Juicing, Diapers, and Jesus

Dark green lettuces – ¼ to ½ of a head
Escarole – 2 or 3 leaves
Beet tops (young inner leaves) – 2 to 3 leaves
Watercress – 5 or 6 leaves
Red cabbage – 2 or 3 leaves
Green bell pepper – ¼
Swiss chard – little
Green apple – 1

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I thought I'd probably hate juicing. Drinking green veggie juices. Yuck. Green juice even looks gross.

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I have a friend that literally cured herself from cancer through juicing and some additional holistic therapies (http://gerson.org/gerpress/the-gerson-therapy/). She blogs about her experiences. She posts on Facebook about her experiences, juices, why others should juice, the benefits of juicing, juicy-juice-juice. All. The. Time.

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I started juicing vegetables a few months ago, and I LOVE it. I now consume far more organic produce than I ever did before. I crave the juice. Every time I drink it I think, man, I wish it were less time-consuming to juice so I could juice with every meal. Yummmmm!

My friend asked today on Facebook what inspired others to start juicing. I honestly answered that her story and her many, many, many Facebook posts were the sole reason that I started juicing.

My friend's incessant posts popping up on my Facebook feed over about the course of a year slowly led me from considering purchasing a juicer ($300 on a machine to make juice that I didn't really think I'd like drink?!), to deciding to purchase a Vitamix (so I could prepare more healthy / raw foods... and maybe juice with it if I decided to), to finally attempting a juice with the Vitamix (I went for carrot-apple first, cause I figured if I couldn't down that combo there was no way I was going to like a green juice), to LOVING juicing, yes even green juices, and wanting to include more and more organic produce into my diet. My two year old son also loves his green juice, and that makes me feel great!

My friend effectively used social media advertising to lead me to change my lifestyle. And I don't think I'm the only one she has effected.
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While recognizing the power of one person's Facebook posts on my life, it's time to reflect on what messages I am putting out there. What are my posts, tweets, and blog entries promoting? What (if anything) do I want them to be promoting or discouraging?

I often want to blog about cloth diapers. And cloth diapering is something I'd like to promote. Though I fear blogging about products may promote materialism in me and others, the opportunity to help people save lots of money and to avoid putting thousands and THOUSANDS of disposable diapers in a landfill on God's good earth (~8k per child) tips the scales in my mind... though still with some reservation. And there are some potential health benefits to boot.

What my heart really, really wants to promote is Jesus. Grace. The pursuit of God. No reservations. But it feels kind of awkward to feel like I'm "advertising" Jesus.

I wish I could just be more natural and authentic about things. But the truth is I'm analytic and self conscious and I over-think things. If I'm going to post about Jesus or cloth diapers, I'm thinking about the people who might be reading my post and what they might be thinking about it. Except perhaps during those rare moment when I'm too tired to really notice or care what people are thinking.

But, Jesus is definitely worth sharing, even if it feels awkward. I once heard that on average a person needs to hear the good news seven times before they welcome it into their story.

It took way more than seven times hearing about juicing for me to change my lifestyle. It took way more than seven exposures to people who truly believe and live the good news for me to receive new life.

I am thankful for my friend's incessant posts about juicing, because it helped me make healthier life choices for me and my family.

I am SO, SO, SO thankful for the family, friends, and acquaintances* who were brave enough to share about Jesus and God's gift of grace with me, even when it probably felt really, really awkward for them to do so. And also for the love they showed to me. Because 'if they had spoken in the tongues of men or angels but did not have love, they would have only been a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.'

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In conclusion and in full disclosure, I may be doing some Facebook posting about cloth diapering and about Jesus in full knowledge that social media advertising can change lives. I will try to do so in love. And hey, at least I'm being frank about it!

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(*That means you, brother Heath, sis-in-law Jacque, Nathan G., and others.)