Train me, God, to walk straight; then I’ll follow your true path. Put me together, one heart and mind; then, undivided, I’ll worship in joyful fear … Make a show of how much you love me so the bullies who hate me will stand there slack-jawed, as you, God, gently and powerfully put me back on my feet. - Psalm 86:11,17 (The Message)
There are times when you are scanning the internet when something just jumps out and grabs your imagination. This happened to me recently when I came across a leaflet by the Green Christian Network entitled “Nine ways of living gently on the earth”.
I was interested to read the nine tips to see if there was anything I could personally adopt or publicly share. The moment I saw the first tip I knew that this would be a leaflet I would download and stick on my office wall. That first tip simply said: Stand up for the planet. Think about that for a second. Be like David Attenborough! He simply cannot stop showing off this wonderful planet in all its glory, including those places that are broken and decimated. He stands up for the planet and so should we!
I could have gone through the other 8 points too, but there was just one other that I wanted to highlight: Number 8 is entitled Explore this island. Looking for a gift the other day I came across one of those posters for globe trotters where you cross off every country in the world you’ve ever travelled to. It would be nice to visit many more countries and immerse yourself in their history and culture, but hey, there is so much of our own country that I haven’t seen. I’ve been a big fan of the Susan Calman’s Secret Scotland television programmes that have shown recently, and she has been to some fascinating places that I would love to go to. There is so much more to discover and explore in our own back yard that we really should do our utmost to look after what we’ve been given as stewards of creation.
To be reminded of this task we have just turn to the pages of the Psalms. Psalm 8 is one of the most amazing passages in the Bible, it is beguiling and awe inspiring. Whilst The Message perhaps doesn’t have the beauty and majesty that other versions carry it is still absolutely clear from its words just what our responsibility is – to live gently on this earth, with creation and with each other.
Psalm 8
God, brilliant Lord, yours is a household name.
Nursing infants gurgle choruses about you; toddlers shout the songs that drown out enemy talk, and silence atheist babble.
I look up at your macro-skies, dark and enormous, your handmade sky-jewellery, moon and stars mounted in their settings.
Then I look at my micro-self and wonder, why do you bother with us? Why take a second look our way?
Yet we’ve so narrowly missed being gods, bright with Eden’s dawn light. You put us in charge of your handcrafted world, repeated to us your Genesis-charge, made us stewards of sheep and cattle, even animals out in the wild, birds flying and fish swimming, whales singing in the ocean deeps.
God, brilliant Lord, your name echoes around the world.
Amen.
Neil Chappell