Veganuary

    It’s a clever term that sticks in your head. But it might link itself to memories of extreme vegans you’ve met. The ones that burned their leather Bibles or don’t eat honey because it exploits bees. 

I went vegan after being diagnosed with cancer. Well, at first I was vegetarian—after we consumed all that comfort food stew that Julie made on the shock/horror day of my diagnosis. But everything I was reading about eating to heal cancer and the effects of the treatment lead on from vegan to ‘plant based whole foods’ or PBWF for short. But vegan is more in the common vernacular. It’s the word you need to use in a restaurant as an easy explanation of your needs. It’s the word to look for on labelling. 

The problem is that vegan doesn’t mean unprocessed, or without added sugar or nutritious. There are a lot of things that fit in the vegan food category that no one would ever claim could help your body’s health. White granulated sugar is a prime example—vegan (well after investigating this, only UK granulated sugar is vegan, not in the USA).

So just to be clear, I ‘went vegan’ for my health. Purely selfish, no animal love involved. And for nearly 4 years now I’ve kept it pretty strictly. PBWF is much harder. The plant based part I’m pretty good at. The whole food part is much more difficult. It means no processing so that would include oils. Olive oil is a processed food. The fiber has been extracted. Fibre is where the good stuff is. 

I’m not anywhere near adhering to a PBWF eating program on a full-time basis. And I have days that I eat fish—which sometimes includes tartar sauce that isn’t vegan. And on special family days like Thanksgiving and Christmas I do eat the turkey and ham—because food is more than nourishment, it’s woven into our personal culture. 

So for a month or so short of 4 years I’ve been changing my personal food culture. Ask my family, they see it. I eat a spinach salad nearly every day. I never have butter. I have soya milk on my granola with added chia and pumpkin seeds. I drink green tea. I love roasted cauliflower. I think that hummus is a great accompaniment to just about everything. Eating vegan has become part of my ‘rule of life.’

We’re nearly at the end of Veganuary, but if for any reason you are thinking of radically changing your eating habits, I want to encourage you. I feel great, I have lots of energy. I’ve enjoyed a variety of new foods. My cancer status is ’no evidence of disease’—and that’s another longer story. 

And if you are facing a health challenge of any kind, can I lovingly challenge you to give up meat? And eggs? Milk products? Yes, I know that one is hard. Can you do it one day a week? Or one meal a day? Look at what you’re eating. Maybe there are already vegan meals that are already part of your food culture. Give it a try. Give it one month, any month, the month that you alter your food culture habits and see what happens. 

Maybe you will fall in love with hummus too!

Old Slates, New Underneath

 

We’re doing a lot of walking around the neighbourhood during these pandemic lockdown days. There is a very old building—formally a school, currently the council archive offices. Well the whole building is getting a makeover, completely gutted. And the car park too, excavations, new drains everything. I think it’s going to look exquisite in the end. There are a couple beautiful lead capped spires that are being ‘renewed’. We walk by often to see what has happened and if we have any little people with us—well, there are diggers and cranes and exciting stuff!

They took the roof off. That means removing the 100+ year old slates. They were carefully stacked up at the top of the scaffolding that encircles the building. Piles of 10 or twenty slates. On another day a layer of blue membrane appeared on the roof trusses. Then on the blue the new fresh batons ready for slates to be nailed in place. At first I didn’t realise that they were going to put the old original slates back in place. But as day after day I saw the blue being covered by slate I realised these were the original slates. Now nearly all of the slates have been put back in place. 

It’s not all finished yet. It’s going to look old, same stone walls, same slates. But I bet the windows will look shinny and new. And of course I can’t wait to see what happens to that car park and will there be a completely new extension? We wait to see. 

The thing that’s been stirring me up is the old slates with new underneath. We are like that. Jesus has made us new, underneath. It’s all good, but we might look old on the outside. Our house has an original roof. After storms I go out and look to see if any of the slates have fallen or the clay tiles crashed to the ground. Because I know the wood underneath is old, I know the nails will fail eventually. But hey this other building is now set for a further hundred years of storms—slates held with new nails in new wood. And us? Those who put our trust in Jesus? Under the weary bodies—newness of life, set for eternity. Ready for the storms. So don’t be fooled, this weary body has been changed, refreshed, readied for battle in the secret places. And there are many like us. Old slates, new underneath.

