I ran across this and thought it expressed exactly what I was trying to articulate last night in our home group, concerning the challenges of living in suburbia and urban environments. These kind of thinkers give me hope and embody Jeremiah 29:7: "Work for the good of the city where I've taken you as captives, and pray to the LORD for that city. When it prospers, you will also prosper."
As a pastor who is involved in the work of planting, cultivating and renewing life; I see many challenges and opportunities to build better lives all around our daily community. That endeavor encompasses many spheres or interconnected parts of the whole: marriage life, family life, education life, work life, food life, recreation life, political life, the arts, business, etc...all interconnected and in need of reform, wisdom and fresh vision on interrelating them in way that bring about order, beauty and prosperity. It's a crucial intersect where our faith has to shape our values and our thinking. Our faith informs and inspires our vision of the present and should frame our plans of the future. We are by nature, created in the image of God and should envision a future reality that is just. A environmentally sound justice that works its way out in the everyday mechanics of American life.
With all the problems facing us as a nation and world...we are in dire need of people who dream dreams and see visions again (Joel 2:28). Dreams and visions of how to live a better and more sustainable (body/soul/spirit) existence for us and our children.
3 comments:
I really like the distinction he draws between a consumer (who has no responsibilities or obligations to his fellow man) and a citizen. I also loved his assessment of the building in Boston that he described as being designed like a VCR. I'll be checking out more of www.Ted.com A lot of what he said about creating spaces worth caring about and defending resonates with me.
-Dan
It's C-3PO, not 3CPO. And they didn't come from a "mother ship". They came from an escape pod off of the Tantive IV Rebel Blockade Runner. A little research never hurt anybody.
Overall though, good points.
I really liked what he said about the architecture of the past versus today's, and the schools, Hannibal Lecter Central. The school I attended had massive trees around it, wood floor hallways,character in every room.
At sixty, seeing the places I grew up with, slowly becoming extinct, is sad indeed. Wood being replaced with concrete. The death of the craftsman. Those points made my heart rejoice to hear someone else concerned about it. Trees, walking down a lane on a hot summer day under the shade of fifty year old trees adds a dimension to living that cannot be overstated. In other cultures he pointed out the "Public Spaces", and how people naturally gravitate to them. There's a warmth and feeling of family in the midst of the bustling city. I have travelled some and in the downtown places there are beautiful structures from the past, neighborhoods with spellbinding homes, Chicago comes to mind, I have never seen architecture to rival that city. Suffice to say, I am on board with much of what he had to say.
Dad
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