How to be a good ruler of the earth

I brought you to a fertile land so that you could eat its fruits and produce, but you came and made my land unclean; you made it a hateful place. Jeremiah 2:7

My friends and family probably all know that I’m a bit of an eco-warrior. And for those who didn’t know consider this your warning. Cardboard in the general waste makes me twitchy, I’m an avid follower of George Monbiot’s blog and never, ever get me started on the topic of farming.

But I understand that in this globally connected age there are so many worthy causes vying for our attention that the environment isn’t always the first thing on our minds. There are also so many conflicting views on any one issue that it can be almost impossible to know what to believe. Take climate change. Most scientists agree that it’s happening, but what about those who don’t? And even among those who do no one can seem to agree on how bad it’s going to be or what we should do about it. But this post isn’t about arguing for or against climate change, it’s about our attitude to the environment.

It always makes me sad when people who genuinely want to dedicate their time or money to a good cause disregard the environment and how we treat it because, they reason, people are more important that plants. We all know that a person is more important than a plant, but what this attitude really shows is that we think of the natural world as separate from our society, as something that we can live without. How often do we consider that without plants our lives would fall apart?

Vandana Shiva recently wrote an article exploring why our attitude towards our natural environment needs to change. Shiva suggests that if we treated the land and its ecosystems with respect and love, rather than as property that we have the right to use how we like, then many of the problems that we face wouldn’t exist. Species loss, soil and water pollution, land grabbing - all of which have a huge negative effects on people by the way - are caused by someone acting on the idea that they have the right to get as much out of the land as they like and to hell with the consequences.

If land is understood to have more than a monetary value, and treated as more than a buy-and-sell commodity, then maybe some of the people who need food aid could still be making their own living by farming. Instead they are bought out or exploited by global corporations with more money and power than sense.

If the land and its produce were treated as if they were valuable then perhaps food wouldn’t be wasted on such a vast scale. And maybe the soil wouldn’t be degraded by agrochemicals and its fertility would be preserved.

In a way this attitude has some roots in the Bible. God blessed them and said: “have many children and grow in number. Fill the earth and be its master. Rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds in the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” Genesis 1:28

But it depends on how you interpret this. I take it to mean that, whether we like it or not, every one of us (you, me, everybody) is a master of the earth. That's a pretty big deal. The question you have to ask yourself now is: what sort of master are you?

There are the kinds of rulers who treat their subjects however they like, who use their power for their own gain, to increase their own comfort, even if it means running the kingdom into the ground. There are the kinds of rulers who take no responsibility, no interest in their kingdom and let it be attacked and destroyed, so long as they are alright. These two views are, sadly, widely held.

Or there are the kinds of rulers who think of their subjects before themselves. Who protect them and ensure their safety however they can. They go out of their way to understand how the kingdom works so that they can rule it even better. That’s the kind of masters we ought to be. We have the responsibility to treat, not only every person, but also every animal, plant, river, forest, ocean, resource, etc etc, as if they are important. Because they are. And we need to understand their importance and how to best look after them.

This is not very hard to do. We can be good masters in every area of our lives. Instead of playing Candy Crush we can spend five minutes researching where some of our food is grown, we can choose not to buy from clothes shops that we know don’t source their clothes ethically, we can pay attention to the plants and animals on our own doorstep.

This particularly applies to those of us who answer first and foremost to the Big Boss, God. After all the Earth belongs to the Lord and everything in it – the world and all its people. Psalm 24:1

Fin.

I know that I come across as a total hippy in this post but I'd like to reassure you all that I still wear shoes, that I have not become a vegetarian and that I'm not judging anyone for buying from MacDonalds or Primark since I still buy stuff from those places when money or hunger or sunglasses get the better of me. But I'm not condoning them either and I wish it was easier (and that we knew enough) to make the right decisions.

As always, your thoughts and ideas are very welcome :)

Why was Jesus white?

It’s a question I have often pondered. In a Middle-Eastern country, wouldn’t a guy with white skin, fair Loriel hair and glistening blue eyes have stuck out like a sore thumb?

The thing is, the Bible tells us that Jesus looked totally ordinary, that he had ‘no beauty that we might desire him’. And as well as this, he often slipped away into the crowd when he was tired or in a tight corner, suggesting that he wasn’t instantly recognisable. He was an average Joe, of the Standard Jewish Carpenter Model. You wouldn’t have known he was the Son of God just by looking at him.

