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FEATURE
I’D ABSORBED THE IDEA THAT CREATION WAS A SECONDARY
ISSUE, A BEAUTIFUL BACKDROP TO THE CENTRALLY IMPORTANT
BIBLICAL STORY OF HUMAN SIN AND SALVATION. I’D BECOME
CONVINCED THAT THE WAYS I COULD SERVE GOD BEST WERE BY
BECOMING A MISSIONARY, A MINISTER, OR POSSIBLY A TEACHER
– ANYTHING THAT ENGAGED WITH PEOPLE AND ENABLED ME
TO SHARE MY FAITH
Meanwhile, God was stirring my
conscience. My wife and I lived
relatively simply as students on a
church grant. Our car was small,
second-hand, and somewhat battered.
We didn’t tend to spend a lot on
clothing, food or luxuries. Nevertheless
I found myself noticing items on the
TV news and elsewhere that disturbed
me about our lifestyles, and those of
the culture we were immersed in. I saw
a programme about the hole in the
ozone layer, caused by CFC chemicals
in aerosols and fridges, and realised
how carelessly we were treating the
earth. I remembered past disasters –
the damage done to bird populations
by DDT and to people by thalidomide,
the Torrey Canyon oil spillage, the
Piper Alpha oil platform fire. Slowly a
pattern was forming: recognition that
something was badly wrong with the
way western industrialised, technocentric, consumerist societies related to
God’s good creation.
Things came to a head in an
unexpected way. My wife and I joined
her parents for a holiday on the tiny
island of St Martin’s in the Scilly
Isles off Cornwall. After two weeks of
self-catering we’d accumulated bags
and bags of rubbish, and were then
told there was no waste collection
on the island (it’s changed since).
So, one beautiful summer’s day my
father-in-law and I walked between
wildflowers and wheeling seabirds to
a little cliff-top, over which we could
see – and smell – the island rubbish
tip. The biggest shock, though, was
LWPT8462 - Preach Magazine - Issue 2 v2.indd 32
what happened as we silently slung our
bin bags over the cliff. Unexpectedly
I sensed God speak, not out loud but
clearly inside my mind, asking ‘How
do you think I feel about what you’re
doing to my world?’ As the words
sunk in, it was as though a piece of
rapid rewiring took place within my
brain. Connections were made for the
first time between my lifestyle, our
wasteful consumer culture, the beauty
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