Post 55—Wasting Water: A Precious Resource

Spent part of yesterday at Derby Reach, a park on the Fraser River near Langley BC. There were many shrieking happy children voices as they ran around innocently playing their games without any thought of the potential effect or ramifications of their games. Well, of course not. Who would expect such concerns from happy playing children?

There was a water faucet nearby that was difficult to open, but once opened it spurted out water with great gusto, obviously under great pressure down below. There is probably only one activity that children playing in a river-side park like better than water faucets—throwing stones in the river’s water. We were not disappointed on either count. Many were the stones that ended up in the river and many were the gallons of water the children managed to squeeze out of that stubborn faucet and promptly dumped on the grass a few feet away—all evening. Perhaps we should have counted the gallons.  Water a precious resource as some claim? You’d never know from these children—or from their “supervising” parents who did nothing to stop the “innocent” play. 

It’s hard, if not harsh, to criticize children playing their innocent games.  I love watching them go through their antics.  So much fun; so much joy; so much innocence.  No, I won’t criticize them, but I will criticize their parents for allowing them to waste so much water. Today this group of families; tomorrow that group—but ongoing from day to day throughout the park season.  Gallons and gallons of it without let up.  

Water a precious resource? You’d never guess that to be the case either when you drive through North America’s suburbs with their spacious lawns in the summer time. Gallons upon gallons poured out daily to keep them green, only to be mowed every few days and that beautiful grass to be mulched on a weekly basis. An entire industry has grown up to serve that culture of beauty and—waste.  Yes, waste; pure waste of a precious and diminishing resource. Almost totally mindless.

It’s not only the people in Western countries who waste water mindlessly. I have lived in communities in an African country where women have for decades and even centuries had to daily haul water from distant places to cook and clean.  Usually on their heads; sometimes on shoulder or back. It was an unending and tormenting task without ever a break.  I have rejoiced with them when their government would install a water system for the community.  

You’d think that after life-long scarcity and hard work, they would be very careful in their use of the new easy supply of water, but that is often not the case. In contrast to the past where they rationed it carefully, they will often leave the faucets open and running when no one is around to catch the water. I’ve been amazed to see this. Just like the playing children and the law sprinklers above, they seem to think the supply is endless. They just let it run on and on and on….  Almost totally mindless. 

If you keep up with the news, you will know that in the US desert state of California, drought has set in with a vengeance, severely impacting the cost of food not only for the local people but throughout the US and even Canada. As we speak, I watch the price of food in Vancouver BC climb and climb and wonder when it will settle down. The question for all of us, not just Californians, is what can be done about it?  Where will it end?  Do we even have the gumption to address it?  Can a government that wants to address it seriously by restricting access in some way even survive?  

It’s a topic I plan to address off and on. I hope to occasionally describe various plans that are being offered to rescue the situation and the people’s reaction to them. What motivations might be needed for people to become more careful in their use of this precious resource?  Could financial incentives bring a change in behaviour? Perhaps water comes too cheap for us to bother?

As to myself, I have an in-built water restraint: my Christian faith.  I don’t need a financial incentive to reduce my water consumption. I am very conscious of the very first command in the Bible that instructs us to manage well the garden God has bequeathed us. This demands that as the supply diminishes, we devise more economical ways to use it. It demands an end to mindless or selfish wastage. And if nothing else, having experienced those African situations, every time I observe wastage, whether water or anything else, I get nervous.  That experience should be enough for anyone. 

So, this post is an example of  the previous post: the Biblical tradition of mixing religion with the “secular” things of this world. They cannot be separated, for your faith, whatever it is, will always influence your response to these situations. Check yourself. What would be at the bottom of any attempt of yours to convince you to change you wasteful habits?  You will find there is always some value system or belief that underlies your response. If you’re a Christian, the previous paragraph should be part of your motivation and that should be stronger than any financial considerations, though they also have a legitimate part in all of this.

Post 54--Mixing the Spiritual with the Mundane

Here I am again, only a day or two after the last post. I am trying hard to appease you for the long delay you have just suffered. No, no promise it will not happen again, but I will try my darnest. I am foreseeing a couple of trips in my intermediate future: to Atlanta (GA) and Mountain View (CA). We’ll see what comes out of those trips. As I say….

One of the characteristics of this my blog is that I often go back and forth between so-called “religious” and “worldly” or “secular” topics.  I don’t keep a straight line of separation between the two; I don’t compartmentalize them. I discuss all sorts of topics in random order—abortion, Aboriginals, transparency, taxes, politicians and in between appear all kinds of religious and philosophical issues.  Why is this? Is my sense of logic impaired?  Am I propriety challenged?

Actually, I “mix up” all these issues quite on purpose and by design. Some years ago I published a book of daily meditations with the title The Prophet Moses for Today.[1] There, too, I mixed up all these topics and defended this practice in Meditation 339 under the title “No Compartmentalized Christianity.”  Topics just previous to this one include “A Banker’s Responsibility” (332), seducing virgins (333), forced marriage (334), sorcery (336-337) and bestiality (338).  Topics right after Meditation 339 include murder (340), politics (341) and aliens (342).  What a strange hodge-podge!

The reason for this sequence was actually quite simple: I was following the sequence of these subjects as found in the Bible--in the Ten Commandments, to be more precise.  But, you may ask, why does the Bible write in this “hodge-podgy” way?  Does this not confirm the negative misgivings so many people have about it?  Why did its writers not organize topics more logically and systematically?

Meditation 339 puts it this way:

There you have it again. Mixing religion with “secular” affairs. We have just meditated on sorcery and bestiality, while the next few verses deal with aliens and widows. So, why have just one religious verse mixed in with all this “secular” stuff?  Especially moving from bestiality to religion is to move from the ridiculous to the sublime. Why can’t the Bible keep these things apart a little more neatly?

