We are God grown – Lent reflections
- Lent 2007: Making Peace with the Earth
- Lent 2009: To Live in Heaven, right here on Earth
- We are God grown – Lent reflections
As we enter into Holy Week, I suppose I’ll spend this post just writing a few reflections on my Lenten season!
For the past six weeks, I’ve been on an oil fast, meaning that anything associated with crude oil or fossil fuels are off the menu. Its been interesting to see just how pervasive gasoline, coal and other toxic elements I, and so many Americans, consume on a regular basis. We are responsible for 25% of the entire world’s contributions to pollution. Whether we like it or not, we are on a collision course with a global crisis, and America is the one in the driver’s seat.
It was easy switching my apartment’s power to solar/wind energy. I signed up with Commerce Energy and got hooked up with a “100% Free and Clear” Plan (sounds like a cell phone service or something) that juices us up with only local wind and solar energy, while remaining on “the grid” (so people won’t call us hippies).
We bought tons of those energy saving bulbs, applied some new weather stripping to our doors, put in a automatic thermostat (then turned it off completely as the weather got nicer), and lowered the temperature of our water heater to 90 degrees. These things seemed to keep our energy use (and our bill) low, keeping our green energy company in the poor house!
The most obvious impact it made on my life was on my driving. I am the primary driver of our one car, but for these last 6 weeks, I have been hitching rides with friends. When Trina is heading somewhere, I sit in the passenger seat and come along for the ride. Admittedly, there are probably a few loopholes in this strategy I could’ve taken advantage of (and may have a time or two when I really wanted a smoothie on the other side of town!), but I tried my very best to cut my travel way down during this season. I noticed that in the month of March we had cut our gasoline bill down to 40% of what we normally spend, which is a good sign that this was actually making a difference.
Twice I made out of town trips with miles that equaled close to 600 miles (one to Austin, and one to Abilene State Park). For awhile I really didn’t know what to do, but then discovered Trees for the Future. Its a pretty neat organization, which helps developing villages plant trees, giving them many of the resources they need for sustainability, as well working towards a “global cooling” initiative. I made a contribution to cover not only the miles I drove during Lent, but since each tree only cost $0.10, I “planted” enough to cover every mile our car will ever drive!
Honestly, I know that I wasn’t perfect in keeping my commitment to an oil fast, but as this holy season comes to a close, I feel as if I have communicated to God through my actions (rather than just my words) that his creation matters to me – and that his creation’s future is something I have the power to influence.
If anyone is united in Christ, there is a “new creation” (2Cor 5:17) – for me, this verse not only means a new creation in myself, but truly a return to the Garden – where God walks with man in the cool of the evening. We, like the earth itself, are god grown.