That is why we never give up. Though our bodies are dying, our spirits are being renewed every day.

2 Cor 4:16

This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!

2 Cor 5:17

So in this town full of historic homes, lovely on the outside—but sometimes slowly rotting underneath, seeing this restoration reminds me that Jesus is restoring us from the inside out, preserving those key features that he built into us in the first place.

What's in your background?

I was on a call today when the person I was talking to said, ‘what’s that? Is that a Tonka truck?’ That’s when I had to explain that the guest room, turned zoom studio is also the overflow storage facility for things that aren’t presently needed, like toys for the beloved grandkids who haven’t been able to visit. 

I’m usually careful to check that the ‘background’ is pretty neutral—nothing offensive or distracting. But some things like a BIG YELLOW TRUCK are pretty recognisable. I forget that my zoom guests might have me on ‘full screen’ so that truck on the floor 5 feet behind my chair was probably very prominent in the backdrop. 

Of course there were other things just out of view. Stacks of books to give away, a bag of clothes for the charity shop and a bed with no sheets on it—just a pile of bedding. 

We’ve been studying the shema using the Bible Project in our small group. The charge Moses gives to the people, ‘Hear O Israel the Lord our God is one, love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul and strength’. Love God with everything, with your muchness. 

Tonka trucks are so recognisable because of their color and their shape. I hope that the way that I love God makes me unmistakably identified as a Christ follower. 

Lord there’s a mess in the background of my life, things I don’t know what to do with, things that won’t go away, but you are also there. I recognise you, the colour of your love, the shape of your kindness the presence of your Spirit. Thank you for being there.

#Tonka #BibleProject #Missions #Bible

 

My guest post for Elizabeth Musser

 In August my friend Elizabeth asked me to be a guest writer on her blog. After posting this on my Caring Bridge site, it was posted on her blog.

https://elizabethmusser.wordpress.com/2020/08/18/letters-to-the-lord-three-days/

the sound of my voice

A friend has been organising compline prayer via zoom on Sunday evenings during this odd pandemic season where we aren’t getting out much. It’s just 20 minutes of responsive readings and a short meditation—a poem or short reading. Just 10 of us speaking truths into the computer camera, united in our isolation. Proclaiming unity by sharing truth. It’s been a  place of solace for Wayne and I. A place where we have no responsibility. A place we are free to receive. 

But after a few weeks we said yes we will participate a little deeper, Do one of the readings, or two. And we read, precious words, truth to sustain us in difficult times and to encourage our hearts. 

Afterwards a message comes from my friend. ‘Why did i well-up so much when I heard each of you two Platts reading the bible aloud last night?’

Yes, why? Well because we had been in a group together a few years back. A group that read the bible together. In that same wider group of friends we also had a season of recording bible readings—our own audio bible reading plan—cooked up at a new years day discussion around our table. I think we called it ‘read the bible to me.’ It was a group that loved each other. 

And last week a friend tweeted that she had been recording for the new her.Bible. An audio Bible with women’s voices. I got very excited. I even said to one group of colleagues that maybe I was too excited about this. Why? one man asked. Because my experience with audio bibles has been like a call back to listening to the radio as a child. Doesn’t anyone else think these recordings sound like American radio presenters? Or some people swear by the David Suchet NIV recordings. But hey I’m a mystery fan—so Suchet will always be Inspector Pirot to me. That doesn’t exactly mesh with the Psalms or even I Peter. So I was very excited. My colleague said he would check it out. Why? Because his mother used to read him the bible out loud.  Oh, that a memory of a mothers voice would draw us to holy reading….

