941-746-8890 | Worship every Sunday @ 10:30 a.m.
941-746-8890 | Worship every Sunday @ 10:30 a.m.
20 Ways to Say “Clean Up After Yourself” Professionally
ByDCImmersionMarch 5, 2024
These practices were adapted from ways to clean up after yourself professionally. Originally referring to the workspace in an office environment. It does not take much effort to apply these practices to our daily living.
“‘You shall not defile the land in which you live, in which I also dwell, for I the Lord dwell among the Israelites.’ (v 34 in numbers). Ancient Israelites wanted to avoid polluting the land because God was holy. Anything that was unclean or polluted could not come into proximity of God because of God’s supreme holiness. It was thought that too much uncleanness could drive God away.”[2]
It is not hard to believe that uncleanliness could drive God away. I would encourage you to look to the land where we clear cut. Mudslides and runoff become uncontrollable. Look at the area where we strip mine leveling whole mountains and destroying habitats. Look to where we build new communities ignoring the natural environment manipulating it for our needs and what happens? Flooding, wildfires, famines, people and animals are displaced, and we sit back and feel sorry and wonder why.
“It is fascinating that the writer (of Numbers) links violence with the defilement of the land. In this instance, in verses 33 and 34, murder will pollute the land… The linkage of transgression and pollution of the land occurs in several other Hebrew Bible passages, such as 2 Samuel 21:1-14; Ezekiel 36:17-19; and Hosea 4:2-3. One might make the comparison with the countries of today. A country that has significant issues with widespread violence is likely to have problems with environmental degradation. The two difficulties seem to go hand in hand.”[3]
This is an interesting hypothesis, but it actually is fact. “Individual and social characteristics are attributed to violent behavior in schools, yet environmental hazards may play an understudied role. Ambient air pollution has been linked to neurological dysfunction that inhibits decision-making and may result in violent behavior in adult populations.”[4]
Yes there is an actual study that shows that “results indicate that the highest levels of carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide and fine particulate matter concentrations were associated with increased violent disciplinary incidents.” The numbers were astounding 775.62 or 95% out of 100000 students committed some sort of violent behavior in the areas where pollution was highest as compared to rural areas, “violent incidents per 100,000 students per school year respectively. Schools in urban settings shared a larger burden of violent incidents associated with air pollution compared to rural schools.”[5] Students living in areas of high particulates pollution were 95% more likely to engage in violence.
If we want our children to be healthy and whole, if we want to live in a world with less violence, we will want to provide healthy land, air and water. “If we want to live in a truly peaceful society, we will need to decrease the amount of violence and we will want to provide for a healthy land. If we seek to promote viable soil, clean waterways, and breathable air, we will also want to shape a nonviolent society.”[6] The study shows clean environment leads to less violence.
One of the great concerns we hear about is drinkable water or here even swimmable water. “Most people have heard Earth referred to as “the water planet.” With that name comes the rightful image of a world with plentiful water. In photographs taken from space, we can see that our planet has more water than land. However, of all the water on Earth, more than 99 percent of Earth’s water is unusable by humans and many other living things – only about 0.3 percent of our fresh water is found in the surface water of lakes, rivers, and swamps.”[7]
Remember the Flint water crisis? It was ten years ago and yet human rights watch reports that the people in flint still don’t have clean water. “The number of children and young adults in Flint-area schools who now qualify for disability services has climbed since the water crisis, and far outweighs the resources schools can offer.
People in Flint and Jackson are advocating for their local governments to undo the harm they created by reimbursing them for water bills, replacing damaged water pipes and water mains, providing health and education services, and including local residents in decision-making.”[8]
At the time of the crisis my friends in Mustards retreat wrote:
Telephone rings, have you heard the news?
Carrion, crows, coming home to roost
Over at the plant you know something went wrong
Take the children and run
They say they’ll fix it if we only stay calm
Go back to your factories, Go back to your homes
Don’t get excited, don’t you lose your cool
And those bosses will share their power with you
Take the children and run
Take the children and run
Most politicians lying through their teeth
Say “there’s nothing to fear, except fear itself.”
