At this moment, I am a bit frustrated, as to how people wear the Christian label don't feel the need to do what Jesus did. Especially after they have heard that this is what true following of Christ is/looks like by reading Shane Claiborne's Irresistable Revolution.
I feel like I've been hearing these ideas of simple living, of becoming poor to promote the Kingdom. However, people who have read this book say they love it, yet their lifestyle appears less affected in areas. It is this materialism and misunderstanding of beauty, this distorted truth that has infected many of us here. And I'm noticing the infection.
What Jesus are they meeting in their quiet times? When they open the Bible, they are receiving God's all-encompassing love and compassion.
My critiques aside, this they do: they love one another and try to speak truth into each other's lives. They meet each other where they are. When a concern is expressed, it is met with equal concern and an effort to look to God for the answer.
And I am talking to myself here too. Because I have yet to give away everything I have and only take what I need. I have yet to take to the streets to love on houseless people.
Maybe I am called to be a radical, a person who lives simply from the start of adulthood. Maybe because I'm in my youth and because I'm priveledged enough to be reading books by Wendell Berry and Lisa McMinn and Shane Claiborne, to be studying in a university, to have traveled up a state and been provided for and completely blessed by a community of truth-seeking, God-glorifying, GOOD people, to have the option of continuing studying for two more years in a university or to choose something else, to not have a family I am trying to provide for, to live in a fertile land, to know that my mom will take care of me when I come home, to have a safety cushion of money in 'my' bank account, to be of the skin color that isn't generally discriminated against, so to be rich and be able to contemplate giving it all away for the sake of His Kingdom.... maybe because of all of this I am different. I have tasted and seen that the Lord is GOOD. I have visions of simple, purposeful, beautiful living. I have these dreams; these dreams have been forming over the past few years, and now that I'm seeing and hearing about communities where my dreams are reality, at least practiced, I'm becoming convinced that I can go join in with people who are of similar mindset. I'm also thinking maybe I should study community development. I've never been interested in politics. It seems politics are the surface discussion of the true relationships (both broken and strong) underlying, which is where all the action is. I want to sit below the politics with those who are just living and maybe trying to voice their opinion through votes if they think it will make a greater good difference. Maybe I want to live off-the-grid. I pledge allegiance, my life, to God. I want to serve His creation with all that I am, in the place where I am needed.
Maybe other people are called to other things.
As I'm writing this, I'm realizing, "goodness I'm getting passionate about this here", but also, "I think this summer with Tierra Nueva may be changing my life". And it should. Ah, Lord, I don't want to get wrapped up in thinking that everything at Tierra Nueva or The Simple Way or Punta Mona Eco-Village is perfect, but I want to keep learning how they work and what I can incorporate into the places I know best, or maybe into places I will grow to know. I feel like at this point, I have a lot of ideas in my head, a lot of things I've learned about just living- at least about just consumerism. And with these, I can change some of my own destructive habits, and I can promote just practices, but I haven't figured out how to create change on any bigger scale. I'm starting with 'being the change I wish to see in the world', but I tell you, I'm tired. And it is hard when you're tired.
Here are my ideas of that: First, let me say that at this point I believe that one way to heal the world (in some regard) is to develop small community-based living. Many places in the world already do this, but most of the Western world has (I think) overdeveloped in the sense of trying to be so united as such a large group of people, and so trying to take care of everyone through an overhead system of government where we place our hope and trust in the dollar
(not in God, as it says on the dollar. You know, that is really interesting. Whoever created the dollar design probably knew that people would grow to put their faith in our currency instead of in God's provision, and (s)he wanted to remind us as we look at our dollar we earned (or stole) with pride and comfort, that money will only get usso far- God will ultimately provide for all our needs and take us to paradise with Him.) <-- I digress.
So as we've overdeveloped, industrialized, mass-produced, efficiency and pleasure-based our lives, I think the people of my class and generation have come to put our trust in the educational system, where we will be equipped (with a college degree) to perform in a career that will provide financial stability for us (and our families), and with this, we will be able to enjoy life and make it just fine. Goodness, but I want more than that! There is such better life! Something I just came to understand recently, is that education is meant to teach us things that we will be useful in our lives. So in highschool when a student asks his calc teacher, "When am I ever going to use this?", and the teacher doesn't have a reasonable answer, the student should decide to drop the class and take something useful. And in college, we shouldn't drag ourselves through classes that both don't interest and don't apply to us, just to fulfill credits. I'm becoming more and more convinced that my mom was right when she said I should go to a trade school. It fits in with my idealic community life. Another critique (I'm full of them): somewhere along the industrialism and wreckage of simple lives, our population grew, and people, not living in agricultural communites anymore found themselves out of work and so started businesses that were before unnecessary to society. Now we have many people working full-time (which is too much of a person's life if you ask me) in jobs that are unnecessary, and I would almost say, don't matter. And we have many people out of work, because there aren't enough jobs to be done. And yet, with all these jobs filled, we are still in economic trouble at large... ay. This is too much. Goodness, all to say, we have overdeveloped and have a lot of 'reverse-progress' that needs to be made in order to heal our society.
<insert> I recently learned (from Heather) that because I am 20 years old, I have this great passion and I see truth and the truth I see is right and I want to tell the world that and I want to live that because I have such energy and opportunity and life in front of me. And I don't have a life's worth of experience, but I think I have learned from others and books and nature and God enough for now to have these ideas be worthy of posting on a blog.
<other note> As I was sharing of the importance of buying organic and supporting local farmers who are doing good for the land and the workers by protecting and sustaining their health with some friends here, I learned an important lesson. Bethany Hively has spent the last few months doing college ministry with campus crusades for Christ, and her passion lies there in missions and evangelism, and so she wants to put all of herself (including her money) into this. She thinks she can't afford to support organic, local vegetable farmers- that isn't her passion. And this is okay. This is why God gave us different passions: so we can support what is good over a broad spectrum and share that goodness with our community and world. So I can support organic farmers, she can support missions, Heather can support theater camps for kids, etc.
Ideally, this is how an intentional community should work. People bring their skills and passions, and make a community thrive and live justly. Some grow the organic veggies and fruits and herbs, some care for the sheep and chickens and cows, some prepare the food, sheer the sheep, process the wool, build and repair structures, care for the children, etc, and then when the day's work is done, they all play together, make music, and feast. I feel like I'm missing some necessary jobs on that list, but not many... Ah, education? I suppose that would go with child-care. And they all share what they have because they trust each other, and they trust in God to provide for their needs.
Man, this is long. But this is all I'll burden you with for now.
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