And so my friends, I decided to research this topic to discover for myself what ordinary people in Galilee, like Jesus, might have looked like, as well as working out why the Son of God is portrayed as he is and how exactly this weird state of affairs came about. Here are my discoveries.

How about we start with a nice easy question: would Jesus have had long hair?

Er no. I have it on good authority from Jack Wellman that Jews in Jesus’ time never wore their hair long. And it would have got in the way when Jesus was carpentering, which he did for most of his life since he didn’t start teaching publicly until he was 30.

OK question 2. What was his face like?

It might have been a bit like this. Richard Neave (a medical artist) and his team used examples of Galilean Semites’ skulls to recreate the facial shape of Jesus in this image, and they used drawings found at archaeological sites to determine that he would have had dark eyes and a beard. It’s also likely that Hebrews in Jesus’ day had olive-coloured skin.

What was the rest of him like?

Carpenters didn’t have power tools back then (again, Jack Wellman said so). They worked with huge bits of trees and stone, so it would have been an extremely labour intensive job. Jesus, therefore, was not the slender elfin figure he is often portrayed as; he would have been pretty muscley and hulking. But apart from the time when he flips out in the temple I can’t think of a single example of Jesus showing any sort of display of strength, and the fact that he had great strength but didn’t use it for anything other than his work tells us a bit about his character too. Jesus was self-controlled and gentle.

Neave and his team found that Galilean Semites stood at an average height of 5 ft. 1. So, interestingly, I would be half a foot taller than Jesus. Also, they reckoned that he would have looked older than his years from working hard and outside all his life.

That's what I've found out about his appearance and at this point I’m sure a lot of you smart cookies could probably guess, at least in part, why Jesus is portrayed as white. I mean, Jesus is often shown as reflecting the appearance of the part of the world he is portrayed in, he’s been African, Arab, Hispanic, etc.

However, his Westernness can seem like an overwhelming image in today’s global culture and this is because of Christianity’s roots in Europe. And, the power of art. Particularly during the Renaissance (a cultural movement which started in the 14^th century) European artists were inspired to paint the son of God, and probably in a way which reflected their own society. It’s likely that they associated light with righteousness and darkness with sin and evil. Thus white Jesus became the face of God.

Perhaps what we should be asking now is: why does this image persist? Anyone, with a few minutes thought, can work out that the usual interpretation is not accurate. Yet even works as beautiful and Biblically accurate as ‘the Passion of the Christ’ get it wrong.

I can only put in down to lazyness and lack of imagination. And probably the influence of Hollywood in the case of films and TV.

I know perfectly well that at the end of the day it doesn’t matter what Jesus looked like; he’s still made the ultimate sacrifice for you and me in the hope that we can know him and love him. But I hope that the next interpretation of Jesus Christ (whether it’s on the TV, in the cinema or in a children’s book) will be a bit more accurate. Not only because Jesus’ appearance tells us something about his life and personality, but also because art and stories are not believable or relatable if they are based on such fundamental errors.

And the Christian faith is the best, most complex, layered, challenging and dangerous story ever told. I want to know every detail, and I'd quite like it to be the truth as well.

Fin.

If you'd like to follow up any of my sources here they are ---> 

Richard Neave and the gang using forensics

Jack Wellman talking about the colour of Jesus

Jack Wellman talking about what Jesus looked like

Jesus' portrayal in the Renaissance and now

Yeah, I basically just found them by doing Google searches so it's hardly academic standard. But there's some interesting reading material if you're interested.

Oh and if anyone finds the picture at the beginning of this article disrespectful, I'd like to apologise; I thought it was funny though.

Mermaid Song

Somehow I forgot to finish my post last week, but never fear I am working on it! It will be done in the next few days.
   In the mean time here's a poem that I wrote for my mermaid story, I don't know how easy it is to understand without reading the story so here's a quick explanation: Calyso, Luan and Dandé are the three most commonly recognised deities in the civilised ocean. This poem describes a little bit of each of their personalities and associations but I don't want to give too much away here. The rest of it is up to your imagination.
   The poem has a tune so in my head the rhythm makes sense, however I don't know what it's like to read with fresh eyes so if there's any rubbishy bits or bits that don't work please let me know.

