I don\u2019t recall the exact year, somewhere in the 1950s, there was a campaign to take pride in our country. As a child I recall the promotions, with public incentives, to do our part to \u201cclean up\u201d the environment. There were road signs everywhere which today might be considered distasteful, and distracting but at the time were an incentive to do our part to beautify our community by not littering. I recall a sense of gratification as I took seriously that I could make a difference. It was obvious to me the change that took place and to this day I cannot allow even the smallest paper to escape proper disposal. It perplexes me that people will throw trash without regard to the environmental effect of their action. This carries over into larger more significant practices, such as recycling. I like the commercial that depicts a plastic bottle rolling along for some great distance until it bumps into a recycling container; as it is placed in the container, the commercial advocates \u201cgive your trash a second life!\u201d<\/p>\n
My family has always been conscious of waste. It wasn\u2019t, however, until I lived in a developing country and observed children ladling water from a roadside puddle that I sensed the real value of a \u201ccup of water.\u201d There are multiple ways that I have learned to be more conservative. At times, diminishing resources trouble me. The draught in the western states can overwhelm me if I allow it. I do try to ignore it and hope that those who can make a difference will rise to the occasion.<\/p>\n
According to authors Joanna Macy and Chris Johnstone, the \u201cGreat Turning\u201d is the story of innovative and creative responses to the \u201cGreat Unraveling,\u201d which the authors refer to as the unraveling and \u201ccollapse of ecological and social systems.\u201d[1]<\/a> The unraveling is a consequence of self-seeking prosperity and economic growth without regard for the misuse of earth\u2019s resources or the consequence of diminishing resources. The Great Turning they note, \u201cis about the epochal transition from an industrial society committed to economic growth to a life-sustaining society committed to the healing and recovery of our world.\u201d[2]<\/a> Active Hope<\/em> is not the<\/em> answer to the problems that confront humankind nor a solution to impending disaster. The authors make this clear as they note that Active Hope<\/em> is not offered \u201cas a blueprint solution to our problems but [rather], as both a set of practices and insights to draw strength from and as a mythic journey to be transformed by.\u201d[3]<\/a> Ellen LaConte in reviewing Active Hope<\/em>, refers to it as \u201cGreat Turning\u2019s New Testament\u201d as she writes:<\/p>\n Here are the unflinching diagnosis and prognosis and widely tested protocol for self-healing<\/em> and lifesaving<\/em> that can help a critical mass of us to recommit to learning, living, and acting effectively on behalf of Earth\u2019s beleaguered human and natural communities.[4]<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n It is important to understand the author\u2019s perspective because it impacts the content and context of Active Hope<\/em>. It is written in a self-help genre. When we encounter problems, \u201c\u2019Dangerous,\u2019 \u2018frightening,\u2019 \u2018out of control,\u2019\u201d we become overwhelmed and paralyzed, incapable of acting to confront the impending crisis. It is this failure to cope that is \u201ceven more deadly [than the impending crisis], for the greatest danger of our time is the deadening of our response.\u201d[5]<\/a> The answer is \u201cactive-hope\u201d or perhaps it is \u201cself-hope\u201d for if we fail to engage the world in which we live, the single piece of trash or one wasted cup of water contributes to the problem and hastens the loss of resources and the demise of all that is great and beautiful in creation. We ought to take the biblical admonition to humankind \u201cto work and care for\u201d[6]<\/a> the garden earth as a preservation imperative that we cannot avoid.<\/p>\n I make this observation because the authors clearly see \u201chope\u201d not as something we have but as something we do \u2013 hence, the title, \u201cActive Hope.\u201d Although not a total antithesis, this type of hope is not the traditional Christian value of hope as \u201csure,\u201d \u201cnot disappointing,\u201d as \u201csubstantive and evident,\u201d \u201coverflowing\u201d and without limit.[7]<\/a> The Christian hope is in a person, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit that makes hope alive and real. Christian hope is active as humankind joins God in the work of reconciling all creation to God.<\/p>\n I do not fully share Macy and Johnstone\u2019s dismal outlook on planet earth and I struggle with some of the positions they assert as disastrous outcomes and the bleak future they declare. My own fears are founded in the huge social and philosophical changes that have taken place in a post-Christendom world. There is wisdom and purpose in Macy and Johnstone\u2019s words, \u201cActive hope is about becoming active participants in bringing about what we hope for.\u201d[8]<\/a> But what do we hope for? And how do we participate? It is by joining God. The authors suggest four \u201cmovements\u201d that can \u201creconnect\u201d us to the hope we seek: 1) Coming from gratitude; recognizing where happiness truly comes from, 2) Honoring our pain for the world; there is hope despite suffering, brokenness, and pain, 3) Seeing with new eyes; understanding the wonder and grandeur of creation, to see all though eyes of peace and love, 4) Going forth; to believe in the future, to imagine the possibility.<\/p>\n We can achieve what we hope for. We can counter the fear of the overwhelming task as the church is in the world to \u201cpreach good news to the poor \u2026 proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord\u2019s favor.\u201d[9]<\/a> We do so as we join God seeking the hope God proclaims for the world, the reconciliation of all creation.<\/p>\n [1]<\/a> Joanna Macy and Chris Johnstone, Active Hope: How to Face the Mess We\u2019re in without Going Crazy<\/em> (Novato, CA: New World Library, 2012), 4.<\/p>\n [2]<\/a> Ibid., 5.<\/p>\n [3]<\/a> Ibid., 7.<\/p>\n [4]<\/a> Ibid., Kindle, 36 (emphases mine).<\/p>\n [5]<\/a> Ibid., 1.<\/p>\n [6]<\/a> Genesis 2:15 (NIV).<\/p>\n [7]<\/a> Romans 5:1-5, Romans 8:24-25, Romans 15:1-4, Hebrews 11:1-3, Romans 15:13.<\/p>\n