Leah Maasen

May 9, 2018May 19, 2018

Why Followers of Jesus Should Care About Fair Trade

A year ago, I was actively involved in the oppression and enslavement of men, women, and children around the world. Every day, decisions that I made and money I mindlessly spent supported evil businessman that used people in desperate situations to get rich. And I had no idea.

One fall afternoon I was looking for something to watch on Netflix and began streaming the film The True Cost. What I saw over the next hour and a half incited feelings of nausea, devastation, and rage. And the way I view clothes has not been the same ever since.

The film gives an overview of the fashion industry, and how the majority of clothes around the world are produced. They interviewed actual factory workers who told of their experiences. One woman’s story, in particular, chilled me to the bone. She told of how she tried to unionize for fairer pay, as most garment workers make roughly $2 per day. Due to her request, she and her coworkers were locked in a room, beaten, struck with scissors, and forced to continue working. As she told her story, choking back tears, she cried, “I don’t want people to wear clothes that were made with our blood.”

This is a normal occurrence around the world in garment factories and cotton farms. Children are forced out of school to pick cotton in brutal conditions. People are forced to work in dangerous conditions for little to no money.

On the other side of the globe, we are fueling this horrible industry. We buy clothes as a hobby, and we never have enough. We trample people for the best Black Friday deals, as if the stuff we can buy is more important than the people around us, and the people making these items for us to purchase.

Google “Rana Plaza Collapse”. Rana Plaza was a building that housed multiple garment factories in Bangladesh. The factory owners received several warnings about the structural integrity of the building, as large cracks in the building were discovered. Regardless, the garment factory bosses ordered their workers to continue coming to work. It collapsed in 2013, killing 1,134 people and injuring thousands more. Many companies were having clothes made in these factories, including J.C. Penney, Walmart, The Children’s Place, Primark, Zara, and more.

Isaiah 1:17 says, “Learn to do right; seek justice. Defend the oppressed. Take up the cause of the fatherless; plead the case of the widow.”

Injustice and oppression are the driving forces of much of the clothing industry. Let’s refuse to turn a blind eye to this. Instead, let’s commit to seek justice and defend the oppressed. Here are a few steps that I have found helpful in this journey:

1. Buy less. How many clothes do you actually need? Most people around the world, outside of North America and Europe, have a minimal number of outfits if they have more than one. I’m not saying get rid of all your clothes and become a minimalist. But before you buy your fourth pair of black shoes or your seventh blue t-shirt, ask yourself, “Do I really need this?”

2. Buy Fair-Trade. Clothes that are certified Fair-Trade ensure that people are treated well. By buying these clothes, you can actually support the garment worker themselves, and allow them to continue their craft.

3. Find a few companies that are committed to treating people well, and become a committed customer. A few that I have started shopping at are Everlane, Krochet Kids International, Pact, and Oliberte.

This may be all new for you, and you are processing the devastating reality of the clothing industry. If you are coming to grips with this reality, I encourage you to commit to the charge of Isaiah 1:17. Seek justice. Defend the oppressed.

April 24, 2018May 26, 2018

Using the Enneagram as a Tool for Spiritual Growth

If you’ve been around Christian circles lately, chances are you’ve heard about the Enneagram (pronounced any-uh-gram). You may have been asked, “Hey, what’s your number?” Or maybe you’ve been typed by someone, and they’ve exclaimed, “Ugh, you’re such a 3!”

While dozens are flocking to the Enneagram, others are wondering, isn’t it just like every other personality test? Our culture is obsessed with BuzzFeed articles, personality tests, and Meyers-Brigg letters. Amidst this culture of quizzes and profiles, the Enneagram is often dismissed as “Just another personality test.” While many personality tests provide surface-level results that often aren’t worth our time, the Enneagram has a much deeper value. When used appropriately, the Enneagram can be used as a tool for tremendous spiritual growth.

