Draw us into harmony with your will

The world that we’re fortunate enough to live in is a truly wonderful place. We can see something of beauty wherever we look.

In England we can see places such as: the Lake District; the big skies in the Fens, where I live; many wonderful coastal areas; and numerous other spots, too many to mention.

It’s fair to say there are many more places in the rest of the world — haven’t been out of the UK myself, so haven’t seen them in the flesh so to speak — but the Grand Canyon; Ayres Rock; and Niagara Falls; are a few places that spring to mind from what I’ve seen in magazines and on the TV, and there are many many more.

And I guess in one respect I’m pretty lucky. Because I also happen to find pleasure in looking at things that many people find unattractive. I like looking around many urban and industrial areas for instance — there’s something about the straight lines and angles that I find appealing, and even more so if they happen to be symetrical too. And I do like to see the wind turbines — such as those pictured above at Scrobie Sands, Great Yarmouth — sprouting up in many of our land and seascapes.

I think, though, despite having the opprtunity to live in this beautiful world, and even contributing to it in our small human way, we are still a long way from being in harmony with God’s world. We’re wrecking our planet. Environmental issues are becoming a huge concern, or at least they should be, for all of us. For most of us the really big issues are overwhelming, and there feels little we can do personally. It really needs change at national governmental level. But let’s not forget the starfish story I posted in last Sunday’s post — all of the little bits that make a small difference we can do individually will add up to something meaningful.

Perhaps there is one thing in particulat that all of us can try to do something about; and that’s our waste. We can all do something to reduce the amount we have to throw away; and to ensure that as much as possible of what we do throw away is recycled.

Then we’ll be beginning to move towards being in harmony with God’s will — at least in this one area. And, maybe starting in small ways, it will encourage us to become more involved in larger ways. We may even find that there is something we can contribute to the larger environmental issues that our planet is facing.

Gracious Father,
by the obedience of Jesus
you brought salvation to our wayward world:
draw us into harmony with your will,
that we may find all things restored in him,
our Saviour Jesus Christ.

Additional Collect for The Fourth Sunday after Trinity
is Copyright © The Archbishops Council