I read in the newspaper the other day that the Prime Minister of the Maldives had decided to convene his cabinet under water (fully kitted in scuba gear of course) as a statement to the world that we need to seriously look at global warming because the Maldives (with the highest landmass of 2.3m above sea level) would be one of the first countries in the world to completely disappear when the polar ice caps melt.
I have to admit that I was more than a little unsettled by the article. What does it mean to us as people that an entire country will more than likely be under water in the next fifty years because of our collective actions? And I have to fight off my reaction of saying “but it’s not just me, this problem is much bigger than just my actions, what can I realistically do to change anything?”, but if the example of the church and the methods of Jesus are to be heard, then we see that the small efforts of many make up the big effort of the whole. The disciples went out and spoke to some who influenced others and they influenced others etc, etc.
If we believe that God has entrusted this planet and it’s welfare to us, then we need to start individually making a difference – and pretty soon those individual differences will start making a bigger difference. For instance, did you know St John’s is a recycling drop off point? What kind of difference could we make to our world’s environment if all of us put out 1/3 less rubbish each week and gave it in for recycling? Our small effort can start the change!
God has called us to be a community and to live in harmony with our world, we know that faith goes far beyond just our soul, but stretches to our body and our environment. This isn’t the next generations problem, it’s ours, so what are we doing to live out a faith that takes into consideration all that it means to live – and to live well and abundantly?
Yours Brett
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