Care of Creation Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Care of Creation - Essay Example This applies to my experience of that hour spent in God’s creation and my renewed appreciation for the Sabbath, an old practice that has gained a new modern dimension. This experience has given me a renewed vision of God, the purpose of my life and of those around me, more especially the people who depend on me for pastoral leadership, and of what I need to do to be more effective as a follower and pastor, of one who leads others to God’s kingdom and who is led by the hand by the Divine Master. My first lesson is that of having gained a deeper understanding of the meaning of the Sabbath, a weekly reminder that God blessed and made holy this day of rest (Bass 78). Being the perfect teacher he is, God laid down in scripture that on the Sabbath day, he rested, not so much to tell us that he got tired from all that creating stuff, because God by definition does not get tired. Rather, God rested to show us how important it is to spend time, slow down, experience moments of t ranquility and peace, and reflect on the important things in life. God in his divine wisdom foresaw how exciting the world would become, and how man and woman would be so caught up with the beauties and riches of this world that we forget why we are alive and how we ever get to be here at all; in a word, to â€Å"remember who we are and what is important† (Bass 88). Just looking around me and reflecting on what I witnessed that Sabbath hour, I remembered those words about Jesus looking at the people around him who went around like sheep without a shepherd, living lives devoid of meaning and purpose. We work so hard to earn money so they can enjoy life, but with the economic difficulties happening all around us, many realize that making both ends meet is not easy. Likewise, we experience that the world, limited and full of evil, only offers limited and imperfect happiness. The second series of lessons proceed from the renewed understanding of the Sabbath. Experiencing the Sabb ath with a deeper and more personal and spiritual meaning made me realize that I too have been engrossed with the worldly dimension of life and even of prayer and worship. I have focused on the means and not the ends, on the form, not the substance, and on the body of faith, not in its soul. Like the religious leaders of whom Jesus warned the people to do what they preach, but not do as they do, I realized that pastors who should lead their flocks to God are focusing too much on â€Å"preaching and teaching† instead of â€Å"leading and living by doing†. Sure, one needs to preach and teach, but the best way to learn is by doing, watching and learning from the example of Jesus himself, who taught by word and example. Like most pastors, I need to hone and develop that dual vision of which Scharen and Volf (97) wrote, of seeing material things and their relation to God, as source, creator, joy, good, gift, talent, the one to which everything leads, to see the invisible Go d in the visible things of the material universe. A more effective pastoral leadership must be characterized by a spiritual life grounded on God through prayer and the imitation of Jesus’ life of sacrifice and love for all souls, even those