In other news, I have finished my Jabberwocky illustrations. You can see all seven in order here. Wow, can't believe I actually finished something! Very grateful to my pals on deviantArt (Flying-Glove and Oly in particular) for all their encouragement and advise.

Mermaid Song

Before I set sail on the merciless sea

A mermaid swam up and she whispered to me

A crown of red coral she wore on her head

She beckoned me close and here's what she said.

Calypso has shown me a thousand gold fishes

And giant octopi with eyes large as dishes

In houses where naught's left of hopes, dreams or wishes

A city abandoned by all but the dead.

Before I set sail on the infinite sea

A mermaid swam up and she whispered to me

Like a wave on the beach she didn't stay long

She beckoned me close and this was her song.

Luan, the sweet one, has shown me her kin

The bright in the sky ones and those with grey fin

All through the green forests she taught me to swim

And showed me the places I ought to belong.

Before I set sail on the fathomless sea

A mermaid swam up and she whispered to me

I'd follow wherever she told me to go

She beckoned me close and spoke soft and slow.

Dandé took my hand and we swam so deep

We came to the place where the oldest things creep

Where people spoke strangely and didn't need sleep

Part of me still dwells there so far below.

My next post will explore why Jesus was white. Dw it will be pretty chilled, just some research into what he would have looked like, which might surprise you (it surprised me!). Have a good week :)

Gods justice and judgement

Hellooo! I'm pretty excited because I've had a response to my previous post, a friend has directed me to this blog post.

It boldly teaches about the side to God which I struggle to write about: his justice and judgement. It explains Gods apparent violence and vengefulness in the Old Testament and links this with his grace and mercy and with the New Testament. Worth reading all the way through (the end is the best part) since it tells us why God has the right to act as he does.

Thanks Joshua and Robbie :)

Does God give up? Heaven, hell and other stuff

I tell you! There is more joy in heaven over one sinner who changes his or her heart and life than over 99 good people who don’t need to change. Luke 15:7

We’ve all read the story of the lost sheep. It’s pretty cute; a shepherd searches and searches for this one missing sheep even though he would do alright with 99. You might also have read the story straight after it about a woman looking for a lost coin even though she has another 9. So here’s the spoiler: the lost sheep/coin represents us when we aren’t interested in God, and the moral is that God, the shepherd/woman, never stops searching for us, and doesn’t give up until we are returned to him. Happy endings all round.

But wait a minute. Hang on. Hold the phone. These stories seem to miss one major issue: the fact that not everyone gets ‘found’ before they die. Not everyone makes a final confession to God on their death bed.

And then what? Well, eternal torment obviously. Fire, brimstone, little red men poking everyone with their tridents, all that stuff. As I say so often, I am not a Bible scholar, and so I’m not in any position to start arguing the existence of hell and what form it might take (although I would suggest Rob Bell’s book Love Wins for anyone interested). I can, however, discus why I think the idea of people being sent to an eternal hell is unrealistic, and goes against what we know about the nature of God.

To start with, neither you or I know what goes on in someone else’s heart, so for the sake of argument lets imagine that every single human has the potential to love God and go to heaven (whatever heaven is, I could write a whole ‘nother post on that topic), and that no one’s heart is so bad that it can’t be reversed.

So if you really think about it, an eternal hell suggests that God gives up on us.

I mean, that either God must consider some people to be irreparable, or that he stops caring about them after a certain point. Both of these suggestions contradict the Bible which tells us quite clearly that nothing is impossible for God, no heart is beyond his ability to heal, and that Gods love is infinite, it transcends time and space and human knowledge. If this is the case why then should he stop pursuing us after death? Why would he give himself this cut-off point, a point at which he considers our souls to be beyond his reach and he is simply content to see us end up in a place of punishment and separation from him?

Another idea, as C. S. Lewis presents in his final Narnia novel, suggests that hell is something people choose i.e. the choice to spend our lives without God and without love and goodness. Rob Bell says we have a choice every day, whether or not you are a Christian; a choice between spitefulness and kindness, cruelty and humanity, pain and hope. It is choosing to make someone else's life difficult, ignoring the person who is desperate for friendship, breaking someone's heart. It is rape, human trafficking, destruction of forests, child abuse. You can see why the language used to describe hell is so strong and offensive: it reflects the darker side of the world.

