My Current Favorite Indulgence

HO-LEE-COW is this stuff good.

I have - well, had - a full bar of this in my desk drawer for the past week. Little by little, it has disappeared. Actually, I bought this with the full intent to give it away as a Christmas present. But then right before Christmas I lost it. But when we returned to Bloomington, lo and behold it was right there in a paper bag in my office.

Don't you just hate it when that happens?

(And I'm totally excited, because there is still another bar in that bag - a minty flavored one. Clearly that New Year's diet isn't my #1 priority for 2009!)

What I really appreciate about this chocolate - in addition to the tremendous taste - is that is fair trade chocolate. I keep reading - both online and in magazines - that the chocolate industy is altogether too buddy-buddy with an industry I despise - the slavery business. There is perhaps no ugliness in this world that irks me to my very core like the idea of human trafficking.

I think this issue is near and dear to the heart of a just and merciful God, and I think He may have had something to do with laying this issue so significantly on my heart the past couple of years. I know He did, and I pray for areas where I can get involved. Which leads me back to chocolate...

According to Steve Chalke of Stop the Traffik, almost 50% of the world's chocolate is produced by children trapped into slavery and forced to produce cocoa beans.

Fifty percent? That is crazy and terrifying to me.

So here we go - a resolution for 2009: I will not buy chocolate this year that isn't fair trade certified.

No M&Ms or Hershey's Kisses. Goodbye $.75 chocolate bars - hello incredible chocolatey goodness, at $3.50 a pop. It is a baby step, but a way I can be involved and aware nonetheless. I hope it leads to more.