why i am glad gas is $4 per gallon

It seems like we don’t really care of the consequences of our actions, unless they have consequences for us. So we can know all the right things to do in life, but unless they have some personal consequence or benefit for us, we sometimes get lazy about doing them.

One great example? Driving. We all know we should carpool, combine errands, buy high mpg cars, and walk, bike, or take public transportation when possible. But we often don’t want to do it. Why? Because it is just easier to drive. The car sitting in our garage or on the street out front calls to us. “I can take you anywhere you want to go, just hop in, what’s it going to hurt?” Sure, the coffeeshop is only a 20 minute walk away, but I can get there in 5 by car. And I know that I can wait two days to stop by the bookstore on my way back from the grocery store, but I would really rather go there tonight. We give in- the car is oh so convenient and oh so comfortable.

So I am glad, very glad, that gas is $4 a gallon. Hopefully it will hit us where it hurts- in the pocketbook- and the personal consequence of high expenses at the pump will help curb our oil addiction. People have been complaining about it, starting facebook groups to protest it, and even lobbying congress to do something about it, but I just sit back and smile. We are finally being given personal reasons to curb our oil use, and it’s a beautiful thing.

I hope gas prices go higher. Maybe when it hits $6 or $8 per gallon we will beef up our public transportation systems, finally allow electric cars to go into market, and built bike lanes instead of roads. I’m looking forward to the day… and I think my bike is too.

In the mean time, I am aware of the devastating consequences that high gas prices can have on us. People are losing jobs as more company resources need to move into fuel prices. People are going hungry around the world as the US tries to produce ethanol substitutes to gas. And more US oil drilling will begin as more and more people protest the rising price at the pump and the government searches for solutions. I wish there was an easier way to stop our addiction to oil, but I’m guessing it is going to be a messy and painful withdrawal process, and I know a lot of people will get caught up in the mess (the poor and the oppressed) who don’t deserve too.

Maybe we should start thinking about how to end our oil addictions now, before we are forced to by the end of oil or by sky-high prices. Then maybe we can make it a smoother and less painful process, but, as I said earlier, I doubt we will really do anything until it really hurts our own finances.

theological reflections on the environment

I was a little disturbed this past week about a blog conversation that went on at jesusmanifesto.com under the blog post “Jonah on Climate Change“. I’m not going to get into the discussion on there, but I just wanted to share a few of my on environmental thoughts.

1) If you don’t believe that Jesus is going to return some day and redeem all of creation, it’s hard to care about the environment. We all know a lot of environmental damage has been written-off by the Christian community because some of us believe we are going to escape earth in the end head off to heaven. If we will be gone from this place soon, why should we care about it? On the other hand, if you believe that there will be a new heaven and a new earth, and that all of creation will be redeemed, then it does matter how we treat the earth now. It’s not going to be burned up, it’s going to be redeemed and made into a new creation!

2) Environmental actions witness to our future hope in the present. By redeeming abandoned lots for community gardens to feed the hungry, by redeeming someone else’s old chair to furnish our apartment for a guest, by redeeming food through dumpster-diving for a meal with neighbors, we are pointing towards the full coming of the kingdom of God. The broken, the thrown-out, the things deemed worthless will be redeemed. By cutting back on what we purchase, by creating simpler lives, by not insiting that everything be new or up-to-date, we are witnessing to a redeemed way of life, where our identity lies with our Creator and not in the created things we purchase.

3) By caring for the environment, we are acting as God’s stewards of His creation. Creation wasn’t created to be consumed by us but was meant to be cared for by us. This is the same as the biblical view of money. The money isn’t ours, it is ours to care for and to invest in the kingdom, but it doesn’t belong to us. The same goes to the environment. So we can live off of it, but we cannot see it as belonging to us, nor can we believe that we have the right to consume it or do what we want with it. It is not ours.

4) Environmental degradation is linked to deeper sins of greed, entitlement, consumerism, and lack of security in God. Forget what you think of global warming, recycling, or bottled water… I think we can probably all agree that we live in a greedy, consumeristic, insecure culture. And I think that if we faced some of these underlying sins, our environmental issues would begin to lessen. We want more of the earth than the earth can provide for out of greed, we feel we can use whatever materials from the earth we want out of entitlement, we feel we need a lot of material goods out of consumerism, and we have a hard time giving up this lifestyle out of insecurity in God.

