|
Religious: Preparing for what's important
Pastor Pat Duffin
for South Peace News
While looking on the Internet for ideas on how to simplify our family’s lives, cut expenses and build savings for the proverbial rainy day, I quickly discovered an extensive and sophisticated, grassroots network of inter-linked folks from all over the continent who are living in ‘voluntary simplicity.’
They are choosing frugal lifestyles, recycling things for their own personal use, putting in their own gardens to supplement their diet and their grocery budgets, and taking many other practical steps to gain self-sufficiency and independence.
Not to be confused with the more hard-core Survivalists who stockpile food and weapons and have secret camps out in the bush, these folks are recycling things for their own personal use, looking for ways to cut costs and develop more self-sufficient lifestyles similar to the way we lived only a few short decades ago. More common to the urban centers, ‘Preppers’ are people who prefer to take common sense precautions against economic hard times, natural disasters and have personal or family emergency plans. They grow their own vegetables, preserve their own food, make their own bread and other delicacies, and cultivate lifestyles that do not rely on the modern marketing machine of ‘just-in-time’ delivery for life’s essentials.
‘Homesteaders’ are those who prefer the more rural context, building unconventional homes, and seeking a completely independent, self-reliant lifestyle. As much as possible, rugged ‘Homesteaders’ want to produce everything for themselves and what they can’t do on their own, they prefer to barter rather than pay.
Are these folks out in ‘left field’? Perhaps, but left field is getting more and more crowded every day as people consider the economic uncertainty of the future and view with alarm the seismic political and cultural upheavals that are morphing our society right before our eyes. The worst thing these folks will do is pare down their costs and become less reliant on the notoriously unreliable ‘system’ that always breaks down whenever there is an emergency.
This really is not such a crazy idea when we pay attention to how the ‘system’ broke down in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, or even this week with the devastating earthquake in Haiti. In similar circumstances, these ‘Preppers’ won’t be nearly so helpless if something goes bad.
Both American and Canadian governments have extensive emergency planning and preparation websites that encourage people to be proactive. As someone who has been involved in emergency planning since the late 1970s I have repeatedly seen it proven that whenever people have made preparations the effects of the emergency were greatly mitigated. It definitely helps to be prepared for whatever life throws your way, and it certainly never hurts. How different things would have been in New Orleans if people had been even moderately prepared. People should not be depending on government to do all their thinking for them.
This raises another interesting question about human behaviour. Why do people build homes on known flood planes, storm surge and tidal zones, slide zones, active volcanoes and earthquake faults? Don’t they realize the risk?
The simple answer is denial. “It couldn’t happen here, at least not in my lifetime, certainly not to me.”
So many people do not prepare for emergencies, or even that which is inevitable.
For example, statistics say the majority of people still do not have a will. My father died ‘Intestate’ and my parents did not have death insurance on the household mortgage. For lack or foresight and prudent planning we lost our house when I was 15. That was a great learning experience. Today my wife and I both have wills. Not only have we provided for the disposition of our earthly assets, but more importantly we have made provision for the protection and care of our children. It was not only the reasonable and right thing to do; it was our sacred duty to safeguard our children!
Similarly, end of life issues are left to be decided by grieving and traumatized loved-ones who must often make urgent decisions under great duress hoping they make the right choice while respecting the wishes of their loved ones who are no longer able to speak for themselves. Why don’t we take the burden off our loved-ones and do the homework beforehand? All these things are only basic common sense.
Unfortunately ‘common sense’ isn’t all that common. Very few of us have saved money for an emergency cushion should there be a financial reversal, loss of employment or some such crisis. Fewer of us have made provision for an inevitable retirement when we are no longer able to work even if we want to. We choose to live on the brink of disaster as we lurch from one paycheque to the next with no plan, no clue, and giving it little thought as a matter of course.
Are we crazy? Blind? Stupid? Or, all of the above?
So, then, it’s no wonder that we give such little thought to what happens to us after that final inevitability that will comes to us all. We don’t know when that final inevitability may occur, but we certainly know that, without fail, it will happen within our lifetime!
Why are we so negligent when even tomorrow is promised to no one? No thought or effort is given toward preparing for the most important issue of life – where will we spend eternity?
How short-sighted and foolish we can be!
Jesus said, “I tell you not to worry about everyday life — whether you have enough food and drink, or enough clothes to wear. Isn’t life more than food, and your body more than clothing? … These things dominate the thoughts of unbelievers, but your heavenly Father already knows all your needs. Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need.” (Matthew, Chapter 6: 25-33)
< Previous
Home
|
