for example (like taking them when you feel like it rather than at a required set time each day) then wondering why it didn't work is an example of a precaution missed. I've heard that excuse from someone trying to prove she did use protection.
If you're now wondering why it's such a big deal to abort babies, or fetuses if you prefer, I will now explain that.

Dictionary.com defines life as "The condition that distinguishes animals and plants from inorganic matter, including the capacity for growth, reproduction, functional activity, and continual change preceding death". So, by definition, a fetus is still a life because it has the capacity for growth, it will be capable of reproduction, it does function, it does change and it can die.

Here's a summary of the stages of growth while the baby is in the womb:

• 3 weeks: The heart begins to beat, the brain begins to develop into sections
• 4 weeks: The central nervous system (CNS) begins to develop
• 5 weeks: By this time the nose and ears are externally formed, the kidneys also begin to develop
• 6 weeks: The brain emits measurable impulses, bodily movements can be observed and the baby can start to feel pain and respond to stimuli
• 7 weeks: The 4 chambered heart is completely formed, fingers and toes are completely separated
• 8 weeks: Every organ is now present and in place
• 9 weeks: The eyelids close at this point and the fetus is able to suck its thumb
• 10 weeks: Fingernails and toenails appear and the fetus will have a unique fingerprint
• 16 weeks: The mother can start to feel kicking, fine hairs begin to cover the whole body
• 22 weeks: The fetus is now viable

(Source: Abort73.com)

And FYI, in the UK an abortion can be carried out up to 24 weeks into the gestation. In which case the baby will have been viable for 2 weeks. If the fetus is thought to have a severe abnormality, there is no limit to when it can be aborted. Most women are granted an abortion on the grounds that it will damage their mental health to continue with the pregnancy if they don't want it. (Y'know, cause it's not like she could have thought about that before she got pregnant?)

And a few last words: if a pregnant woman is killed, the killer will be charged for murder (for the woman) and manslaughter of the fetus in the US and the UK. Why is this the case if the fetus isn't alive or a person? If you stop someone from living, because a fetus is living and will become viable, isn't that killing? If a diabetic requires insulin and you take it from them, they will die, you have caused their death. Isn't that the same if you kill a fetus dependant temporarily on the mother?

The Answer to My Struggles

In my last post I wrote about how I was struggling with faith. What I thought I knew solidly, my faith in Jesus and Christian belief, I realised I understood far less.

To try and summarise, my struggle was in understanding why we should be Christians and not Jews. To break that down further: why was a human sacrifice suddenly needed to atone sin? Why was a new covenant needed? What's original sin and where did it come from? Should we still keep the laws of Moses?

Well finally I have the answers that I need. If you're interested, ask me questions and I'll go into greater depth. But I will try to be brief so you can see where I started in this struggle and where I ended up, as going deeper is probably of no interest seeing as these weren't your thoughts. Or maybe you're thinking the same thing?

God says in Leviticus (Vyikra) that blood sacrifices are needed in chapter 17. In Judaism, this was done by animal sacrifice. When the temple was destroyed, animal sacrifices could no longer be made at the alter. It is argued that at this point, the sacrifices stopped and thus blood isn't really needed for forgiveness. But historically, this was the time at which Jesus came, giving an alternative for ever more to animal blood sacrifices by providing a new blood sacrifice to atone sin.

So if God hates human sacrifice and forbids it in Deuteronomy (Devarim) 12:31, why did he send Jesus as a sacrifice? The answer is because he wasn't a human, reason number 1. He was a God in human form, allowing him to die temporarily because a God can't die. Therefore, it wasn't a human sacrifice and could simultaneously save all of humanity. Secondly, God chose to sacrifice himself in the form of Jesus to save others. It wasn't the kind of forced sacrifice for a non-existant god or other trivial cause that God says he detests.

Finally, a new covenant is mentioned throughout the Bible (e.g. Jeremiah 31:31) and from reading again Isaiah 53 I struggled to see how that could be about anyone other than Jesus. Lastly, I discovered that there is a whole book in the Bible on this topic (see God thinks of everything!) the book of Hebrews. It's all about how Jews were doubting their switch to Christianity, wondering if they should still keep the Jewish laws or return to Judaism entirely.

You can also check out http://www.gotquestions.org/ if you're still confused or have questions. There's over 20,000 I think so there's a good chance you'll find your answer to many theological issues.

A Moment of Struggle

As I've already explained, this is mostly a question/answer blog. Friends, classmates, co-workers, family, ask me various questions (sometimes repeatitively) and I write my answers up on here for them to read. Recently, people have continued to ask me questions but for some reason I haven't had the motivation to write my answers.

So instead, here is a slightly different type of post. I'll share with you what's going on in my head right now. I'm going through a moment of struggle. For the last 2 weeks I haven't wanted to attend Meeting. I felt tired and really like I couldn't face it, so I didn't go. Can you believe it? I spend a whole year at university wishing I could go to Meeting, I finally get the opportunity and I don't want to. On top of that, I've had difficulty feeling secure in my faith recently. I spent some time with some Muslim friends of friends who asked me about what I believe. I am interested in understanding Islam, but let me say now that I have no intention or desire to convert. My point is, that through speaking to them and hearing about what they believe, they know what that is and where they're going.

To explain that more clearly, they know what they believe about God, about angels, about the prophets, about salvation, about prayer. They asked me about Jesus, why he came to 'pay the price for our sins'. That made me realise that I have no idea why. It sounds fantastic that Jesus paid the price for our sins, died so we don't have to. But we still die. So what did that achieve? Why is the shedding of blood and death required for salvation and forgiveness? That wasn't the case in the Old Testament. If we still die, how come we aren't paying for our own sins at that point? It made me realise I don't understand this enough.

The Muslims I spent time with also knew what it was to be a Muslim. It wasn't just about believing, which they did, but also about praying, giving to charity, reading the Qur'an. I have no idea what a Christian should do in everyday life. That might sound stupid, but what I mean is in comparison to Jews and Muslims, what should a Christian do day to day? Read the Bible, ok. Pray... pray how? For what? When? How often? What else? Say you're sorry, ok. Then what? Be compassionate, give to charity, ok and what else? Christianity looks like a bit of a cop-out in comparison to other religions. Try to help out others, give to charity, volunteer, pray for your sins, forgive others and you are a Christian going to Heaven. Seems like you don't really do anything and you've got an easy way out compared to other religions. Christianity teaches that it isn't about works whether or not you are saved. But after you're saved, then what?

So right now, I'm a little confused. Unintentionally, these kind, friendly people have shaken my world. What I thought I understood and had complete faith in, isn't currently making enough sense to me. I need to know why there is a Trinity, why a human/blood sacrifice is needed to atone for sin, why we need a saviour when "the wages for sin is death" and we still die. Where 'original sin' came from and why these New Testament teachings don't seem to comply with Old Testament teachings. Until I do, I feel like a hypocrite. Trying to explain why Christianity is true when all of a sudden I don't understand it myself. And I hope the path I find to be true isn't influenced by the embarrassment of having to hold my hands up and say I was wrong.