Passive?

To those who think that prayer is passive:

Those who really press and involve God with this petition in the expectation that he will answer it, as people who are seriously and fundamentally disquieted and startled, press and involve themselves too in their own plac and manner as people and within the limits of their own human capabilities and possibilities. They declare, and within their limits take on responsibility, that in the matter about which they pray to God something will be done correspondingly by them.

(Karl Barth, The Christian Life, p. 169; quoted in John Webster's Holiness, p. 76).

Perhaps that's why I'm sometimes reluctant to pray: I don't want to have to act on that prayer. I don't want to be that person who says a mindless prayer and forgets whatever-it-was. I want to care--but not too much.

Prayers for the Philippines

I hope that all of you will join me and so many others in praying for the Philippines in the aftermath of Typhoon Haiyan.

If you'd like to do something a bit more down-to-earth, GreaterGood.com currently has a click-to-donate where money from the clicks is donated to relief efforts in the Philippines.
(Correction: the daily click on GreaterGood.com is no longer for relief in the Philipines.)

MY impact?

A lot of the rhetoric these days around activism and helping people focuses on this idea that every person can "make a difference." In some ways this language is helpful (it reminds people that God can use even the smallest action to do amazing things, for instance), but in other ways it is incredibly destructive. It puts all of the pressure on US--it is the person who is making the difference, not the God who is working through her/him. It's an incredible amount of pressure, to feel that each person must go out and almost force change to happen, or that each person must make change despite their pitiful contribution or unresolved sin or finite amount of time.

Yes, the actions of each person are so important--God cannot act if we do not choose to act! But God's actions are so much more vital. God is the one who is changing hearts, fighting the spiritual battles, giving us strength when we have none, opening doors, making possible the impossible, pointing out problems that no one sees...

God is the one who will create change. So when you feel that you cannot possibly make a difference, that you don't have enough money or energy or time or anything else, just remember that God is the one who does all the real work. You will not fail or succeed based on your own strength or intelligence or passion.

Trash

Trash is something that we simply accept as part of modern life. What would we do without disposable ... well, everything?

Think about it. What do you use that can be used only once or a few times?
-paper plates and napkins
-trash bags
-contact lenses
-play programs/church bulletins/class handouts
-plastic bottles and containers (for soap, food, toys, gadgets....)
-aluminum cans
-wrapping paper
-tissues
-"to-go" food and drink containers...

I'm sure I could have thought of more. The average American produces 4.5 pounds of trash every day!! That is just beyond ridiculous. (The problems this creates are also ridiculous: this trash must be either buried or burned, but we're running out of places to bury it, and there's so many chemicals in everything that burning it is literally dangerous. A lot of this waste ends up being shipped to other countries, where poorer people get to deal with it. There is almost literally an island of trash in the Pacific Ocean, wreaking utter havoc on the wildlife and ecosystems there.)

All this trash is just incredibly wasteful. God's creation is not infinite, and filling it with trash does not honor its Creator.

I have stopped using disposable plates/food containers/silverware whenever possible. I have stopped using disposable feminine products. I recycle anything I can. What can you do to lessen what you throw away?

Global Warming

The IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) has released a new report that climate change is definitely human-caused and definitely will cause changes in the next hundred years:

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2013/sep/27/ipcc-climate-report-un-secretary-general

Pray for an end to climate change--and act to make it happen!

A Difference?

Sometimes when I pray it just seems like what I'm doing is useless. There is so much need--how can I pray for it all? How can my small, quick prayers for one tiny aspect of one problem ever help anything?

For whatever reason The Starfish Story occurred to me recently. It deals with that doubt almost perfectly. Go read it. May it inspire you as it inspired me.

Even small actions make a difference.

A Prayer

Lord, you have given us this beautiful with the ability to harvest its products for our nourishment and comfort. Yet in our greed we are robbing future generations, poisoning your world and destroying many of your creatures. Help us, dear Lord, to come to our senses, to know that we interfere with your world at our peril, for it is your hand, not ours, that rules your world, for you created the universe and we have been put on earth to look after it in your Name.                                                                                                   Amen

(Souce: Christian EcologyLink's August 2013 Prayer Guide)

Passion for Prayer

My passion for prayer has been rather small these past few weeks, to say the least. I've been busy and tired and stressed, with so many other things on my mind that I've been trying to work out with God. I'm not entirely sure how that all made me think not praying was OK, but too late now. I haven't been praying much lately. I've probably gotten through three or four days' worth of species prayers in the past two weeks. I've been feeling lazy, complacent, unsure.

Today I picked up the book This Present Darkness, by Frank E. Peretti. I'm not nearly done with it, but I've definitely figured out that it's about spiritual warfare. There are demons and angels running around, along with normal people. Prayer is shown as the only defense we humans have against those demons, as vitally, vitally important in the fight against Satan. I just suddenly had this urge, this passion for prayer. If it's that important, I'm going to do it.

Click!

This is the first post in a series that I'm going to run, on simple, easy ways you can make a difference for the environment.

One of my favorite ways to do that is to go to Care2.com. They have a section called Click to Donate, where you just click once a day, and they donate money to causes like rainforest and ocean preservation (the money comes from ad sponsors).

http://www.care2.com/click-to-donate/

Green Christian prayer guide

If you'd like to pray for the earth and God's creation without doing something as overwhelming as what I've chosen to do, absolutely the best resource I've found so far is the Green Christian prayer guide. Published monthly by Christian Ecology Link, their prayer guides have news/suggestions for prayer for each day of the month.

Here's the website: http://www.greenchristian.org.uk/faith/prayer-guide