5) God can clean up whatever mess we make, but that doesn’t mean we should make it. Yes, even if the globe warms up and kills most of the life on it, or if we radiate the earth with nuclear weapons, the God who created it all can fix it all. Yet, just as Paul asked, “should we then go on sinning?” the answer is no. We are still asked to be good stewards of the earth and care for our neighbors and fellow creation, even if God can clean up after us.

6) We cannot save the environment through progress. This is my most pessimistic one, but I don’t think there is a way forward on this one that will put us back in balance with the environment. I don’t believe we can create “green” products, or “green” fuels, or “green” technologies that won’t have a dent on our environment. We keep putting our hope in these things, like ethanol fuel (when we really should be riding bikes instead) or in carbon-negative Fuji water (when we should drink from the tap in reusable bottles). We are believing a huge myth here if we think that progress and technology will save the environment. Instead, we need to look back- to cut out things we don’t need, to live simpler lives, to consume less. The answer isn’t finding “green” alternatives to everything, but to be anti-progress here and start living simpler lives.

My husband, Mike, works in solar. There are a great many things about solar power, but I want to leave you with two thoughts. One, solar creates cheap clean energy from the sun, yet it takes tons of fuel, materials, mining, and pollution to create solar panels. Even solar energy, as clean and “green” as it is, does damage to our environment. Two, my husband comes home from work and always has stories of people who spend hundreds on there electric bill each month and want solar to save some money. Are they willing to do things like cut back on their energy consumption or move out of their McMansion? No, but they are willing to pay several thousand to install solar panels on their roof. We cannot buy our way forward with this one.

bike lane

I loved this picture and the caption that went with it:

“Further proof of Big Oil’s commitment to promote using fewer non-renewable resources.”

Although I have to say that after riding all over Chicago these past two years, I might be ready to handle this one!

Mental Detox

So Mike and I did something last night that we have been talking about for months… we got rid of our TV. Actually, it hasn’t gone far yet- it’s currently sitting in the back seat of our car waiting for me to take it to the Chicago Recycling Center.

This week is Adbuster’s Mental Detox week. It used to be called “TV Turn Off Week”, but since we are addicted to so so many forms of media, they changed it to be a challenge to unplug it all- or at least a few devises of your choice. I have long hated our TV, and the fact that I enjoy watching it, so I told Mike that I was not going to watch any TV for the week. Instead, we decided that maybe it was just time to get rid of it. We had been talking about doing it for so long, so we finally did it, once and for all.

After leaving the intense college life of Madison and moving in with just Mike, it seemed that the TV became a bigger and bigger part of my life. When my time was no longer consumed by college, studying, activities or my many roommates, the TV started coming on more and more. Having a slower pace in life and more time to relax was important to me, and I didn’t want to use it to watch TV, but there it was.

Mike and I went back and forth all this year on throwing out the TV, taking turns on who wanted to get rid of it more. We were often scared that we would regret throwing it out, that we would miss it too much. I guess that it was a clear and scary sign that we were addicted. We felt like we were now dependent on our TV to entertain us, to help us relax, to waste the hours away on long winter weeknights in chilly Chicago.

I know that sometimes I will greatly miss the TV. I really started enjoying PBS this past year. I will miss popping on Friends late at night after all was done. I will miss having movie nights at home with Mike after a long day. I will also miss having a TV when people visit for a weekend and feel like watching something.

But I will not miss the stupid morning news shows I sometimes turned on for background noise while I was getting ready. Or the crime investigation shows I would turn on at night when I was bored and lazy. I will not miss all the commercials I have watched over the past few years or the crappy feeling I have when I realize I have nothing better to do then to spend the next two hours staring at a box in my living room watching things I don’t give a damn about.

Mostly, I’m excited for my new freedom. The temptation to sit at home and watch the TV is gone. I will be forced to get out into  my community more. To call up friends more to come over or to visit on boring evenings. To pick up more books and read them. To finally get better at playing my guitar. To cook a little bit more for Mike. And To find new adventures to entertain ourselves, instead of the TV.