So, what exactly is the Enneagram? It’s an ancient personality typing system with 9 different core types, designated with the numbers 1-9. Each type has a different set of nuances and variations as well. Here are the 9 types:

Type 1 – The Reformer

Type 2 – The Helper

Type 3 – The Achiever

Type 4 – The Individualist

Type 5 – The Investigator

Type 6 – The Loyalist

Type 7 – The Enthusiast

Type 8 – The Challenger

Type 9 – The Peacemaker

What’s different about the Enneagram is that it doesn’t focus as much on what you do, but rather, what drives you. So, for example, Type 1’s are driven by a desire to be good, and Type 2’s are driven by a desire to feel loved. What the Enneagram does so powerfully is shone a light on the motivations that drive us, that we are oftentimes unaware of.

In his book The Road Back to You, Ian Cron explains how each type is often drawn to particular sin patterns. For example, Type 5’s are drawn to greed, while Type 4’s are drawn to envy. By developing an awareness of our inclinations and motivations, we are able to intentionally take steps towards Jesus and the life He is calling us to. Psalm 119:59 echoes this truth. It says, “I have considered my ways and have turned my steps to your statutes.” In addition, Lamentations 3:40 says, “Let us examine our ways and test them, and let us return to the Lord.”

While some can use the Enneagram as a means of self-help and self-absorption, it can be a helpful tool when kept in its rightful place. The Enneagram was made by man, therefore it has flaws. Scripture is the only place we can go for unchanging absolute Truth. We must keep this in mind with every book, podcast, personality test, and sermon that we listen to or read. Everything should be viewed through the lens of Scripture, and if it does not agree with Scripture, then it is incorrect.

While not every book or teaching on the Enneagram is biblically accurate, there are several resources that provide tremendous help in spiritual growth based on your number. My caution is to hold up every resource to Scripture, understand that there is a nuance to the Enneagram and it is simply a guideline, and to use the Enneagram as a tool to grow closer to Jesus. If you are using the Enneagram and instead feel as though you are walking away from the truth of Scripture, I would urge you to stop or find a Biblical counselor to walk through the Enneagram with you.

So if you haven’t explored the Enneagram, I highly encourage you to do so! It’s very eye-opening and can be used as a great tool for spiritual formation. There are Enneagram tests online, but the results can vary based on how you answer different questions, which can be affected by your mood or any number of things. In my opinion, a better way to determine your type is to read through the type descriptions on The Enneagram Institute’s website. After reading through the types, you will most likely have a really good idea of which type you are. After discovering your type, continue to investigate your type. Use what you learn to walk closer to Jesus, falling hard on His grace, and continuing to be renewed in Him.

April 10, 2018April 10, 2018

You Matter: God Knows You

“It feels like God has forgotten about me,” cried the woman mourning her third miscarriage.

“Why won’t God answer my prayer for a job?” begged the man who got laid off six months ago, with a wife and four kids at home.

Can you relate to any of these hurting people?

Maybe you aren’t suffering from a natural disaster, miscarriage, or job loss. Maybe for you, it’s racial discrimination, sickness, loneliness, fear, church hurt, fill-in-the-blank. No matter what it is, we are guaranteed to face hardship in this life.

This isn’t news. We all know that because of sin, life is going to be hard until Jesus returns to Earth. We know that trials will come sooner or later.

But then, when they do come, something changes. The idea of hardship becomes a reality, and everything gets much, much harder. Knowing hardships happen is a lot different when you are actually walking through them. From the outside, we know that God is in control and has a plan for us. But in the midst of hardship, we tend to lose sight of this truth. We forget that God is in control, and will ultimately deliver us from every trial, whether in this age or the age to come. Instead, we can begin believing that God has forgotten us.

One of my favorite verses in the Old Testament is in Exodus 2. The people of Israel were enslaved by Egypt, and they were crying out to God for deliverance. Egypt was working them to the bone and treating them like dirt. All hope seemed lost as they cried out to God to save them from their bondage.

Exodus 2:23-25 says, “During those many days the king of Egypt died, and the people of Israel groaned because of their slavery and cried out for help. Their cry for rescue from slavery came up to God. And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. God saw the people of Israel—and God knew.“

God sees you. He knows what you’re going through.

