Responsibility

 

Poor people do not fly in aeroplanes and they do not consume much electricity either. In fact, they demand far less from this over-exploited planet than rich folk do. Shouldn't we all be trying to save this planet by reducing our carbon footprints? Just because you are rich should not give you licence to take more from the planet than your fair share.

When Trump was the president of the USA, he frequently flew south from Washington D.C. for leisurely weekends in Mar-a-Lago. I guess it never occurred to him that a president's job might be a seven day a week commitment. Clearly, it also  never occurred to him  that wasting aviation fuel like that set a very bad example to ordinary citizens. He was using up far more than his fair share and demonstrating a sense of entitlement, squandering fossil fuels like nobody's business.

At the top of this blogpost you have got a picture of Brian Niccol, the new CEO of Starbucks. Starbucks HQ is of course located in Seattle, Washington State but Niccol lives 1000 miles south of there  in Newport Beach, southern California. He has refused to relocate and though some home working can be done in Newport Beach, he plans to fly up to Seattle on at least three days each week. This commute will be paid for by Starbucks.

What a waste of aviation fuel and what hypocrisy too - given Starbucks' declared environmental and sustainability policies! Maybe they were all just cynical window dressing.

Okay, I admit that I am no angel either. I have taken hundreds of flights in my life and compared with other earthlings, I exist in the richest percentile. However, as the years have passed and knowledge about the perilous position of Earth has grown, I have tried to be much more responsible about fossil fuel usage and recycling while seeking to shrink my demands upon the planet.

But it is easy to ask - what's the point if you have people like Niccol effectively wasting what belongs to all of us? I don't care how good he might be at corporate management. Earth matters more. Hopefully, spreading news of this will shame him and Starbucks into a rethink.

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Spare coins

 Where your heart is

Tells me 

Where your

Mouth meets

Love of money

Root of 

All evil

But what

Comes off

My tongue

Will destroy

With the ferocity

Of a wildfire

Left untamed

Lord

Let me love

How you demand

Not based

On what

Is deserved

At the gates

I need the Trinity

That those

Words in red

Were met

With acts

Of service

Not just

Spare coins

Left in

The collection

Plate

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Truth and trust

 I never knew how much God would move when I took my hands off the wheel. I don’t drive the car. Not that I ever did. Being still is one the best things I’ve ever done. It’s one of the most trying. To turn off the brain takes work. I started being present in the everyday. Not in the fantasy. As to quote someone quite famous “I’m doing something” in being silent to a still, small voice. 

I listened to a sermon Sunday that got me wondering when I stopped following this knowledge so simple yet revolutionary.”Faith is just an idea until we take a risk and act on it”. This one statement has shifted something so fundamental in me. When did I get so scared?  When did I let the world define my value?  When did I start to doubt the I AM that is God. 

God is using people to minister to me. I’m learning not to get defensive to constructive criticism. If its being given freely. It’s because success is seen where failure is my default. Let people speak into you. I’m getting daily and weekly pep talks from whomever is placed in the path. 

I was reminded of something so foundational. I’ve been given a gift. I need to share it. I need to be brave. I need to show the world and the disabled community what is possible. What is attainable. Worthy of love. Worthy of hope. Worthy of help. We all need help. If you don’t now, be grateful. I’m independent to a point, but wholly dependent on the Grace of God. 

Could I touch the robe?  Be healed because of my faith as the pastored said?  Yes. I don’t believe that is my lot. Romans 12:12 is where my heart is. “Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.”  I haven’t done any of this. I’ve demanded God grant me three wishes like a genie. My prayer life looks like a to-do list. Joyful. I don’t know what that is. Patient in affliction. That is laughable, if it were funny. I’m patient in nothing. Waiting more than two minutes to check out in a department store makes me want to drop potential purchases in random places, and run for the exits. I wish I were joking. I’m not. I was so proud of myself for using self-checkout in Wal-Mart yesterday, and not getting deterred when the item wouldn’t scan. 

If you’re going to say you understand me, or to give myself grace, I appreciate your great love and grace for me. I also know I need tough love. I need what I don’t want. I won’t grow if as my great friend Rowena told me:  “Pretty lies might be nice, but they get you nowhere”. I have somewhere to go. I don’t know where exactly. When much is given, much is required. Maybe you can quote the verse in its entirety, but I hope the picture is getting clearer. 

I’m on a mission to display what God can do with broken people. People the world doesn’t consider to hold much value. Do I think I change the world. No. I know who I’m not. Millions don’t chant my name or know me by my first name alone. And, that is okay. More than okay. I love you all because you love me regardless of my ability to give you anything in return. 

Love yourself and one another. 

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