Enjoy Our Home

God did not build this world as a moral testing ground, where our obedience and piety are to be tested against the lure of earthly pleasure, to see if we are worthy of heaven.  This world is its own mystery and has its own meaning, a God-given one.  It’s not simply a stage on which we, as humans, play out our individual dramas of salvation and then close the curtain.  It’s a place for all of us – humans, animals, insects, plants, water, rocks, and soil – to enjoy a home together. [from page 41 “Wrestling With God: Finding Hope and Meaning in Our Daily Struggles to be Human” (2018)]

So, let’s enjoy and stop bickering.  Also, let’s give our world with its wonders a break from human exploitation and devastation.  

One of my favorite movies The Matrix has profound meaning. Agent Smith, the villain in the movie, delivers this meaningful dialogue to the leader, Morpheus:

“I´d like to share a revelation that I´ve had during my time here. It came to me when I tried to classify your species, and I realized that you’re not actually mammals.

Every mammal on this planet instinctively develops a natural equilibrium with the surrounding environment, but you humans do not. You move to an area and you multiply and multiply until every natural resource is consumed. The only way can survive is to spread to another area.

There is another organism on this planet that follows the same pattern. Do you know what it is? A virus.

Human beings are a disease, a cancer of this planet. You’re a plague and we… are the cure.”

Admittedly, this Matrix perspective is very gloomy and extremely pessimistic.  Still, it’s a reminder that we can behave like a plague and have the same effects. 

Deacon David Pierce