And none of them can tell us if and when it will stop
And they may come and visit, but they won’t drink a drop
Take the children and run
Take the children and run
You’re on the commission and you’re sixty years old
You make a deal with the devil and the profits unfold
But twenty years down the line and that little girl
Is in the prime of her life, and her blood cells grow wild
The thing is the poor cannot run. They cannot flea intentional environmental racism. Now flint may or may have not been intentional environmental racism at the onset, but the results and the lack of appropriate responses were and are.
Psalm 51 says “For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me.” Unfortunately, when it comes to government and or big business This is not always true and so Once we learn to be accountable to ourselves than we must call our government to account as well.
But much like the gentleman who needed to get to the monastery to feed his soul we too must feed our souls so that we can do the work that is before us. It can be weary making when we push and plead for our cause, and it seems to fall upon deaf ears. Our souls grow tired. If we are in care of ourselves, we can easily become spiritually tired and give up.
“God has the power to make us over … if we continue in daily prayer… God’s graciousness and mercy are abundant. There is no reason to settle for a blocked state. ( a tired soul) God has the transformative power — to give us a new and enduring spirit… to grant a daily reprieve…God desires steadfastness in the inward self and will teach us wisdom for our sanctification.”[9]
“of Psalm 51’s powerful prayer. Ask God to purge you with hyssop and make you whiter than snow. Ask God for a clean heart and a new and enduring spirit. Then, hang onto your hat, for you will never be the same.
Conversion and sanctification prepare us to face the environmental crisis and give us the spiritual strength to address it in an effective way. Spiritual sustenance through prayer is necessary to continue to do the work of addressing climate change.”[10]
Paul says “we know that the whole of creation groans” I believe that if it was groaning then it is screaming out in torture today! We require spiritual strength to endure the challenge for the environment before us.
“Creation and many sibling creatures are longing for humanity’s growth and maturity as children of God and to be liberated from human degradation of the environment and wanton destruction of life. The Earth and the community of life are struggling for liberation. Humanity could step forward and make significant progress in living compassionately and more ecologically responsible for nature. Here we might edit Paul in Romans to read, “Who can separate us from the love of Christ” in the soil?”[11]
We need to reconnect to our spirituality and connect that to the earth…God’s table. Recall our ash Wednesday blessing we are of the earth and to the earth we shall return. Diarmuid O”Murchu claims, “Our earthiness is the umbilical cord linking us to the source of our holiness (read wholeness) through the earth, not in spite of it, and certainly not beyond it. In brief, our earthiness is the royal cord to deep incarnation”[12] Sally McFague argues that God becomes shockingly physically present to and within the Earth and, at the same time, more.[13] We learn that our earthiness links us to the Earth intimately ensouled therein. Literally, if we work with our hands in the soil, we become sensuously bonded with the land. Robin Wall Kimmerer observes,
“Recent research has shown that the smell of humus exerts a physiological effect on humans. Breathing in the scent of Mother Earth stimulates the release of the hormone oxytocin, the same chemical that promotes bonding mother and child and between lovers. Held in loving arms, no wonder we in respond.”[14] That response begins with us cleaning up after ourselves, physically. Caring for ourselves, spiritually. Then Loving the earth as we would love ourselves. Amen.
[1] https://dcimmersion.org/ways-to-say-clean-up-after-yourself-professionally/
[2] The Earth Justice lectionary Rev. Dr. Robert E. Shore-Goss and Rev. Dr. Sarah Melcher
[3] Ditto
[4] Rau, A.T., Harding, A.B., Ryan, A. et al. Ambient air pollution and the risk of violence in primary and secondary school settings: a cross-sectional study. Inj. Epidemiol. 11, 24 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1186/s40621-024-00512-6
[5] Ditto
[6] The Earth Justice lectionary Rev. Dr. Robert E. Shore-Goss and Rev. Dr. Sarah Melcher
[7] https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/earths-fresh-water/
[8] https://www.hrw.org/news/2024/05/20/ten-years-later-flint-still-doesnt-have-clean-water?gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAjwooq3BhB3EiwAYqYoEsHzhwRGcqlcBinqaELkJLn0B1xw6lUvtA1wgSVuZTBl93xD54dD6hoCjiwQAvD_BwE
[9] The Earth Justice lectionary
[10] The Earth Justice lectionary
[11] ditto
[12] O’Murchu, Ecological Spirituality, 51
[13] McFague, Models of God, 112
[14] Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass, 235
Sign up to receive our weekly newsletter.