Something I have been pondering of late.

And being honest with myself.

Jesus says this right after talking about fasting:

Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

About 2 weeks ago, Liz and I started doing a “consumption fast”. No shopping, no cigars, no eating out or going to the movies, nothing but bills and groceries. On a practical level we want to eliminate a lot of debt which means, in the words of William Wallace, “Freedom!” More importantly, we got tired of only complaining about how much our identities were affiliated with consumption. We are slaves to a system that tells us to shop and consume. The church tells us this (sowing and indications of being blessed = consuming), our president tells us this after 9/11, and everything around us says consume.

Honestly, this fast has been far more painful than I expected.

As in, I have been oblivious to how much of a junkie I have been over the years. It came so…natural, because after all it seems like a lifestyle not an addiction. Something is wrong with me. I am selfish and have this daily attitude of entitlement that is inconveniently being put on the cross over the last couple weeks. I help the poor, I give to those in need because I want to, yet it has become harshly obvious that my needs are more important than others.

We hear the statistics about 25% of the global resources being consumed by Americans while we represent 4% of the population, and yet we become numb to these types of statistics.

All around us people are talking about pollution and the effects. Here is an article about areas on the East Coast:

In heavily farmed and populated areas of the Potomac, up to three-quarters of all male bass have immature female eggs in their testes. In parts of the Shenandoah River, the proportion rises to a flat 100 percent.

Those numbers don’t just represent a few reproductively tweaked individuals. We’re talking about entire populations — and if the plight of fishes doesn’t worry you too much, you might want to think about what that could mean for people.

What about the federal study that was prevented from being released for the last seven months by our nation’s top health agency? It sites “low birth weights, elevated rates of infant mortality and premature births, and elevated death rates from breast cancer, colon cancer, and lung cancer,” potentially threatening “more than nine million” in eight Great Lake states.

There are “dead zones” around America (and the world), particularly one in the Gulf of Mexico the size of New Jersey. Oxygen depleted water means no fish, shrimp, or other marine life due to toxins being released up stream.

I don’t know a single person that says trashing the planet is a good thing, and yet we are, so what gives?

Why is there such a schism? There can only be one answer – priorities.

It is more important to have lots of stuff, then it is to take care of the planet, in spite of the explicit warnings that the planet is broadcasting like a megaphone right next to our ears.

It is more important to get a shirt from Gap, than it is to think about the 12 year old making basically nothing around the world. (Or even here at home.)

It is more important to get the diamonds than worry about where they came from and who had to get it here.

I heard a sermon by J. Matthew Sleeth at Mars Hill last year but nothing personally changed. Then I read this interview with him this week, and I’m beginning to see things differently. He says:

If we can get people to put the “conserve” back in “conservatives,” you’ll see the sea change everybody is hoping for. My dream is that three years from now, traditional Republicans are promising an organic chicken in every pot, and Democrats are promising two organic chickens in every pot. They both read their constituencies very well, and what we want right now is our cake and to eat it too. We’re not really willing to get out of our big cars; we’re not really willing to conserve. Therefore, I’m working on the heart change.

The answer is not to blame China or some other country. Besides 1 in 17,000 Chinese have a car, while 300 million Americans have 200 million cars, so who do you think China is doing so much of that producing for?

The answer is not to blame hypocritical politicians, celebrities, or environmentalists.

Shouldn’t churches be the communities that are leading the movements that help replenish the earth? Christians have a mandate that goes back to our roots in Genesis with an expectation that we are to be stewards. A group cannot say with any integrity that they are pro-life while ignoring the brutal facts about environmental destruction, because this is a sanctity of life issue. The church must change their hearts at the source of this problem – abusive consumerism. There are some that exacerbate the system, deny it is even a problem, or worse yet build escapist theologies so that something like trashing the planet is simply viewed as a inevitable by-product (of a morally bankrupt eschatology).

I think the answer is that I am guilty, I am going to change, and I have hope.

By the way, what did Jesus mean about treasures in Heaven, and how is your heart there?

Cheers.