But even then, even those people who make all the wrong choices must be loved by God, for God loved the world so much, that he gave his only son. Not just Christians or good people or people who go to church every Sunday. The world. So if he loves the people that make the wrong choices then he must be searching for them.

I'm sure most of us will agree that some part of us carries on after we die. Why then do we dismiss the idea that God continues to seek us out even after death? That he pursues our hearts even if we die with those hearts in shatters or rotten to the core? I want us to consider the very real concept that he never gives up on a single human soul, that sometime in the distant future he will gather us all together in heaven.

My final point is this, I know that God is impossible to comprehend and in his mysteriousness and complexity he will always do things which we can find no explanation for. I also understand that God, like any loving parent, disciplines his children to make them better people. But I can’t reconcile myself with the idea that God sends people to hell because they are too far from him, or that he allows them to separate themselves from him, at least not without trying to reach them.

I was taught that the moment you make even the smallest move towards God, he comes running towards you with his arms wide open. Since none of us is perfect, and since we’re all sinners, no matter what religion we follow or gods we serve, I think that when we make that small move there must be rejoicing and celebration in heaven.

So make the move, because God will never give up on you.

Fin.

Disclaimer: this post is based on my very limited knowledge of the Bible and on what I know about God as a person and how he acts. I recognise that I probably miss some fundamental pieces of scripture and I would love to hear what anyone else has to say on the topic.

Also when I started writing it I had no idea how deep it would lead me into ideas about heaven, hell and the good and evil in all of our hearts. So sorry if I got a bit carried away and didn’t explain everything properly.

The Ash, the Oak and the Yew

As I've said before, God is creative, so I'm pretty sure He loves it when we're creative too. Here's a fairytale for ya, because reading smart stuff all the time is boring :)

There were once three trees; an ash, an oak and a yew. All three trees were very wise, and great leaders from far and wide came to ask for their advice.

   They were the oldest trees in the forest, perhaps in the whole world. They stood in a clearing at the top of a hill. The ash was very cruel and enjoyed watching others suffer, and he considered himself far above ordinary creatures. The oak was very kind and loved all living things, from the children who gathered his acorns to the gnats that landed on his bark. The yew, the most magical of all trees, was very strange and she spoke honestly or not at all.

   One day the Queen of the Fairies came to the hilltop where the trees stood. She was tall and willowy, she wore a gown made of butterfly wings and her silver hair flowed behind her like a veil of mist.

   She knew the disposition of each of the trees and so she went first to the ash because he was aloof like she was. She said to him, “Ash! My husband has left me because he says he has fallen in love with another woman. How can I win him back?”

   The ash thought for a moment before replying, “you must kill this other woman and he will return to you.”

   The Queen went away and followed the Ash’s advice. She poisoned the woman her husband loved but he did not return to her. So the Queen had the ash chopped down.

   Then she went to the oak because she knew he would help her as best he could and she asked him the same question she had asked the ash.

   The oak answered immediately, “the only way to win him back is to love him, my lady.”

   So the Queen went to her husband, who was grieving, and made him a delicious meal and comforted him in his sadness. But she had not been kind to him for a hundred years and he did not trust her. So he left in the night without telling the Queen where he was going. She ordered the oak to be cut down as well.

   Finally the Queen of the Fairies went to the yew tree and asked her the same question she had asked the ash and the oak.

   Now, the yew had watched her brothers be killed at the hands of the Queen and she would only reply honestly or not at all, so she thought a long time before giving her answer.

   “My lady,” she said, “I cannot answer your question.”

   “Why not?” asked the Queen, imperiously.

   “Because I have seen your heart. If the king knows even a fraction of what is there he will never return to you because you have no real love to offer him.”

   At the yew tree’s words the Queen flew into such a rage that she ran like the wind back down the hill to get an axe and chop the tree down herself. But when she returned the yew was gone. Only a deep hole in the earth showed where she had been.

   As the yew tree predicted the Queens husband never returned to her. The ash became the beams and door of a house but after only a year the house was abandoned and still stands empty today. The oak, on the other hand, was made into a handsome set of doors for a castle and kept its people safe for a very long time.