Ah, to be free. And now our living room furniture points at a bookshelf overflowing with books and four windows looking out over our Chicago street, and not at our TV. Good times

the gospel of or the gospel about?

I have been struggling lately to connect the two gospel messages I find in the bible- the gospel of Jesus and the gospel about Jesus. The gospel of Jesus can mostly be found in the gospels, and the gospel about Jesus can be found in the letters of the NT (especially Paul’s). How are the two connected? Are they saying the same thing? Is one an evolved version of the other?

I just heard a sermon Sunday at the church I was visiting and it focused on what I would call the gospel “about” Jesus. The sermon was mainly focused on 1 Corinthians 15:1-11:

Now, brothers and sisters, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain. For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, and then to the Twelve…

Hmm, well it would appear that evangelical Christianity would have gotten this right-on. From this passage it seems clear that the gospel is just about Christ dying for our sins (each individual’s), right? This passage makes me extremely uncomfortable, because a gospel that is reduced to Christ “dying for your sins” so “you can be saved and go to heaven when you die” seems to lack so much and can lead to dangerous conclusions about our life here on earth. After hearing the sermon on this passage, I ended up reading through all of Paul’s letters in the NT to see if he was consistent in what he said the bible was. He was… and I got even more uncomfortable.

I personally, in my postmodern “emerging” way, prefer the gospel “of” Jesus. This can be found in Mark 1:14-15:

After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good new of God. “the time has come,” he said, “The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news.”

Now this I love- this I get excited about- this I want to share. The idea that Christ came to earth, became a man, and brought the start of the kingdom of God- now this is good stuff. I get really excited for the kingdom of God, that Christ will one day return and there will be a new heaven and a new earth and that all of creation (including individual souls, but not limited just to them) will be redeemed. Wow.

I have been reading N.T. Wright’s “Surprised by Hope” lately, and he has given me an idea that may reconcile the “two” gospels I see in the NT: the resurrection of Jesus and the resurrection of the dead. In traditional evangelical Christianity it seems like a lot of emphasis is put on Jesus “dying for your sins” but there doesn’t seem to have much to do with his resurrection and your salvation, other than that you should believe Jesus rose because it shows you believe Jesus was God and all-powerful. The connection between His resurrection and your salvation seems murky. But in 1 Corinthians 15, just after the verses I gave above, Paul goes into the topics of the resurrection of the dead and the resurrection of the body for the rest of the chapter. His emphasis here is clearly on Jesus’s resurrection, rather than his death.

N.T. Wright lays out the idea that Jesus’s resurrection was the future breaking into the present. In the future all of creation will be redeemed, heaven and earth will be made new, and the dead will be resurrected to once again have some sort of material bodies. In Jesus’s resurrection, we get a glimpse of what is to come- that redemption and renewal of all things. Jesus’s resurrection points as a sign to the future and assures us it is coming. He says in “Surprised by Hope”:

Salvation, then, is not “going to heaven” but “being raised to life in God’s new heaven and new earth.” But as soon as we put it like this we realize that the New Testament is full of hints, indications, and downright assertations that this salvation isn’t just something we have to wait for in the long-distance future. We can enjoy it here and now… genuinely anticipating in the present what is to come in the future.

The entire book is full of this theme, that the resurrection was a sign of the coming kingdom of God- of the new heaven and new earth.

So perhaps the gospel “of” Jesus (the coming of the kingdom of God) and the gospel “about” Jesus (Jesus dying for our sins and then rising again) aren’t that different if you stop over-emphasizing Christ’s death and put some more emphasis back on his resurrection. The resurrection wasn’t just some cool trick Jesus did, some show of his divinity or power, or even some needed fulfillment of Scripture, but it was instead a signpost and assurance of the coming kingdom of God. When I hear Paul’s gospel, the gospel about Jesus, I think “Jesus died for your sins, so say these words, and get into heaven when you die”. But perhaps when Paul was preaching the early Christians heard, “Jesus is the messiah, he died for our sins, and in his resurrection we have great hope for the future that he was preaching about- where all things will be renewed, where God shall reign, where there will be no injustice, and where we will return to reign with God.”

