Lost Innocence
September 12, 2008
No one is innocent.
That’s a sweeping statement, but I was reminded of its truth last Friday, when an armed man entered a bank in my quiet neighborhood and held a dozen hostages inside for hours before killing himself. And I’m reminded of it this week, as we recognize the seventh anniversary of September 11.
I am not innocent.
I’ve never held a gun; I was in college when 9/11 happened. How can I possibly hold myself responsible for these tragedies, and what do they have to do with my concern for the well-being of creation? Well, the threads of connection are faint, but they’re strong.
Last Friday night, after the hostage situation had passed, I drove to a local mall and stood in a computer store for two hours. I was a consumer, surrounded by dozens of other consumers, all looking for something tangible, something the right color, something with the necessary functions to satisfy dissatisfaction and to craft identities for us that we are not ashamed of. With every new item that entered my hands at the mall, and with every step on the gas pedal as I drove home, I was acutely aware of filling the world with death, instead of life; with things and pollutants instead of friendship and grace and love.
I can’t say that the actions of the gunman in the bank or of the perpetrators of 9/11 were driven by consumerism or dissatisfaction or shame or the deterioration of the earth or a lack of love and community. But it’s safe to say that all of these things—that we each perpetuate—contribute to the brokenness of lives and communities and wild spaces.
Matthew Sleeth, in his introduction to the new Green Bible (Harper Bibles), and as quoted in this Fall’s Creation Care magazine, writes that “The earth is dying.” We contribute to its dying, and we do it every step of the way, even when we try to do right: As Ariah points out, even when we consume green, we still add stuff to the world instead of adding health and beauty and relationship to it. Even when we drive a hybrid, we still contribute carbon dioxide to the atmosphere. Even when we blog about creation care, we still use electricity. Everything we do has an effect on the world around us—both the physical planet and the people who live on it.
Sounds paralyzing. It’s not.
It’s a fragile place to be—this realization of our own complicity in the wrongness of things. We could give up, or we could readjust our perspective.
At the same time that God asks us to pick up our cross and try to live rightly, he also overwhelms us with the reassurance that we will never get anything perfect, but that his grace is sufficient to fill up and overflow all the gaps. I can’t say I understand this. I can’t say I want to understand it. But remembering that it’s not about us, after all, has a simultaneously calming and invigorating effect. God must increase, and we must decrease. This fact not only frees us to leap with abandon at the goal of living rightly and gently upon the earth and with each other; it also floods our many failings with hope.
It is all connected—the harm we do to creation and the harm we do to each other and the harm we don’t even know we do. We are not innocent. But, by the grace of God, we are forgiven and free.
Kendra Langdon Juskus is managing editor for Creation Care magazineCreation Care magazine. She lives with her husband in Illinois.
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3 Responses to “Lost Innocence”
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Thanks for sharing that.
Hi, my name is Dustin and I work with a Christian environmental organization called Christians in Conservation: A Rocha USA. I noticed that you mentioned Dr. Matthew Sleeth in your post, and I thought that you might like to know that our organization sponsors him as a “creation care evangelist.” We would love for you to check us out at our website, en.arocha.org/usa. You might also be interested in reading Dr. Sleeth’s book on creation care, “Serve God, Save the Planet.” He was a website for it at http://www.servegodsavetheplanet.org
Thanks Ariah.
Thanks for reading Dustin. I’m very familiar with A Rocha and the good work you do, although I didn’t realize Matthew has such a great title (“creation care evangelist”) with you! We’re privileged to have Matthew (or other members of his very creation care-committed family) write for Creation Care magazine every issue, and I agree that his book is a must-read. He’s part of the humble servitude that characterizes A Rocha and the many other organizations and individuals who see the importance of creation care.