Sacred vs. Selfish

Then God looked over all he had made, and he saw that it was very good!
--Genesis 1:31

In continuation with the ideas raised in yesterday’s post, I would like to offer a bit of what I see as a part of our ongoing creation responsibility to “do the work of God in the world.” This involves something that doesn’t seem particularly religions per se, but in truth really gets to the heart of how we see God and the world that He has made.

I have been captivated recently by the idea of “going green”—by the ongoing effort to reduce the imprint of our lives on the physical world around us. More specifically, I was listening to a sermon the other day in which the speaker said that if we were going to call ourselves the church or the people of God, then we should be leading the way in taking care of that which God created and which He apparently loves and thinks very highly of.

Put simply, I like this idea, and yet I am very humbled by it. I am totally on board with the idea that God loves his creation (not just people, but all of the created world), and that since it has value in His sight, then it should have value in ours as well. But at the same time, I know my own laziness, selfishness, and greed. I know the darkness in my own heart, and I know the voice that says “Don’t worry about it…it’s not your fault….it’s someone else’s problem…you’re not that bad…” and so on.

So how do we deal with this? I guess the root question that I am asking is not really how do we take care of the earth, but rather how do we address this selfishness in practical, significant, and lasting ways?

Comments

[Nate]

I was going to address this in comments yesterday and then backed off of it.

The truth is, there are a zillion ways out there to "go green" that don't involve "huge" sacrifice. We can't all buy hybrid cars, for example, but we can be responsible about power usage in our own homes, participating in local agriculture, etc. A lot of books and articles are out there for those who are curious.

My struggle is this: I see a symptom like my own refusal to go green, and immediately start looking for the root cause. Once I find that, I start working on it rather than whatever it was producing; I start working on my selfishness and greed instead of actually doing anything about what it has wrought.

In the midst of this I've learned that it's sometimes helpful to work backwards, that, say, showing kindness to someone with whom you're deeply angry or vexed can be part of the healing, instead of waiting for that anger to be healed before going to them.

[T Town Tommy]

How do we address these issues? One person at a time...
"Faith is taking the first step even when you don't see the whole staircase. "
~MLK Jr.