What a Waste

I just got back yesterday from an absolutely amazing retreat with Intervarsity Christian Fellowship. It was a great time of fellowship, rest and hearing from God, and I will go into some details in a later post.
What I wanted to talk about now is something that my friend Jeff stumbled upon one day while exploring the camp. He came back after free time so excited about this intriguing place he had discovered and summarily dubbed the toilet wasteland. His description instantly caught my interest, so I grabbed my camera and returned with him and some others the next day.
What I found when we arrived was not only the promised toilets, but an entire junkyard. There was an abandoned RV and a rusted out bus. Old chairs were stacked around the clearing, a few boats could be found here and there, and various other junk littered the ground between piles. In some strange way, it was beautiful, but it also made me sad.
We are such a wasteful people. We buy the newest fanciest things, and when we tire of them or the next best thing comes along, or they just aren't quite as new as we would like, we throw them out. I can't count the number of perfectly usable things I have thrown out over the years. I think what saddened me even more though is that this particular junkyard belonged to a Christian camp. Shouldn't we as Christians be the least wasteful? Shouldn't we be the most concerned about taking good care of the earth that God entrusted to us?
I'm certainly no example of how we should live; I don't even recycle my plastic bottles well. Still, the more I think about it, the more my relationship to stuff weighs on my heart. Think about it; nearly everything we live off of and use in daily life came to us through the exploitation and suffering of other people.
Until recently I have had an excuse; I didn't really know, but now I do.
I know that the T-shirt I'm wearing as I write this was probably made by women in Latin America or Asia who are paid a few cents an hour, women who are often locked in the factory and forced to work hours and hours of overtime with no extra compensation, only to begin the next days work 3 or 4 hours later.
I know that some of the foods I love, like chocolate, arrive at our grocery stores because of human trafficking and exploitation. And despite all the hype about fair trade goods, the prices paid to the growers still aren't fair. They are just a few cents more than anyone else is receiving.
I know that the plastic bags I get every time I go to the store will take hundreds of years to decompose. I know that I am part of the environmental problems. I know that I produce ridiculous amounts of trash every year.
I know that even here in America, hundreds of thousands of people are in need, being abused, hurting, discriminated against, and persecuted, among other things.
I know that our world produces a surplus of food, yet there are still starving people.
I know that we as Christian Americans have more that enough money to provide clean water for every person in the world.
I know that the only person I can change is me.
And because of that I am responsible for changing and doing something about the injustice and wastefulness in my own life, even if I am totally clueless about where to begin.
Despite all the bad things going on, there is still hope. Even in the junkyard at the camp, I found life amongst all the trash. Plants were growing up over the toilets and tender shoots were unfurling from the ground. We are in a world ruled by the Devil himself, but we are also living in the year of the Lord's favor (Luke 4:18-19). We as Christians are standing between this world and God's kingdom, and it is our job to bring as much of that kingdom to this one as possible. We have hope, and hope does not disappoint (Romans 5:3-5). Someday Jesus is going to come back and make it all right. Praise God!

God does not need us.

I should really be doing stats homework right now, but I got to thinking about this.

God does not need me, and he does not need you. To believe that he does is the outcome of extreme arrogance on our part. Do we really think that if we choose not to go where God is calling us that his will will not be fulfilled? If God is truly all-powerful, then even if we hole ourselves up in our rooms and never move from there, His plans will still come to fruition; If we are silent and withdrawn, he will still be glorified.

Luke 19:37-40
When he came near the place where the road goes down the Mount of Olives, the whole crowd of disciples began joyfully to praise God in loud voices for all the miracles they had seen:
"Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!"
"Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!"
Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to Jesus, "Teacher, rebuke your disciples!"
"I tell you," he replied, "if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out."

We. Are. Not. Needed.

But we are wanted.

The God of heaven and earth, the God who has control over every moment of every day, wants us. He wants to use us to fulfill his purposes. He wants to receive praise from us. He wants to love us. He wants to have a relationship with us.

Now how special does that make you feel?

So go, desired people. Go, loved people. Go, wanted people. Go and glorify God!