   Nobody knows what happened to the yew tree, but some say that she hid in a church yard where the Queen of the Fairies would never dare follow.

   The End

I tried to think of a good moral for this story but all I could come up with was this: always give honest advice but be careful who you give it to. It’s actually part of a longer fairytale-type-novel that I’m writing so I didn’t write it with a moral in mind, although it fits in nicely with the broader story.

Inspired by my grandma who regularly took me on jaunts to fairyland by way of the magic swing in her garden.

Naming and Shaming: ashamed of the Gospel

I am ashamed of the Gospel. I don’t want to be and I know you’re not supposed to say that, but I think maybe a lot of other people are experiencing this too so let me explain.

When somebody asks where I’m going on a Thursday evening I'm pretty sure I say the word ‘Union’ noticeably louder than the word ‘Christian’. I’m the sort of person who, when asked what I believe in, tries to explain the Gospel without the words sin, love or grace. Impossible, I know. But shamefully those words make me cringe. This is absolutely, unrequitedly, totally and completely wrong. They are words which represent the red-hot molten core of the Christian faith, and I hardly ever speak them aloud, even to my Christian friends and family.

So having read Romans 1:16-17 where Paul says he isn’t ashamed of the Gospel (and he didn’t need to tell us, his actions make it perfectly clear), I did some serious thinking to try to get to the root of the matter.

The conclusion I came to is that to some extent we are conditioned by society to be embarrassed by religion. Think of the nutters screaming spiritual abuse in the streets, or the corny Sunday schools where the Bible is simplified into stories devoid of meaning, or the many pointless wars fought in the name of Jesus. Think of watery squash in brown glass mugs. Who wants to be associated with that? With all the stereotypical things which we know the Christian faith is not really about but which we also know society associates us with.

When the name Jesus instantly makes you think of beards and sandals and kumbaya it can be hard to repress a cringe, and even harder to tell people about the Gospel. Having been conditioned to be embarrassed of the Christian community I find myself thinking that people aren’t interested in joining it. Society tells us that being ‘religious’ is unnecessary, it’s looking for something more when there’s no need; we should be content with the distant, hopeless gods society gives us (money, celebs, careers) and its arid spiritual landscape.

What an ingenious way for the Devil to stop us spreading Jesus’ good news: make us feel ashamed of it, as if it’s not relevant. But in fact, the lack of spirituality in our society is the very reason that we can and should speak the Gospel. People are not stupid (as we are often led to believe). Most realise that something is missing from their lives, and many know what it is: spirituality. I have a feeling that a lot more people are interested in hearing what we believe than we think.

So, what can we do? First off, if like me you’re scared of saying words like grace or talking about Jesus in front of others then learn what these words really mean and who Jesus really is. That means learning from the Bible, from online sources and from people in the church. These true meanings need to take the place of the Jesus-freak meanings coined by society so that we can talk about them without feeling embarrassed.

Next, try to talk about this stuff more! You DON’T need to throw yourself in at the deep end and start street preaching or praying for strangers on trains. I find it helpful to begin by telling a Christian friend a way in which God has shown himself in my life recently. Easy-peasy, and that will encourage them too.

Pray that God will give you opportunities to discus him with other people, and for the courage to take those opportunities. Don’t stress if you miss them though, God doesn’t have a three-strikes-and-you’re-out rule; there will always be another chance.

Finally, if you aren't a Christian, or if you're not sure if you are, or if you are but would like to know more, please don't be afraid to ask! Christians will admire you for having the guts to question the faith that I bang on about all over this blog and they'll probably be glad that you brought it up first and saved them that awkward question: "soooooo, what do you believe?"

Remember, God isn’t ashamed of you, whether or not you call yourself a Christian, no matter how good you think you’re doing, even if you're ashamed of what you believe in sometimes.

“Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is - his good, pleasing and perfect will.” Romans 12:2

Fin.

So I've basically been trying to work out why I can't just strike up a conversation about my faith with a stranger on a bus (or even someone I know) and thus forth save them and lead them to the path of righteousness or whatever it is I'm supposed to do. What do you guys think of this? Am I way off the mark here or do other people find it hard to talk about Jesus and stuff?

I've also been told that it's difficult to post comments. There should be the words 'no comments' under this post which you will click on and reach a page where you can post your wonderful thoughts to me.