By Wim van Klinken, member of the Presiding Bishopric
“Community of Christ,” your name, given as a divine blessing, is your identity and calling. If you will discern and embrace its full meaning, you will not only discover your future, you will become a blessing to the whole creation.
I believe it is feasible for us to create a future for all of God’s creation—a world in which all creation exists in and experiences everlasting, sustainable harmony. However, as prophetic counsel from President Emeritus Steve Veazey reminds us, we have practices, instilled and promoted by our cultures, that are contrary to God’s vision for us and for all creation.
This article is part of a series from the Presiding Bishopric. We believe, like the prophets, that all people should be able to experience abundance—that we should live and “not hurt or destroy…, for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord….” This conviction of God’s peaceable reign calls us to be prophetic by addressing the ways the “knowledge of the Lord” is stilled by conventional, and often more convenient, understandings that are at times even justified by religious authorities.
Many of us have been raised in, and continue to live within, cultures where consumption is promoted, advertised, and even preached. We are instilled with the idea that the more we consume, the better our world will be and the better our children’s lives will become. The growth of the national GDP (Gross Domestic Product) in the United States has become a primary measure of our welfare and well-being. For some, it has even become a measure of how well we are blessed by God.
However, our culturally justified appetite for more has consequences that we are not confronted with because they remain conveniently out of sight and, therefore, out of mind. Yet if we are called to see the world through God’s eyes—with prophetic imagination—we are also called to recognize the impact our consumption has on creation. We are called to challenge the paradigm that because we can, and because we have the money, we are entitled and justified to consume without restraint.
(continued in tomorrow’s Daily Bread)
Prayer Phrase
“Do good…share what you have” (Hebrews 13:16).
Enough to Share
Take a moment to notice what you are holding onto—perhaps a worry, a resource, or a desire for more. Take a breath and release it. Ask yourself, “Where am I being invited to trust that there is enough?” Think of one way you can share what you have today—your time, your gifts, your attention, or your resources. As you breathe in, say, “There is enough.” As you breathe out, “If I share.” Pray, “May my trust become generosity, and may my generosity create abundance for the welfare of all.”
Today’s Prayer for Peace
Engage in a daily practice of praying for peace in our world. Click here to read today’s prayer and be part of this practice of peace.