The Gospel goes Green

I know the video has been out for awhile, but I went back to it today.  There is something timeless about it, some Truth in the words that still resonates today.
 
The video is Hurt, by Johnny Cash.  The man took a song about heroin addiction by Trent Reznor, and made it gospel.
 
To see Johnny Cash, seemingly contemplate his life as he lazily sings the words to this song.  Flashes of his music, his life, his accomplishments and failures come to the screen. 

 
The part that gets me is June though.  As he says “what have I become my sweetest friend, everyone I know goes away in the end.  And you could have it all, my empire of dirt…”  June is looking on at him, as he is at the crux of the song/life, frustrated with himself.  Frustrated with  his choices.  He begins to pour his glass of wine on the luxurious spread of lobster and caviar before him.  June continues to look on from the staircase, in helpless sympathy.
 
 
“So, Kirkpatrick, what’s the deal right?  John lived a tough life and was just covering a song to sell some records.”
 
This is what I’m getting to; I think Johnny was looking back on his life, the good and the bad, and was questioning if he had done the best with what he was given.  In the end of Saving Private Ryan, Ryan asks his wife if he “did good” with the life he was given.  I think it was close to 8 men who died to save him.  What did he do with that life? 
 
Some people think stewardship is just finaces.  Especially people who have a lot of finances (or friends of people with a lot of finances like Howard).  I’m not advocating selling all your possessions and giving them to the poor.  That was Christ who said it.  I’m advocating what Lenord Ravenhill said “What are you doing with your life?!”  In talking about John Wesley, who had set a liveable salary for himself and lived on no more then that the rest of his life…giving away one year 98% of his income (nearly $2million modern day money), Ravenhill quietly explains “When John died after 53 years of ministry he left a series of books/journals, a Geneva gown which he preached in all over Europe and America and 6 – 1 pound notes for each of the poor paupers who carried him to his grave…and there was one more thing, what was it.”  Dramatic pause, “Oh yes, THE METHODIST CHURCH.  What are you doing with your life?  Sure John made money but he printed bibles, sure John made money but he built orphanages.  What are you doing with your life?”
 
What are we doing with our life?  We, as Americans, can treat full time ministry like a right.  I have to be gainfully and wholly employeed by a church full-time so I won’t have to have the faith for God to provide.  If I don’t get paid full-time then I just can’t minister.  I am guilty of this!  What a disgrace!  90% of the ministers in the world receive their income from faith and a full-time labor job.
 
That’s just the ministers, but what about everyone else.  It doesn’t have to be money, or even Christian.  A famous Christian, MLK Jr. though, changed history just by his conviction.  I heard a man say MLK’s life and conviction changed America’s view on racism more then a President, and a Civil War could, in which many lives were laid down. 
 
What are we doing?  Our generation is so desperate for causes, something to live or die for, that we fall back on changing our light bulbs from a mercury filled “edison” bulb, to a mercury filled squiggly bulb.  In the past other generations had cool causes, like slavery, racism, women’s rights.  We’re reaching for anything and molding the gospel around it to make it all work together.  Don’t get me wrong, “Going Green” might just be biblical, but it’s a poor excuse for the gospel.  The real cause to grab ahold of is personal holiness.  A stewardship of every aspect of our life.  Our finances, our relationships, our life.  When that is wholly devoted to the Lord, then I think we’ll see some real change.
 
What are you doing?  What can we do?
 
Let me know, let’s get some ideas going.  Microfinance anyone?  Church planting?