The Earth Is The Lord's

             The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it; (Psalm 24:1)

          One of the books I’m reading is The Freedom of Simplicity by Richard J. Foster. He begins with an Old Testament perspective that is reflected in the verse above from Psalms. He doesn’t use this verse, but works his way through a number of others to show that the world doesn’t belong to us and God’s perspective of our use of it is not ours - no matter which side of the current political divide we’re on.

          But it will do us no good to get off into the weeds of how we go about things. The moment we decide things belong to us or that God doesn’t belong in the picture, we bring competition into the matter. Competition is complication. Consider my oft-repeated example of a river. If you understand that the water is flowing in a particular direction and you go with it, things are pretty simple. When you decide to go upstream or directly across the river, things get a little more complicated and difficult. Or, consider a marriage. If you’re loyal to a spouse, things are comparatively simple. Add a few affairs (especially simultaneous affairs), and things get complicated. Segal’s Law tells us “A man with one watch knows what time it is. A man with two is never sure.”

          The first, most basic step to simplicity is to come to grips with reality. There are competing accounts of reality, so I’m going to suggest what I’ve suggested before.  Whatever you accept as the foundation, source, or power behind reality is your god, whether that god is God or natural, materialistic forces as explained by science. Whatever dictates what is true – that’s your god, even if you feel compelled to call it by some other name. I have insufficient evidence of any other god to turn away from the God described in the Old and New Testaments. But the point is that whichever god you choose should make other choices simple. The problem comes in when the god you claim is God is not the god you actively believe in. In other words, when the river flows south but you’re determined to travel west it without taking the current into account, without putting forth any effort. You can fight the current, build a bridge, or fly -but you can’t claim to follow the river simultaneously.

          If we follow God, we would do well to learn how He says we should live and to do so. That involves accepting the earth being His, not ours, and treating it according to the principles He teaches.