In the midst of the hardest trial, this verse brings a breath of hope.

Romans 8:27-37 says, “What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written, ‘For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.’ No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.”

In all these things – natural disasters, miscarriages, job losses, racial discrimination, sickness, loneliness, fear, church hurt, fill-in-the-blanks – we are more than conquerors through Jesus.

Because of Jesus, we can be confident in the truth that nothing will separate us from His love. If you are in the midst of hardship, linger over the words of Romans 8. Read them every morning, believing that God is in control, and is interceding for you.

God sees you. God knows you. Cling to Him.

April 4, 2018

Does Prayer Really Make a Difference?

If you and I were having coffee together, and I asked you, “Hey, how’s your prayer life?”, how would you respond?

I know for most followers of Jesus, myself included, prayer is one of those things that we know we should do, but struggle making it a regular practice throughout our daily life.

Like any relationship, communication with Jesus is vital if we actually want to grow closer to Him. So we commit to pray. We sit down in the morning with our coffee and Bible, and start praying. It feels awkward, and we start to stumble through different things to pray for. We look at the clock after we’ve prayed for everything we can think of, and three minutes have passed. We get discouraged, pull out our phone, and give in to the noise of social media rather than the calming presence of our Creator.

I don’t know if you can relate to this scenario, but it strikes close to home for me. We want to pray. But it feels awkward, boring, and we quickly run out of things to say. And then we wonder, does my praying even make a difference?

Theologian Dallas Willard wrote, “The idea that everything would happen exactly as it does regardless of whether we pray or not is a specter that haunts the minds of many who sincerely profess belief in God. It makes prayer psychologically impossible, replacing it with dead ritual at best.” If God is good, all knowing, and all powerful, why do we need to pray anyway? Since God is ultimately in control, everything is going to happen the way it’s going to happen…right?

While this is a common assumption for a lot of us, it is far from what Scripture says about prayer. One story in Exodus completely blows this assumption to smithereens. Let’s take a look at it.

The story is in Exodus 32, when God was talking with Moses. Verses 7-14 details their conversation. It says, “The Lord told Moses, ‘Quick! Go down the mountain! Your people whom you brought from the land of Egypt have corrupted themselves. How quickly they have turned away from the way I commanded them to live! They have melted down gold and made a calf, and they have bowed down and sacrificed to it. They are saying, ‘These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you out of the land of Egypt.’’’¨’¨Then the Lord said, ‘I have seen how stubborn and rebellious these people are. Now leave me alone so my fierce anger can blaze against them, and I will destroy them. Then I will make you, Moses, into a great nation.’’¨’¨But Moses tried to pacify the Lord his God. ‘O Lord!’ he said. ‘Why are you so angry with your own people whom you brought from the land of Egypt with such great power and such a strong hand? Why let the Egyptians say, ‘Their God rescued them with the evil intention of slaughtering them in the mountains and wiping them from the face of the earth’? Turn away from your fierce anger. Change your mind about this terrible disaster you have threatened against your people! Remember your servants Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. You bound yourself with an oath to them, saying, ‘I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars of heaven. And I will give them all of this land that I have promised to your descendants, and they will possess it forever.’’ So the Lord changed his mind about the terrible disaster he had threatened to bring on his people.”

Don’t miss what just happened…God was going to do one thing, Moses pleaded with Him to do something else, so God changed His mind. Do you realize that your prayers have the same power today that Moses’ prayer had?

Mark 11:24 says, “Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.”

God wants an active relationship with you, which means back and fourth conversation. We are to be active participants in this relationship, rather than mere bystanders just waiting to see what God will do. That means that we must pray, expecting God to listen and respond to our prayer.

Let me clarify, I’m not advocating for a health-and-wealth Gospel. Some teachers declare that if you just have enough faith and name what you want, it will be yours. This is not what I’m saying. Health-and-wealth teaching is dangerous and far from biblical truth.

What I am saying is, let’s raise our view of prayer. God wants to engage in conversation with us, and will act on our prayers. He is a Good Father who listens to His children.