So I get the app going, I listen to one of the gospels. It’s good, I’m happy. But then I finally listen to Ecclesiastes. Is that my friend’s voice? Yes, it is. She’s not my friend down the road, she’s not a friend from church or work or school. She’s an author I met on a ministry trip. I did a writing workshop with her—on poetry. And here is her voice reading poetry—and suddenly I hear more than the scripture. I hear a strong brave woman. And I met her again on another trip and I have her books on my shelf. I keep listening and i hear her speaking about Jesus. I hear the wise words she said to me when we spoke at a table in the corner after the event. She is my friend and the sound of her voice calms my heart.

Is that what made my friend ‘well-up’ when we were reading during compline prayer? Is it that the sound of our voice brings so much more that the words? 

And Peter, what did he hear when Jesus asked him, Peter, do you love me? Did Peter hear all the times Jesus asked questions, do you want to be well? What do you want? Who do you say that I am? Why are you so afraid? Did he hear all the times he pulled Jesus aside and asked for help? Did he hear the compassion of the Jesus’ heart that raised a widows son?

But I guess my real question is what do people hear when they hear my voice? Especially my kids. Do they hear fun, compassion and love? I hope so. I’m sure they hear other things too…But I’m going to keep speaking so they have a fuller range. 

And it’s late and I’m writing this in the living room and a big spider is running across the floor so that’s all folks.

 

Given

My mother has this thing. A hobby horse, soap box, a campaign she is battling. She told me about it a year ago and it sounded familiar, like she had told me before. I agreed with her but didn’t have the same ferocity of spirit attached to the cause. But lately it has been growing in me. Not just because it is a wrong that needs correcting but because the wrong is blocking out a truth that is starting to impact me as I ponder it. And I wonder if you too have had this block, this detour that has in a subtle little way led you around a truth that could bring joy in this time of home isolation.

So complete this sentence, ‘this is my body, ____________. What came to mind? ‘Broken for you’? I have to admit it comes automatically to my mind. And since it’s been pointed out to me, well I’m noticing that others say it too, from memory, like they’ve heard it over and over.  And I’ve been watching a lot of online church during the lockdown and I’ve heard it several times. 

But we know that Jesus didn’t have any broken bones through his torture and cruxifixction experience. It was a fulfilment of prophecy that not one bone was broken. But we have a wider usage of the word broken. We often use it to mean emotional collapse. He was a broken man or She broke down at the news. We even talk about spiritual growth as being broken and then God restores us. I’m not arguing against any of those statements; I was broken by a cancer diagnosis. It’s just that we miss the point. 

The word is given. This is my body, given for you. That’s what Jesus says.  You might be reaching for your bible right now not really believing me. I did the same thing. And then I saw it in Luke. And then the other verses start crashing into the consciousness, ‘for God so loved the world that he gave…’ ‘the gift of God is eternal life….’ ‘he gave gifts’ 

Evidently upon further investigation the phrase ‘broken for you’ snuck into our tradition through the KJV translation. And there was some carry over in thinking that the verb for breaking the bread also applied to Jesus’ body. But you’ll not see it in the newer translations that take more manuscripts into account and have a more extensive look at the greek.

I just want to celebrate that Jesus gave his body for us. That he walked into the suffering. That he willingly laid down his life as our sacrifice to make payment for our sin. 

So then next time you're prompted to remember Jesus through the bread and the wine, read from Luke. and remember the giving nature of our heavenly Father who gave his son for us. And it would make my mother smile.

Luke 22:19

And He took bread, gave thanks, broke it, gave it to them, and said, “This is My body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of Me.”


*written 29 April 2020 during the pandemic lockdown regulations

Revive!

Well, it seems I still have a blog! At least I'll find out as soon as I publish this if it still works.

I can't even tell when the last post was made, but I can tell that it was before cancer.

And today is after cancer. I still have my blog on Caring Bridge. I've had such a good response to that and so many people have commented on my writing. But I didn't start that to write, I did it out of desperation; a way to communicate with a large group at once. And I've been blessed by so many responding in prayer and encouragement. But I've kept the subject matter on that site limited to cancer related stuff and wonderfully life now has a lot more stuff than just appointments and crying into my granola in the morning.

And I'm going to this conference next month in San Jose, CA. More about that later.