22 Feeling overwhelmed

 Luke 3:15 The people were waiting expectantly and were all wondering in their hearts if John might possibly be the Messiah. 16 John answered them all, “I baptize you with[b] water. But one who is more powerful than I will come, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with[c] the Holy Spirit and fire. 17 His winnowing fork is in his hand to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.” 18 And with many other words John exhorted the people and proclaimed the good news to them.

A few things troubled me this week. I will speak of two. One was reading about the upsurge of Islamic extremism in Mozambique which has let to so far 2,500 dead and a further 750 thousand people being displaced. The second was the Netflix documentary Seaspiracy, in which is highlighted the bad management of our oceans through over fishing, pollution and greed which is at the root of most of the issues. I felt a little overwhelmed and not really sure what I could do. One suggestion the documentary made was to stop eating seafood. A little radical perhaps but it felt at the time like perhaps that is the best that can be done. The problem in Mozambique on reading further troubled me greatly. It appears that the thing encouraging the insurgency was greedy rulers who have pocketed the majority of foreign aid and profits from mining in the country to the disregard of the people. Foreign companies from UK and USA were also mining the great resources of Mozambique using largely a workforce from their own country whilst employing very few people from Mozambique, and far less of this number from the local communities. Thus unemployment is high, poverty growing and disillusioned citizens either fleeing or joining the guerilla groups trying to seize hold of the country. I can see why some people have chosen to fight the ruling classes and why those in charge have abused their powers, but also that corporations from the affluent Western countries also ride roughshod over local indiginous people. 

So I was left wondering what can be done and how we can change such a situation. I sadly do not have the answer, though protest groups and boycotts, lobbying goverments etc all have their place, it is difficult to rise to every challenge the world faces.Better perhaps to champion one cause. I wondered what the bible says about such things. Doubtless the ancient world did not face the issues we face, but the bible is full of challenges/ The flood, the plagues which Egypt faced, the extermination of baby boys after the birth of Jesus, the hunting down of the Saints and so on. There was also slavery which is hardly a new problem, and poorly paid or infirm with no social security to help them out. What came in to my mind was a bit of a surprise. It was the story of John the baptist in Luke chapter three. John came encouraging people to be baptized and repent of their selfish and sinful ways. He pointed them to the coming Messiah, whilst issuing a stern warning that they could not flee from the coming wrath should they not repent. 

But how does this help climate change or man's greed and inhumanity? Well on it's own it may appear to do nothing, however there are two issues here. The first is that if we are all sinners and prone to things like greed, we need a new consciousness towards God, each other and our planet. The more people come to see Jesus as saviour, the more likely they are to realise the greed, hatred and hypocracy that surrounds them and realise that it is not just "them", these other people, these companies, these countries, but that we are all born in sin and capable of selfishness. The only way the planet can be saved is when we all hate the sin within which puts ME first and begin to put God first in our lives that we will see real change. John could see that some people will never change and he didn't try to change his world. but he did ask that people put their trust in Jesus knowing they would experience the change that the world needs in order to be a place for all to live safely in. But also importantly will experience the paradise set aside for those whose trust is in the Lord and heart is to live at peace with all mankind.

By putting God and others first he would never be part of the problem.