Everyday Synergy

There is nothing we can do without God. Yet, one glance at our daily newspaper demonstrates how often we try to live without God guiding our lives. We are inundated with stories of war, poverty, cruelty, and injustice. Some stories become a source of common entertainment and casual conversation. Television news shows consistently highlight violent crimes as the major stories of the day.

Many students are welcomed to school in the morning by metal detectors or police officers. Children and adults in distant countries suffer the cruel working conditions of sweatshops to provide us with fashionable garments and decorations. Billions of animals endure suffering and ultimately death in factory farms and slaughterhouses to provide people with foods that are pleasing to our palates. Environmental destruction and resource depletion are escalating.

The "American way" has become a model of conspicuous consumption and a seemingly insatiable desire for more, more, more. Corporations have such a vested interest in ensuring that children become a new generation of consumers that they have infiltrated classrooms with marketing materials thinly disguised as educational supplements.

These are some of the themes common to the world today. The enormity of the issues we face can seem overwhelming. But there is hope for a way out of this darkness. We do not have to sit by idly, resigning ourselves that the way things are is simply the way things will continue to be. We can challenge the cultural assumptions and live our lives in a more Christlike manner. By working with God, instead of against God, we have the potential to help usher in a more beautiful world.

Patriarch Bartholomew and Pope John Paul II, in their Declaration on the Environment, noted that "The problem is not simply economic and technological; it is moral and spirutual." The world has been corrupted by the sins of humankind. But as Christians, we should be standing against injustice, and making conscious choices that take into account the suffering of people and the rest of God's creation. It is incompatible with a love of God to turn a blind eye to the suffering we are inflicting upon God's creation. Joanne Stefanatos, in her book Animals and Man: A State of Blessedness, stated this beautifully when she wrote that "We are called by God to reflect divinity, to become icons of Jesus Christ.... By our lives we must demonstrate the Gospels and the presence of Jesus Christ."

But where do we start... what can we do... how do we do it? In a world plagued by so many problems, it can be overwhelming to know what to do. And in our fast-paced society, most of us have so many responsibilties with our jobs, our families, and other obligations, that we don't feel we have much time to do anything about the world's problems. In this blog, I hope to bring some of these issues to light. I also hope to show some simple choices we can make in our everyday lives to help manifest a more compassionate world. If we open our hearts and our minds, we will see that God has given us the wisdom and the gifts to discover creative solutions to the violence and injustice in this world.