I spend quite a bit of time examining my mind and heart throughout the course of the day. I'm not sure whether this habit serves as evidence of growing in Godliness or not, sometimes I think that I'm just someone who finds himself far too interesting. In fact I know I find myself too interesting. Thats not what I want to write about, however. Several weeks ago, during one of these introspective sessions, the question occurred to me "Do You Need God?". I spent some time examining whether I felt like I needed God, whether I felt myself as being intimately connected to God, or whether I just wanted God for various reasons but that I didn't need Him. (for all you philosophers, yes, I am quite aware of the difference between feeling and thinking, but sometimes in spiritual matters it is hard to discern which is which). In all honesty, my answers for the first two questions were "no, I don't feel as though I need God and no, I don't feel intimately connected to Him". This bothered me, but in my obsessing over my emotional alienation from God is occurred to me that I was asking myself the wrong question at that moment, and that I had probably been doing so my entire life. It occurred to me that my need for God isn't something that waxes and wanes, or that really in any way in dependent on me. Instead, I am in need of God whether I am aware of it or not. In fact, to be human is to be in need of God. I live in a constant state of dependency on Him.
This is important to understand for a host of reasons, but here is why it applies to my original idea. I was in a place of not seeing my need for God, and it opened my eyes why sin of any kind is so destructive. Yes, it can have social and personal physical ramifications, but I think the real problem is sin tells us we have no need for God. Sin tells us that our sex drive, our desire for success, our desire for completion, our desire to work hard, our desire for friendship, etc, can all be satisfied fully without God, that they are all on requal standing with God. God then becomes another pawn in our pursuit of happiness rather than the chief object of our desire and aspiration. The Creator becomes, in a very real way, another part of the created world, wherein you can choose either to be fully satisfied by a career or a marital (or just romantic, or just sexual) relationship or pursuing a dream or by dedicating your life to the Lord, or at least thats what sin wants us to think.
When dealing with the living, active, personal God of the Bible, we are not interacting with ANOTHER way to be happy in a long line of equally fulfilling options. We are interacting with the ONLY thing that can fulfill our desires. In the salvific act, God isn't only saving you from the dominion of sin, He is also saving you from yourself and your skewed perceptions and desires that would have you think that your longing can be fulfilled according to your fancies and whims. Sin's first lie isn't that a bad thing is good, its that a good thing can replace God.
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Thursday, April 1, 2010
Christian Consumerism
The other day, a couple of people from back home that I know were joking online about the recent event wherein everyone on earth was supposed to turn their lights off for an hour at the same time. These friends of mine joked that they were going to go out and buy as many lights as they could and turn them all on during that hour in order to spite the environmentalists.
Thats stupid, and here is why:
In the ongoing rhetoric war between the "conservative Right" and the "liberal Left", caring for the environment has been pigeon-holed as one of the dominant traits of left-wing radicalists and hippies who hate capitalism and the big-spending prosperity that it incites. "Environmentalism" has, because of ignorance and sensationalism on both sides, become a political orientation akin to the Right's Abortionalism (i like my new word). This is important because it then becomes easy for Christian conservatives to dismiss environmental concerns from their spectrum of important issues because of their resistance to the political ideals of some of the more vocal advocates of the environmentalism movement or agenda. There is no excuse for liberals or conservatives to dramatize and politicize this issue. The fact still remains that whatever our political affiliation may be, we are facing some very real environmental issues. This article discusses some of the social impacts that the massive water shortage is having in California, an issue that has arisen in large part because of a lack of responsibility both on the part of agricultural corporations and individual consumption.
So what does this have to do with Christian Consumerism?
It is time for us, as Christians, to stop our addiction to the excesses of prosperity. For too long, many of us have seen the ethos of concern for the environment's structure and longevity as a political issue, like the issue of public education (more on that later). Our response to a movement to reduce our consumption and increase our material self-control shouldn't be one of mockery, rejection, or resentment but rather of action and encouragement. Christians should be the ones spear-heading the movement for conserving and protecting the environment. Just as Adam was, so we too are commanded by God to be good stewards of the earth and, more specifically, the resources He has given to us. There are alot of sticky situations that arise in the discussion of value judgments concerning the environment (i.e. do we build a dam for clean hydroelectric power and thereby ruin the surrounding ecosystem), but answering those questions is not the purpose of this article. Instead, I think that we as Christian conservatives could use a recalibration of our view of the environment.
God has called us to be good stewards of His Creation, not to continue in harmful excess in order to spite political rivals. Environmentalists are wrong about alot of things, but their campaign to raise awareness of the excessive and unnecessary levels of our material consumption as Americans, and the impact it is having on our environment, is something that we should pay close attention to.
It's not only rational, its Godly.
Thats stupid, and here is why:
In the ongoing rhetoric war between the "conservative Right" and the "liberal Left", caring for the environment has been pigeon-holed as one of the dominant traits of left-wing radicalists and hippies who hate capitalism and the big-spending prosperity that it incites. "Environmentalism" has, because of ignorance and sensationalism on both sides, become a political orientation akin to the Right's Abortionalism (i like my new word). This is important because it then becomes easy for Christian conservatives to dismiss environmental concerns from their spectrum of important issues because of their resistance to the political ideals of some of the more vocal advocates of the environmentalism movement or agenda. There is no excuse for liberals or conservatives to dramatize and politicize this issue. The fact still remains that whatever our political affiliation may be, we are facing some very real environmental issues. This article discusses some of the social impacts that the massive water shortage is having in California, an issue that has arisen in large part because of a lack of responsibility both on the part of agricultural corporations and individual consumption.
So what does this have to do with Christian Consumerism?
It is time for us, as Christians, to stop our addiction to the excesses of prosperity. For too long, many of us have seen the ethos of concern for the environment's structure and longevity as a political issue, like the issue of public education (more on that later). Our response to a movement to reduce our consumption and increase our material self-control shouldn't be one of mockery, rejection, or resentment but rather of action and encouragement. Christians should be the ones spear-heading the movement for conserving and protecting the environment. Just as Adam was, so we too are commanded by God to be good stewards of the earth and, more specifically, the resources He has given to us. There are alot of sticky situations that arise in the discussion of value judgments concerning the environment (i.e. do we build a dam for clean hydroelectric power and thereby ruin the surrounding ecosystem), but answering those questions is not the purpose of this article. Instead, I think that we as Christian conservatives could use a recalibration of our view of the environment.
God has called us to be good stewards of His Creation, not to continue in harmful excess in order to spite political rivals. Environmentalists are wrong about alot of things, but their campaign to raise awareness of the excessive and unnecessary levels of our material consumption as Americans, and the impact it is having on our environment, is something that we should pay close attention to.
It's not only rational, its Godly.
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