Isaac Jones Blog
Welcome to the Future

I wrote this "Stewardship Testimonial" for church. I'm also working on a poem based on these ideas:

We're asked to be stewards of the earth; what a crazy idea!  This
murderous ball of fire has tried to kill us for millennia.  We only
recently gained the upper hand.  We developed tools, and language, and
religion...

And right there, on the cusp of our great achievement, Christ suddenly
said to turn the other cheek.  Is our oldest enemy suddenly our
mother?  Are we to forgive and forget?  Shouldn't we blast her out of
existence while we have the chance?  Before she outsmarts us again?

It sounds crazy if you put it that way, but turning the other cheek is
widely regarded as a command to be fulfilled only under certain
conditions.  We have to protect our loved ones, our society, our
comfort.  The line has to be drawn somewhere, right?

But Christ seemed to think that the threat of our enemy is not so
great that we should risk destroying ourselves by fighting back.  He
seemed to think that we are called to brave, sacrificial giving.  We
are stewards of the earth and of all of God's children: "The earth is
the Lord's and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell
therein." (PS 24:1) We are not called first and foremost to
self-preservation.

So do not fear.  Be good stewards: protect the earth and eachother.