Sorry about that. …the Bible does not compartmentalize religion from so-called “secular” life. It is against the Christian religion to do so. Christians who so compartmentalize have given in to secularism, which is simply another system of belief or religion.  They live by two religions, the Christian and the secular.  These are two opposing religions or perspectives. People who adhere to both are weak both in the spiritual life as well as their life in the world. Christians will often compensate for their weakness and contradiction by screaming and yelling in their religious gatherings. Screaming supposedly covers up the powerlessness in their lives and gives them a fake sense of spiritual power. 

So, our text for today (Exodus 22:20) is a witness to and embodiment of the centrality of religion in human life—in everyone’s life.  Your entire life is influenced and, indeed, directed, by the force, ideal or idol or God to which you sacrifice or dedicate your life. I urge that this be the Jehovah God of the Bible, the One the churches around you preach about regularly.

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A  random word of wisdom:  “When you don’t talk about something, then something will talk about itself for you.” (from Alexander Smith:  The Handsome Man’s de Luxe Café.)

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[1]Jos, Nigeria: Institute of Church & Society, 1995. You can access it free of charge on my website 

< www.SocialTheology.com/boeriana >.

Post 53--A Travelogue of Sorts

Welcome to “Summer 15” for all of us northerners. As to you southerners, may you enjoy your skating and skiing this July.

Once again, I fell into a trap that has often beclouded the blogs I have operated over the years. If you were with me then, you will know what I am referring to.  A long silence due to lengthy travel, something I had intended to avoid—the silence, not the travel! Even when away, I had decided, I would write a few posts. Nothing came of it. Sorry.

In the meantime, my wife and I had a wonderful time in Grand Rapids (GR), MI, where she grew up and where I did my college and seminary. It is also the location of the mission board of the Christian Reformed Church (CRC) under which I served for 30 years in Nigeria. I spent some fifteen years in that city off and on.  Many of my in-laws live there as well as numerous friends. So, we had a great time, but in the meantime, I left you in the lurch.  Remember this business of promises not kept many posts ago? Well, this is another instance, private/personal intentions not kept even. When will I learn my own lessons?

I actually had another topic picked out for this post, but it will have to await Post 53. The above was meant to be kind of an aside before I got to the real subject, but it occurred to me that I would be doing you a favour by introducing that GRcommunity to you. It is a mid-size mid-western city with a population of some 180,000 in the city proper and about one million in its metro area.  You may not be aware of this city simply because of its average size, but, according to Wikipedia, in 2014, GR was named the No. 1 U.S. travel destination by Lonely Planet. Now that should tell you something—it’s not just your average city.

But it has had its ups and downs, almost simultaneously, it seems.  A January 21, 2011 Newsweek article listed Grand Rapids as a "dying city."  But in 2010 the city was named the "most sustainable midsize city in the U.S." by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Go figure!

It is known for several distinctives and includes an impressive array of “firsts” in the area of culture and the arts. The longest-standing major reputation is that of “Furniture City.” It remains a major furniture city, but it is rapidly becoming known better as the country’s “Beer City,” something that is likely to surprise people familiar with its history and traditions. 

Not many people realize that the place is probably best known internationally as a center of Christian publishing. It is home to Zondervan, Baker Books, Eerdmans, and a number of smaller publishers, including Kregel and Our Daily Bread Ministries, as well as Family Christian Stores, a Christian bookstore chain. The three majors supply the entire world with very substantial Christian literature.  They have a major impact and influence throughout the world, especially Eerdmans with its scholarly emphasis that by far overshadows the furniture and beer components in influence if not in economics. Of course, in our secular world, those who describe cities tend to either ignore or downplay such religious contributions—which is the major reason I have deviated from the original intent of this post. I want you to be aware of that unusual and substantial contribution GR makes to the world.

Of course, GR is also home to the usual run of Christian denominations, but it differs from many northern cities in the number of church congregations. It has more Catholics than any other brand of Christians, but its distinctive is the presence of numerous Dutch Calvinist denominations. The original is the Reformed Church of America, the oldest Protestant denomination in the country. In GR it is overshadowed by the break-away (over 150 years ago) CRC of which I am a member. It is that church that has provided me with the worldview, theology and philosophy underlying this blog.

The CRC is a mixed bag as far as its membership goes. It comprises a wide range of folk ranging from fundamentalists to classic conservatives and progressive social activists with the latter two deeply influenced by my role model, Abraham Kuyper.  I am embarrassed by the presence of the first two and consider myself among the third. The reason I belong to this denomination is partially the “accident” of birth, but I might have absconded if it were not for the underlying “worldview, theology and philosophy” of the previous paragraph. That’s where this church is unique, potentially powerful and that’s where I am at home. That’s what you’re getting from me in this blog and that’s what keeping me in the denomination. Probably no denomination in North America, apart from the Catholic Church, has produced as many prominent philosophers as has the CRC, certainly not per capita. And if you think that is not very important, you should realize that it is the leading philosophers who this century create the common sense of the next.  These are consciously Christian philosophers. I am grateful for and proud of them.

So, now you know more about GR, but, more important, more about where I get my bearings that you read about in this blog. Calvin College and Calvin Theological Seminary are the GR tertiaries I attended and both belong to the CRC and are located in GR.  You can find out all about them from the internet. No need to repeat what’s already accessible to you.  And if you’ve become curious about the city itself, there’s a good Wikipedia article on it.

As to other parts of my life, I refer you to my website <  www.SocialTheology.com  >.