The Ostrich Effect
Life is formed through circumstances out of your control as well the choices you make. The old saying goes, “Life is 1% of what happens to you, and 99% what you choose to do with it.” Our choices are significant. Choices have consequences whether we realise it or not, and these consequences effect not only you.
I recently had to submit an assignment on sustainable development. Sustainable development is the idea that we need to look at our world right now and improve the quality of life for everyone today without destroying the same opportunities for the future generations. As I started learning about things like climate change, deforestation, and massive population growth, I realised that our choices today are significant. For example, the worlds population has increased from 2,5 billion to 7,5 billion since 1950. That means that in just 65 years the world’s population has tripled – and with it has our demands on the planet. With such an increase in people, there is greater need for food production, energy consumption, health care, and so much more.
What does sustainable development have to do with you and me, and our faith? The truth is convicting and simple – we do not live in isolation. Often, we move throughout our lives without considering the consequences of them. How am I stewarding and protecting the planet God gave us to live in? Am I considering things such as the effect the amount of energy I use has on earth or if I’m conserving water, especially during a season of drought? Will how I live today ensure that it is possible for future generations to also be able to thrive on earth? How are the choices I make with my life affecting the quality of lives of other people, both today and in the future?
We sometimes live like ostriches with our heads buried in the sand, acting as if nothing is wrong, and that our lives do not impact how our world is being shaped. As part of God’s redemptive Kingdom on earth we are called to engage the challenges facing our planet. We cannot live in isolation. We need to be engaged in the sustainable development conversation since it might as well be a ‘Love Jesus, love others Kingdom conversation.’ Every choice we make impacts our own life and those around us. Are we making Kingdom-minded choices within our lives in context of the world we live in?
“With what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable shall we use it? It is like a grain of mustard seed, which, when sown on the ground is the smallest of all the seeds of the earth, yet when it is sown it grows up and becomes larger than all the garden plants and puts out large branches, so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade” (Mark 4:30-32).