Tuesday, December 8, 2009

Essay 2

Several weeks ago during Chapel, there was a video they showed that inspired me reflect upon myself and my place in the world. The video started off with a guy standing next to a big brown box covered with labels such as War, Hunger, Poverty, Global Warming, and basically everything else that was wrong with the world. The guy, who is reading a book, does not seem to notice or care about the box and its contents. A girl comes along and sees the box, and seeing the guy she asks if it's his. The guy, as if seeing it for the first time answers, "No, it's not my problem," and goes back to reading his book. The girl says, "Well, it's not my problem either, but someone's gotta take care of it." The message that the video is trying to get across is clear.

We may think that since we have nothing to do with the world's problems, we don't have to care or do anything about it. No one is certainly forcing us to do anything. We already have plenty of our own problems to deal with. Even though we aren't directly affected by the world's problems, we all share the same planet, and one day we'll reach the point where we can't afford to stand on the sidelines anymore. We can't ignore the box forever. But the question is, who will stand up and claim the box?

Jesus set the ultimate example by shouldering all the sins of the world and dying for us on the cross. Not out of pity, not because he had any sort of obligation, but because he loved humans and genuinely wanted to save them. He was the one person who took up the box representing all the evil and suffering in this world. In Jesus' story of the Good Samaritan, we are told to be good neighbors and treat others as you would have them treat you. We've all heard this golden rule before, but many of us don't really bother to put it into practice. I'm like the guy in the video. As a college student, there's always so much reading and studying to do that most of my attention is focused in that area. If I divided up my time as percentages, it would look something like this:

Time I spend doing and thinking about various things throughout the day (excluding sleep):
70-80% School
15% Eating
5% Thinking about God and the world

These are all approximate values, but it shows how little time I spend thinking about what I could be doing to contribute to the world. Most of the time, I only think about God in the morning and at night when I go to sleep when really, I should be thinking about him all the time. God should not be this separate thing from my life where I only come to him twice a day; instead, I should maintain a constant connection with him throughout the day. If I spend this little time with God, then the time I spend thinking about the world's problems is almost nonexistent. How sad. Life is so much more than school and eating. In fact, a lot of us spend half our lives in school, and the other half working, then retire and spend the rest of our days in leisure. Is this really all theres is to life? What if I devoted 10% of my time to God? 25%? 50%? 100%??? How would life be different? It would certainly make life more meaningful. I think that one of the consequences of having a relationship with God is to become more and more aware of the world around us.

As Christians and stewards of the earth, we have a responsibility to take care of it as best as we can. No matter how busy I become or the mountain load of work I have to do, I should always keep the bigger picture in mind, and set aside time to think of God and others. Even though the big, ugly box is not ours, someone has to take care of it. And that someone starts with me.

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