Wachet Auf!

Written by: David

One of the sad truths about us as human beings is that we rarely act unless we’re personally impacted by anything. Our willingness to make changes in our behavior is rarely based on reason or empathy…it’s only when something whups us personally upside the head that we get around to doing anything.

That, I think, is one of the reasons we succumb so easily to inertia when it comes to caring for creation. We just lack the moral imagination to do it. Why not spend most of your day driving from one place to another in a great honking ‘ute? Why worry about consuming more and more energy in your immense new home? We’re just not willing to see the big picture, to see efficiency as both a duty towards our nation and a responsibility towards the world over which God has made us stewards.

The time for acting responsibly is slipping away. We’ve not yet hit “peak oil”, and yet prices have begun moving beyond the $3 a gallon that economists believe will at least start changes in behavior.

The significant impacts are still–barring another ferocious hurricane season–probably a decade away. Yet most of us lack the wisdom of Joseph, even if the fat years are rapidly waning, and the famine years coming. We’re happy to noodle along with all the foresight of a pregnant crackhead. Oh, it’ll all work out. Something will happen, and it’ll all turn out fine for me. If you’re one of those folks whose banking on the Rapture to get your behind out of an environmental and economic perfect storm, perhaps it’s time to revisit the wisdom literature in your Bible.

I’ve been focused on consuming less for a while now, and that’s expressed itself in decisions that I and my family have made. Among them:

1) Living in a smaller, closer home. Our humble rambler’s a nice, solidly constructed house, but it’s smaller than the immense ticky tacky structures that are slapped up today. That’s less space to heat, less space to cool. When we bought, one of the essential factors for us was: can we walk to shopping? Parks? Playgrounds? Could the kids walk to school? If there was another gas crisis…not just the annoyance of paying another twenty or thirty bucks a tank, but a real shortage…how would you do?

2) Making home efficiency a priority. Rather than a spanky new kitchen, we’ve invested in a more efficient furnace and ac system. We’ve upgraded windows, and will soon replace doors and insulation. We shut down and will soon tear out the energy-hog hot tub that came with our house.

3) Buying more efficient cars. Rache and I could have slapped down a few extra pennies for a powerful car last year, but we chose to spend less for our xB. The 31 mpg we average in our day-to-day errand running and Rache’s commuting isn’t amazing, but it’s not half bad, either. It was what we needed, not what we were told we needed.

4) To Heck With Cars…get a bike! Of course, we should all be riding motorcycles instead. I’ve been using my bike (currently a sweet little Yamaha sportbike) to commute for the better part of a decade. Rain, shine, cold, hot. It matters not. A motorcycle isn’t just an object that you keep on a pedestal in your garage like some fetishistic talisman to remind you that you once were young. It’s the ideal form of transit for thems of us who are both creation-conscious but like a wee bit o’ joy in life. Get the right training, and the right protective gear, and you’re good to go. Unless you’re too much of a wuss. Check out some of the stats at Ride To Work, a neat little motorcycle advocacy group.

5) Structure your life so you consume less. If we work, we’re willing to tolerate insane commutes. If we’re taking care of kids, we feel obliged to fill their afternoons and weekends with relentless driving to and fro from one activity to another. That’s the culture in which we find ourselves. But that endless asphalt treadmill doesn’t make for a balanced human life. We need to find the wisdom to live our lives on a more human scale…not only is that saner, but it’s better for creation.

How do you take care for creation into account in your life?