Sustainable Development and Living

A few weeks ago while on a long drive that turned into a time of worship, prayer and meditation, I heard the thought, "build as though you will never die." While at a fellowship gathering the following day the speaker was sharing on terms and conditions. He explained that our God is one that typically operates by Covenantal agreements. He further explained that every Covenant has terms and conditions, and that we need to discern God's terms and conditions; acknowledge those terms and conditions; and comply with those terms and conditions in other to live successfully. As he expounded on the subject, I kept hearing in my heart, "Discern, Acknowledge and Comply; live like you will never die."

As I meditated on this throughout the ensuing week, it began to make more sense to me. In this first of a series of blogs on this subject I will introduce the concept as I see it. My goal in this particular series of blogs is to make this somewhat theoretical idea as practical as possible.

We know that since Adam's fall, fear rules the way man operates on this earth. Man is afraid of natural disasters, diseases, nuclear war, etc.  Because of this fear people try different means to exert as much control as they can. Religion is a large part of this compensatory process as mankind tries to control whatever god he serves so that they can be protected them from whatever it is that they fear.

In all areas of human endeavor, decisions are made each day. Many decisions have far-reaching consequences. Dangerous chemicals are released into the environment. Dangerous drugs are approved by the FDA.  Food additives with great potential for harm are added to our food. Trade deals are brokered between countries that are not mutually beneficial. Buildings are constructed that are not up to code. In other cases, buildings are constructed up to code but the codes themselves are compromisingly flawed. Individuals make hedonistic decisions without regard to the long-term consequences. We eat for pleasure instead of for health and longevity. We spend money on things without any real intrinsic value oftentimes at the expense of adequate preparation for our future.

The essence of my point here is that perhaps because we know that we only have one life to live and that it is short-term, we make faulty decisions because we figure we will be long gone before we have to deal with the consequences. Practically, for some of those decisions that may be true but I am here to present an alternative point of view.

How much differently would you do things if you knew that you could not die? I am not talking about invincibility.  Not to be gruesome but some of us may have had relatives with cancer that was so physically or emotionally devastating at the end that death for them was a welcome relief.  Now say that relative had been a chain smoker and had developed lung cancer as a direct result of this.  Now what if that relative could not die but had to live with the pain of incurable cancer forever. Do you think different choices would have been made earlier on in life?

There are so many objections that a reader may be raising at this time. But please bear with me as I am using a hypothetical situation to make what I believe would be a point worthy of some contemplation.

Basically I am taking the concept of living as though there would be no escape from the consequences of  one's actions; directly – one is still alive to personal experience the backlash or indirectly: one's offspring experiences the backlash.

We never really die but we live on through our offspring.  If we through lax environmental policies pollute the environment today, some day our children will pay.  If we produce genetically modified homogenous organisms as food today and some new disease emerges our entire food supply could be wiped out tomorrow. If we approve civil engineering projects that compromise safety standards someday a bridge may collapse while our kids are crossing it.  If our juridical system willfully separates parents, especially fathers, from their kids and elevates the rights of kids above those of their parents someday our children may be the victim of the criminal acts of citizens produced by broken families. I could go on and on but I believe you have seen the point.  We really do need to live life or create systems as though we live forever because in some ways we do.