How Many Taste of Immokalee Products Will You Buy?
Good Morning Friends,
Yesterday I was helping the Taste of Immokalee and the One by One Leadership Foundation Youth Entrepreneurship Program place products in 18 Collier County Publix Stores in the hope of ramping up sales before the Super Bowl. The experience was teaching the youth problem solving skills. Real life challenges are always more meaningful than ones in books for there are natural consequences to face and decisions to make. And we are given choices to make that will set us on a course that could influence the rest of our journey. Do we stop or go, turn or go straight creating a new path? What do we buy and what do we sell? It is here we need wisdom. So how do we choose wisely? How do we embrace choices that help others with the truth? How do we embrace structures that nudge us in the right direction? How do we as Christians embrace a balance of self-interest and corporate interest? How do we understand how people can make not only make better decisions but also make decisions better? And maybe it has to come down to helping the next generation to learn about life. And maybe it is about limiting our choices so the best might come forth. But right now for these youth the question is what do they need to do to sell out their stock of hot sauces, barbeque sauces and salsa before the Super Bowl and all its parties. So my question is this and I am going to be as persistent as the woman in today’s scripture. How Many Taste of Immokalee Products Will You Buy This Week?
Scripture: Thus said the Lord: Go and buy a potter’s earthenware jug. Take with you some of the elders of the people and some of the senior priests,
Jeremiah 19:1 (NRSV)
If any of you is lacking in wisdom, ask God, who gives to all generously and ungrudgingly, and it will be given you.
James 1:5 (NRSV)
But the wise replied, “No! there will not be enough for you and for us; you had better go to the dealers and buy some for yourselves.”
Matthew 25:9 (NRSV)
Then Jesus told them a parable about their need to pray always and not to lose heart. He said, ‘In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor had respect for people. In that city there was a widow who kept coming to him and saying, “Grant me justice against my opponent.” For a while he refused; but later he said to himself, “Though I have no fear of God and no respect for anyone, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will grant her justice, so that she may not wear me out by continually coming.” ‘ And the Lord said, ‘Listen to what the unjust judge says. And will not God grant justice to his chosen ones who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long in helping them? I tell you, he will quickly grant justice to them. And yet, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?’
Luke 18:1-18:8 (NRSV)
Message: God told Jeremiah to take some of the elders down to the potter and buy jug so that they would learn that they were earthenware vessels molded and fired by God. But I am telling you to go buy some Taste of Immokalee products not so much for the reciprocity of having products that go great with the Super Bowl, even though they do, but because it gives youth a platform for better decision making and our education system a better structure for educating youth.
Notice I did not give you the option of not buying.
We live in a society where everything we buy…even our relationships are supposed to give us something greater in return. When it comes to giving and buying, it is hard to get away from the concept of measure for measure, but are we not missing something? When we set limits of choice that ultimately benefit us all it is a good thing in decision-making. Sitting on the fence…on the horns of a dilemma for extended periods can be painful. But God gives us help in decision making. So today I am nudging you even as the youth are being nudged. But let’s be honest about our motives. Improving decisions about health, wealth and happiness is wonderful but sometimes it is only a cover for people to manipulate others for personal satisfaction and financial gain. Sometimes people who nudge others are just pains in the backside, but sometimes there is more to it. It is here we must face why if God has told us to do something we have yet to act. What do we want the wisdom for if we are going to ignore it? There is a better way friends, but it needs all our help to put it into practice.
Pray we have the integrity of being of one mind. Pray we always choose to follow God’s perfect direction. Pray we are fully committed to obeying the wisdom we have been given. Pray we nudge others in the right direction. Pray we hear the voice of the Shepherd and follow. Pray we do not miss-read God. Pray we do not interpreted Scripture wrongly. Pray our hearts figure it out correctly. Pray we ask without doubting. Pray we do what we know to learn to know what to do. Pray we make the right use of the knowledge we have been given. Pray we honor God. Pray our loyalties not be divided. Pray we get on our knees because we have nowhere else to go. Pray we are nudged by the Holy Spirit. Pray we understand the power of persistence. Pray you buy something that will help others as it helps you learn a better way. Pray you visit
http://tasteofimmokalee.com/
to learn more. Pray our actions provoke a thankful heart in us. Pray we help others in ways that make our lives more significant.
Blessings,
John Lawson
Daily Devotionals 