An ecosystem includes you and all that surrounds you. It’s the whole of your environment and the affect that it has on you.
Ecosystems are powerful things, and they have a big impact on their inhabitants. Within any ecosystem you’ll find creatures that have been shaped and fashioned to thrive within its unique set of characteristics. Sometimes that’s a hot, humid environment; sometimes it’s one that is dry and arid.
Whatever the case may be, your ecosystem plays a large role in how you grow and develop.
So that begs the question, what IS your ecosystem?
For even on a spiritual (and emotional) plane, you are highly impacted by that which surrounds you.
What kind of music plays in your home, on your iPod, or in your car? What pictures hang on your walls? What friends are in your network? What activities fill your day?
All of these questions, and others, help us determine the kind of ecosystem that we live in. The good news is that we have control over much of our ecosystem. We can determine whether the bulk of that ecosystem is positive, uplifting, and inspiring, and make moves to change those things that aren’t.
More importantly, as you build an ecosystem that is centered on Christ, whenever something enters your life that is contrary to that focus, it naturally finds itself in a foreign and unwelcome environment, and the ecosystem plays its part in purging it. The purer your ecosystem is, the less tolerant you’ll find you are to things that would jeopardize that purity.
Hundreds of years ago the pioneers left us a legacy illustrating how important THEY thought it was to find themselves in the accompaniment of the saints. They sacrificed much, to be in the society of saints, to belong to an ecosystem that would push them upward.
May we be equally aware of the ecosystems to which we belong.
Rusty
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
Speaking as a parent and grandparent, I think it’s not only important that we create a great environment for ourselves, but also for our families. Rusty gave us a great list of things to look at that will help them, too.
Do our families feel safe in our homes? Is it a refuge from the cares of the world? Is it the atmosphere where children can learn the vaues we want them to have? If they emulate us will we be pleased with what they become? Do they know we will always love them no matter what (unconditional love)?
The family is the smallest unit of society and by having great families, we can make the world just a little bit better.
Yeah, my wife is the absolute best, a real champion at this (and most everything). She’s SO careful about what comes into the home. I know it sounds extremist, but we don’t even have a TV. We don’t have any consol games like XBox or Wii, or Play Station either.
Instead, we have lots of balls, bats, bikes, and books. Consequently, our kids have very long attention spans. They love to read, paint, draw, and build things.
We do have a computer, and a big monitor that is hooked up to Dish so that we can watch movies we carefully select as a family, or for my wife and I, occasionally the news.
I was against it at first, being a real media-junkie myself (I just LOVE movies). But now after several years without it, I can’t believe how much good it has done. I had to give up watching sports, but that just sucked up massive ammounts of time anyway, and now that time is spent playing with the kids instead.
Perhaps it’s not for everyone, but Margaret, I can vouch for the good that comes from a concientious parent protecting the ecosystem of the home. My wife rocks.
Dear Rusty,
You are getting very close to an even deeper idea. One’s spiritual ecosystem is a “psycho-scape” - the inner world of our heart and mind - which contains the things we love and value and give rise to our thoughts.
Beyond the literal meanings of the words in Scripture, there is a deeper level that directly addresses the quality of our spiritual ecosystem. Imagine if you will, that the stories of the Bible represent dramas taking place within our inner landscape.
The environmental realities of our spirit is what concerns God most. Therefore deeper things can be revealed to us if we can raise our minds to understand the stories of Scripture as representing more than physical events, but events that are taking place inwardly in our lives and shaping our inner environment.
When God leads men and women to the promised land it is a path “not taken by feet.” It is the inner path of our spirit adopting the Lord’s spiritual principles and tenets.
Heaven is a biosphere consisting of an ecosystem where interconnectedness, interrelatedness, and interdependence, is based on mutual love.
Spiritually yours,
TheGodGuy
I like the metaphor you lay out here, and I think it’s quite useful. I’ve got a speaking assignment on forgiveness next month, and I may employ this idea to explore how failing to forgive renders that ecosystem toxic–if we keep all the pollutants of sins (our sins and those of others) in, we cut off the nurturing qualities of the spirit and become a spiritual superfund site…
Roy, that’s a very interesting addition to the analogy. I like it. Thanks for sharing. I’d be interested to know what else you do with it (the analogy that is) as you develop your talk.
TheGodGuy, thanks for sharing that. In this way God, and only God is able to accurately judge us, he being the only one entirely capable of understanding the fullness of our internal psycho-scape. Whereas we are often left to wonder at some people’s actions, God knows their heart, the sum-total of their life experience, and all the intracasies that make up their psycho-scape. This also describes how so many people can witness the same event, read the same passage of scripture, or share in the same experience, but come away with something entirely their own, and uniquely unlike what any one else takes away.