I encourage you to read Surprised by Hope and let me know if the resurrection seems to be the key to reconciling these two gospels.

so proud

I’m not an American Idol fan, but their “Idol Gives Back” episode donates money to Save the Children. My best friend Lindsey works for Save the Children in a back-country Kentucky school as a literacy coordinator. She was recently filmed at her school doing what she does so so well- teaching kids! So… to get an amazing view of Lindsey, check out the video here through the Idol Gives Back site. Click on :”Literacy Program- Jeannie Improves Her Reading” to see my amazing friend “Miss Lindsey”. This woman makes me proud like you would never believe. Not only is she an amazing friend, but she is doing amazing things in this world.

You can also see videos of her kids by clicking on “Thank you American Idol- from children in the U.S.” and “Change Program- healthy snacks and physical activity at McKee Elementary”. McKee is the school that she works at. I think I even remember one the students in the video from when I visited her.

Wow, I can think of no better person to get a little American Idol spotlight time. Forget the singers, Miss Lindsey is the true talent.

in need of some subversive ideas

So I’m dealing with two areas of very mild injustice in my life, and i’m looking for some subversive ways to deal with them. I don’t want to do “an eye for an eye” nor do i want to roll over and give up, so I would like to find a new and better way of dealing with both of these issues… you know, third way Jesus-style.

First, I am having a little problem with the neighbors who just moved in to the apartment building underneath us. On Sunday night/Monday morning at 2:20 we started getting buzzed at our front door. Now we live on the third floor, so we couldn’t see who was downstairs buzzing us. We hoped it was someone drunk or lost or confused, and that they would go away. After a few minutes the buzzing stopped, but then 5 minutes later someone started banging on our back door. Unfortunately about a week ago the lock on the back gate was removed, leaving nothing to stop strangers from coming up the back porches to our back door. So we called 911. They kept banging, as our adrenaline was pumping and are ears were perked for sounds that they were breaking in and our minds were racing for ideas to get out, hide, or protect ourselves if they did get in. Soon they left the back door, we heard the back gate clang, and the buzzing started in the front again. This went on from 2:20 til about 3:45am as Mike and I were paralyzed with fear, he looking out the front window onto the street and me looking out the bedroom window onto the side alley. We never saw who it was. Then at 3:45 (yes, the cops never showed… go figure) Mike heard the person/people seriously messing with the front door downstairs. He thought they were breaking in… and a few minutes later they got it open. So he ran to the peep-hole at the front door and was ready to call 911 to report a break in, when we heard two people enter the apartment below us with a key. It was our neighbors? We didn’t even know someone new was living there, so they must have just moved in. Was it them the whole time? We were still scared to death, but the pounding and the buzzing stopped and after a while I was able to get to sleep- unfortunately Mike spent the rest of the night awake listening.

Now, what do we do with our neighbors? If it even was them. I want to be a good neighbor, but on the other hand I kinda want to hit them for giving me possibly the biggest scare of my entire life. I want to go downstairs and yell “what the crap do you think you were doing, banging on our door for and hour and 15 minutes at 3 in the morning?” Maybe Jesus would go talk nicely to them, and forgive them. Maybe he would give them his phone number in case they ever got locked out again. So, what do you think? Got any subversive ideas?

Second, Mike worked for a horrible company here in Chicago for the first 5 months we were here. He quit January 07, so almost a year and a half ago, after he couldn’t take their abuse any longer. Unfortunately, because they were mad Mike quit, they withheld his last paycheck. Now, a year and a half later, they still owe Mike over $1000 and have no plans to pay. Now, it would be nice to forget about the money and move on from these people, but Mike found out that they owe a lot of other people thousands and thousands more, with no plans to pay. Thy make excuses that everyone “owes” them the money they don’t want to pay for some reason or another.

Any subversive ideas for this one? I don’t want this company to think they can keep stealing people’s money and get away with it- that if they hold out long enough people will eventually give up and they can keep the money. It’s a pattern with them, and I don’t want to see countless ore people be had by them. I was thinking about visiting them on behalf of Mike. Or maybe sitting at their front door every day until they agree to pay some people. I don’t care about their money, but I do care that they think they can keep hurting other people like this and get away with it free and clear.

