Confessions of a Would-be Environmental Champion

 

 

‘and when God looked down
on the earth and saw it was broken
then the tears of God fell down
through a hole in the ozone
Burned by the fire we make

what a shame

…poor Mother Earth we disfigured her face
Man is the maker of his own disgrace
Burned by the fire we make
what a shame’

 Adrian Belew ‘Burned by the Fire we Make’

  

I want to be green. I really do! I want to pursue eco-friendly actions and reduce waste and minimise my carbon footprint and so on and on.

 

Before and during the recent COP 26 conference in Glasgow I took the opportunity (as did many other preachers) of making the Christian and Biblical case in a series of sermons on environmentalism in which I emphasised that we each had an individual responsibility.

 

I believe that.

 

In our household we are fairly disciplined about recycling and minimising unnecessary waste. We often discuss how we might more effectively reduce our impact on the environment and we have taken some steps in that direction. If we look at how we used to live and act and compare ourselves with others (not that this is usually such a good thing!) then I reckon we are not doing too badly… in the main.

 

And yet, I am aware that convenience can often win the day when it comes to a choice between using the car and taking public transport. I still have not mustered up the courage (or raised the necessary capital!) to purchase an electric vehicle. We run a gas boiler to heat our home. We are planning our holidays for next year including flights and a cruise… and so on and on.

 

So, what to do?

 

Confessing my failures is not enough. In the words of John the Baptist (whose preaching gets a lot of focus in Sunday Bible Readings in this part of Advent) ‘Bear fruit worthy of repentance’ (which I suppose might be paraphrased ‘show evidence in your lives of having turned around in your thinking and living’).

 

So, I am recognising that my life needs to turn around in this matter of being mindful of and caring for the environment and I need to both acknowledge my responsibility in this and take decisive action to change how I live.

 

But (in some respects at least) it is a bit of a struggle much of the time, I must confess.