Godgrown

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  Mark 11:19 am on January 31, 2007 Permalink | Reply  

  Lent 2007: Making Peace with the Earth 

  This entry is part 1 of 3 in the series Lent

  

  For the past several years I have been learning to appreciate the Christian Calendar as a means of connecting with Christ and Christians around the world. As I see it there is an inherent organic nature to the Liturgical Calendar in that it brings us closer as humans to the seasons of the earth, causing us to fast and feast according to harvests, to pray as the sun rises and as it sets, and to celebrate the coming of Christ, Lord of the Earth.

  Ash Wednesday reminds us of the earthen soil of which we were born, and gives our carbon bodies a destiny – a reconciliation to the ground. “Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” How much more organic can you get??? We are truly God-grown; we spring up from the earth, we produce fruit (physical and spiritual), and then we die, returning to the earth that brought us life.

  So this Lenten season (which starts February 21st) I am going to begin making peace with the earth. I am prayerfully considering taking a fossil fuels fast over the 40 fasting days in Lent. What does that mean? At this point I’m not sure. It may mean all crude oil, coals, and fossil fuels. Over the past several months I have been strongly affected by movies, websites and conversations regarding our earth’s fragile state. The environment is on the verge of a tipping point toward a global heat wave, and we have no way of predicting just how dangerous this will be to our climate. I wonder: is it possible to live our lives without utter dependency on fossil fuels that emit dangerous greenhouse gases into our atmosphere? I intend to find out.
  Our new apartment is now set to run off of 100% wind and solar power. I am close enough to my new job that I can ride my bike or even walk. It’s possible in our town to buy foods that were grown locally and therefore don’t take as much fuel to get here. It’s a start.

  This is obviously going to take some more sorting out and thinking through. I am also looking for others who want to challenge themselves to “make peace with the earth” during this season of fasting, penance, and prayer. We can share together what we hope will become a sampling of a better life – a life that is Good News not only to others, but to the earth itself! Feel free to pray about this, and email me or leave on comment on my blog if you want to talk more about this.

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  Mark 7:31 am on February 25, 2009 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: chinese, corporations, iraq, Lent, life purpose, mustard seed associates, stimulus   

  Lent 2009: To Live in Heaven, right here on Earth 

  This entry is part 2 of 3 in the series Lent

  

  Today we enter into the Lenten season.  While I admittedly don’t dive deep into parts of the traditional Christian calendar, I find Lent to be a perfect time to “remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”  If ever there was a time to consider my own mortality through God’s eyes, its now.

  We live in a world where we can simply ask for close to a trillion dollars from the Chinese and they will give it to us, (though they say they “hate us for it, but are forced to comply.”)  We live in a place where at the stroke of a pen, tens of thousands of lives are put to death, others sent to war, still others put to work without pay.  Mega-Corporations are the bullies of the whole earth, on panels with national leaders, deciding our fate on issues they seem interested in so far as it affects their bottom line.  This is the world where we live – where we dominate nature and forget the poor.  Where we play god until we die.  Where greed and security are penultimate values.

  This is not the season of Lent.  Lent brings sanity, it brings reflection, finiteness, humility.  This is why I love and need Lent – because in me is the same vices plaguing the entire earth.

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  SO!  This year I’m focusing in on how my life affects the whole world.  A “footprint” in the dust I suppose.  Each Wednesday, I look forward to fasting and living into different aspects of my life -

  • my marriage
  • politics
  • finances
  • environment
  • “the others”:  enemies/immigrants/nations at war
  • my witness

  Each of these reflections will be done under the lens of what I’m recently calling “my purpose in life”: 

  “To live in Heaven, right here on Earth.”

  How might experiencing the Kingdom affect my finances?  What might it have to do with the environment?  I look forward to reflecting on these issues on this blog.  I welcome any feedback – and I’d love to know what others are doing for Lent!

  BTW – Our house church is using a simple worship guide this Lent – you can find it here.

  BTW2.0 – Here’s posts on previous Lents:

  Lent 2007 – Oil Fast; Reflections

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  Mark, and josh are discussing. Toggle Comments

   
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    josh 1:45 pm on February 25, 2009 Permalink

    i’ve never really seen Lent as something for me. growing up in the Christian church, especially in the midwest, it was never a discipline. i didn’t even think Catholic churches existed, i thought they were the religion of tv. i guess that’s what you get growing up in the bible-belt.
    i’m going to try and discipline myself to go through a Journey into Wholeness. and maybe drag some others with me. thanks for the spark.

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    Mark 2:58 pm on February 25, 2009 Permalink

    Josh,

    Thanks for the note! If you feel comfortable – head out to an ash wednesday service. Its an important “kick-off” for the Lenten season. I’m with you on growing up without an awareness of the Christian calendar. I realize the abuses that caused it to be wiped clean, but I’m also very interested in how God uses special events in our lives to shape us. Keep on kickin!

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  Mark 6:12 pm on April 2, 2007 Permalink | Reply  

  We are God grown – Lent reflections 

  This entry is part 3 of 3 in the series Lent

  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.

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