Let me know what you think. Your best, craziest, third-way ideas.

40 years

Today marks the 40th anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. He was assassinated while standing on the balcony of the Lorraine Hotel in Memphis on the night of April 4th, 1968. Dr. King was 39, and he has now been dead longer than he has been alive.

I visited the Lorraine Hotel, now the National Civil Rights Museum, last year during a Sankofa trip around the country. It was both an amazing and difficult experience.

I still have a lot to learn from Dr. King and the civil rights movement- both the good and the bad- but already know that he has given us an amazing example how to be a non-violent and love-driven leader in the face of oppression. I will be forever greatful.

So on the 40th anniversary of his assassination, give you the last words of his last sermon, said the day before his death on April 3rd, 1968.

Well, I don’t know what will happen now. We’ve got some difficult days ahead. But it doesn’t matter with me now. Because I’ve been to teh mountaintop. And I don’t mind. Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I’m not concerned about that now. I just want to do God’s will. And He’s allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I’ve looked over. And I’ve seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people will get to the promised land. And I’m happy, tonight. I’m not worried about anything. I’m not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.

Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Amen.

small things with great love (2)

Every month Mike and I try to give away a portion of our income. You know, the whole tithing thing… except we give to other organizations than our church. Now, I have mixed feelings about “charity”, but I do want my money and resources to get to those who need it more than me. I may be idealistic, but I love the image in Acts 4:34-35:

There were no needy persons among them. For from time to time those who owned lands or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales 35and put it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to anyone as he had need.

I wanted to move away from giving to big organizations and charieties and caring for the needs of those around me- an experiment in doing small things with great love.

A group of friends and I decided to do a fundraiser/awareness night for youth homelessness in Chicago, and invited a homeless youth to come and speak. She had just moved into a transitional housing program for homeless teens a week before and was 8 months pregnant. At the fundraiser she shared her story and her hopes for the future, and I realized she probably wasn’t fully prepared for the baby. We talked, and I offered to help her get some things for her baby.

She sent Mike and I a list,  and we spent a few weekends making trips to baby resale shops, target, and even found an awesome stroller/carseat combo on eBay. Then, just a few days before she was due, we made a trip to her place and dropped it all off. When we got there we found out that she needed help putting together a crib she was given. It was probably 30 years old and was missing all of it’s screws. We made a group run to Home Depot, got the parts we needed, and then went back to her place to put together the puzzle of a crib.

Funny thing was, by the time we were done, it wasn’t the big amounts of baby stuff we had gotten that mattered, but the time we spent with her putting her crib together, and the fact that we even cared in the first place. It’s the small things, with great love, that often matter- not the expensive things, not the big sacrificial things, but the little things. Helping a girl due in 3 days put together a monstrosity of a crib.

doing small things with great love

So I’ve been thinking a lot lately on Shane Claiborne’s words… what does it mean to do small things with great love?

I will confess, I am not good at doing small things with great love. I love doing BIG things, and the love seems to get lost. I’m a visionary person. I love the BIG picture, the BIG idea, the BIG movement, the BIG vision, the BIG changes. Long ago I decided that it was best to think big and radical, and that if you thought small it meant that you were settling for the status quo and were being too realistic. If all things are possible with God, you should think huge, right?

But lately I have had a change of mind. I am still going to remain a radical visionary, and I will think big, but I am learning that I must start with the small. I can dream of world peace, but I need to start by not getting in a fight with the students at work. I can dream of a world without poverty, but I need to start by being generous to the needs of those around me. I can dream of a world without racism, but I need to start by making friends with people of all backgrounds and races. I have seen too many times that my big ideas weren’t lining up with my daily actions, and if I want to see change in this world, I need to begin with myself.

As a social-justice lover, a “systems” thinker, a “social reformer”, it’s very easy to overlook my daily actions of unlove, unpeace, and injustice. I have gone too far in one direction, of only seeing the big, that I have missed the small.

We can do no great things; only small things with great love. -Mother Teresa