Do no harm, but do make an impact
I watched a show a couple of weeks ago. It was an episode of
Thirty Days. Two city dwellers went for 30 days to live "off the
grid" with a group of people living communally growing organic food
and living without what most of us think are necessary.
The group uses only solar power for electricity. The few cars they
possess run on vegetable oil that they get from restaurants after the
french fries are cooked. They strain the oil and then pour it into
cars that have been adapted for this purpose.
They talk about having zero environmental impact. In other words they
do not want the earth to be any the worse of for their having lived on
it.
It is kind of a grand scale of my trip to a park the other day. On
the way in someone handed me a garbage bag and invited me to take
everything with me that I brought, so that I would have no impact on
the park.
They know very well that all of us are not going to go "off the
grid." The two who visited for 30 days had a hard time of it. But
the other people choose to live that way. And they hope that others
may learn something from the way they live.
So while they hope to have zero impact on the environment, they would
like to have an impact on society. They would like to invite all of
us to rethink the way we live. Are there ways that we can lessen our
impact? Are there ways that we can be kinder to the environment?
Do we need all that we have? Do we need larger cars and bigger and
better everything? These are good questions to ask ourselves.
As Christians, we may not talk about zero impact as we strive to be
good stewards. That is okay, because in another sense we strive for
maximum impact. We want to do as much with what God has given us for
the good of God's people. We do not just want the earth to be no worse
of for our having lived on it. We want the world to be a better place
for our having been here to share the bounty that God has given us.
Lord,
We thank you for giving us enough to share and people to share with.
May we learn from each other how to care for your world.
Amen
Copyright (c)
2005, The Rev. Dana Reardon. All rights reserved. Used by permission. Email her at
mspastor@aol.com.
The Rev. Dana Reardon is pastor at St.
Paul Evangelical Lutheran Church, Warwick, RI. A lifelong Lutheran, she
came to ordained ministry after 21 years in nursing, mostly in pediatric
intensive care. She graduated from Lutheran Theological Seminary at
Philadelphia in 1998 and served 4 ½ years in Upstate New York before
becoming a New Englander. She is still trying to understand the
accent. While in the Upstate New York Synod she chaired the Stewardship
Team. That began her fascination with what makes stewards -- and more,
what makes for generosity.
She
has three amazing daughters: Pastor Reardon says much of what she knows of
life she learned from them.
