An Artist's Dilemma
27 November 2019
According to the popular calendar year, we are approaching an American holiday of epic proportions. A day holy, set apart, complete with a feast that folks anticipate for weeks in advance. The day and its rituals require our full attention, stressed and tired though we may be from a late night of planning and preparing.
Thanksgiving? No, I’m thinking about Black Friday.
For several years now, friends have helped me reflect on the crossed trajectories of messages that come to us in this season leading to December 25th. Even as our popular culture ramps up the advertisements promising belonging and fulfillment, we in the Church are urged by the Apostle Paul to humble ourselves as Jesus did: who, “being in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.” While we humans grasp and gather and hoard, the infinite God descends to the blindness of a womb, the vulnerable confines of a human body, the daily labors of a blue-collar worker in an oppressed corner of the Roman Empire.
So what does it look like for a small-business artisan and Christian to participate in this Christ-like descent during the season of the year when people are most willing to spend money on handicraft gifts?
Perhaps this is a start — on Friday, head over to the shop page and 30% of all sales will go to a nonprofit in Chiang Mai, Thailand named Integrated Ministries for Ethnic Minorities. IMEMF, started by a Baptist American missionary now in her seventies, faithfully extends welcome to students from marginalized ethnic minority backgrounds, and serves remote-village-dwelling families raising children with physical and/or mental disabilities. I was privileged to live and learn alongside IMEMF staff and young adult residents for six months during my senior year at Wheaton College (IL).
Join me in enjoying pottery and supporting the staff of IMEMF who are well-practiced in the rhythms of humility and generosity. Feel free to reach out to me for more information about IMEMF too!
A classroom bulletin board in the House of Blessing, a daycare for children living in slum communities. While they are at daycare, their parents can have peace of mind while searching for daily work. Everyday HOB students receive a homemade, nutritious lunch and prepare for Thai public school.