Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

I was thinking this morning about the recent additions to our Western vernacular... reduce, reuse, recycle, global footprint, global impact, etc. With a heavy concentration on the environment and how our daily habits influence the Earth's environment for good or bad, we are often reminded of the need to reduce our impact.

While I'm all for being environmentally sensitive, as a mother, wife, daughter and friend, I'm actually trying to increase the impact that I have on my environment in an effort to leave a lasting footprint, one that matters... reduce my selfishness, reuse the forgiveness that I've received and recycle the kind of love that is without condition.

Selfishness is tough to get away from, especially in a world where "self is king." It's hardly possible to reduce in America when our focus is me, me, me and more, more, more.

Forgiveness is hard to reuse when we see so many who won't forgive, which again goes back to being selfish. How can you forgive if you are selfish? Forgiving is based on our ability to become selfless.

Love is hard, if not impossible, to recycle if we look to the world to show us how. Unconditional love is not a standard set by our society. Again, we have to go back to being selfless if we want to love well.

I'm not saying that we won't find selfless, forgiving and loving people in our world. Of course, we will. Hopefully, you're one of them or you're working hard to be one of them.

We can only rely on one example...the One who left the greatest global impact. If we look to Jesus as our guide, and we seek to emulate Him, our own footprint on the world will become increasingly difficult to distinguish from His.

Why? Because Jesus was the greatest environmentalist ever. He knew how to reduce, reuse and recycle from the beginning. He is selfless. He is forgiving. He loves without condition.

Think about it... if we were all to use His example as our modus operandi, would our environment be suffering so much? Would our world be hurting so much? Would we be working so hard to reduce our stuff, reuse our bags, recycle our plastic? Would our focus be less on us and more on Him? I'm willing to bet it would.