1 John 5:14-15 says, “And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him.”

April 2, 2018November 13, 2018

Why the Resurrection of Jesus Matters in the 21st Century

On Easter morning, thousands of people put on their nicest dresses, ties, and hairstyles and went to a Church gathering. Many had big meals with family, and continue to celebrate all day long. As you go to these celebrations and church services, you may be asking, why does Easter really matter? Why does the Church celebrate something that happened 2000 years ago? Does it still matter today, in the 21^st century? And if so, what does it have to do with me?

If you are asking these questions, I’m so glad you’re here. Let me tell you, if you believe the message of Easter, which is the resurrection of Jesus Christ, your life will be completely altered forever. So with that, let’s look at why Easter is important.

The entire Bible tells one big, continuous story that points to Jesus. In Genesis, we read about God creating everything; the earth, space, oceans, land, plants, and animals, night and day”¦and the peak of His creation, man and woman. God created us in His image, and He created us to live in relationship with Him.

However, we decided to rebel against God. This tore us from being in a perfect relationship with Him and set us up for a life of pain and death.

Despite our rebellion, God had a plan to restore a relationship with us and to make everything right again. In Genesis 3, God promises to one day send Someone to defeat sin and death, and save His people. In Genesis 3:15, God said to the devil, “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”

This foreshadowing of Jesus’ coming continues throughout the Old Testament. God makes a promise to a man named Abraham, that He will make a great nation of his family, and one day, this promised savior would come from his family line. This family became the nation of Israel.

The rest of the Old Testament shows how God pursues Israel, despite their constant rebellion against Him. Then, we come to the book of Matthew. A virgin became pregnant and named the baby Jesus. This baby was fully God and fully man. He lived a sinless life and modeled what true life looks like. He spent the majority of his first 30 years of life as a carpenter. He then became a Jewish rabbi and began to disciple 12 apprentices. He spent the next three years of his life preaching, teaching, performing miracles, and healing people.

Jesus’ message was scandalous. The religious leaders and government officials were threatened by Him. They devised a plan to have Him killed. He was stripped, beaten, and then hung on a cross to die. He was put in a tomb, and His followers mourned. Was He not who He said He was? Was He not the One promised in Genesis that would save us?

Three days passed, and all hope seemed lost. A few of the women who followed Jesus went to the tomb where His body lay, but they were shocked to find the stone rolled away, and an empty tomb. Instead, there were two angels there to greet them. The women fell to the floor, terrified and confused.

Luke 24:5-8 says, “And as they were frightened and bowed their faces to the ground, the men said to them, ‘Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen. Remember how he told you, while he was till in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified and on the third day rise.’”

Jesus paid the price for our sin, conquered sin and death, and now reigns victoriously! He promised that He would one day come back to Earth, to ultimately restore all things. He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right-hand of the Father, where He will be until He returns to Earth again.

That is what we celebrate on Easter. If you trust in Jesus and follow Him, you will have eternal life in Jesus. He invites you into His Kingdom, and that life starts as soon as you turn to Him. When you enter the Kingdom of God, His Spirit comes inside you and helps you to walk in intimacy with Him, and newness of life. Romans 8:11 says, “If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.”

This life that Jesus offers isn’t easy. It’s messy, scandalous, and different than anything the world has to offer. It is the only way to a life that offers true life, satisfaction, and joy.

In John 16:33, Jesus said, “I have said these things to you, that you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”

I don’t know what you’re facing today, but Jesus promised we would face tribulation in this world. It could be a lost job, a scary diagnosis, family strife, an unplanned pregnancy, fill-in-the-blank”¦No matter what you’re going through, cling to Jesus as your hope! He has overcome the world and is bigger than anything you can face in this life!

So as your Easter festivities wind down and you go back to your daily life, I challenge you to look to Jesus. If you have not yet turned to Him and begun walking in the life He offers, would you consider it? He is so much better than anything this world can give you. He loves you and is eagerly waiting for you to call out to Him.

“Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.” Revelation 3:20