i’m pretty excited about what we are going to try and do this coming sunday. as you may or may not know this coming sunday is earth day. for some reason years ago some evangelical leaders most have gotten together and decided that we CHRISTians aren’t supposed to care about the earth and therefore we have given the whole ecological movement over to others. this means that earth day in baton rouge is mixed up with a random new age labyrinth project (labyrinths aren’t new age – i love them – but the vision behind this project is not CHRIST centered) and metaphysical alternative healing sources (touch therapy, aurora reading, etc. typically there is quite a bit of not necessarily CHRIST-friendly stuff surrounding some earth day celebrations.
when i heard about the events or baton rouge’s earth day on the radio i had a sudden desire to be a part of the event. so i called the contact person and asked if we could be a part of the “alternative healing” booths. the alternative healing section is where you go to learn about different strategies for healing. this means “healing” tecniques such as vibrational therapy, acupuncture, hypnotherapy, healing touch, reiki, herbal remedies, aromatherapy, nikken magnetic therapy. so i aksed the contact lady if we could join the “alternative healing” section of the event. i explained to her was that within the CHRISTian tradition there is a long history of praying for the healing of individuals and washing people’s feet. i asked if we could set up a booth among all the other “healing” booths simply for the purpose of praying for people who ask for it and washing their feet. i promised we wouldn’t try to push anything on anyone and would not ask for or accept donations and that all we wanted to do was praying for people in the name of JESUS asking for their healing.
i seem to remember JESUS saying in scripture that if HE is lifted up that HE will draw all people to HIMSELF. so if we could go and pray for people and thus lift HIM up in the midst of earth day then HE would accomplish something good. we wouldn’t have to be obnoxious or forceful or anything like that for something good to happen. GOD would simply take care of what needed to happen just by us being there to pray for people.
the contact person said she liked the idea and would probably come and let us pray for her but that allowing us to come and do that was not her decision so she would pass it down the line. yesterday i received another call asking more questions. that person’s response was also positive but they said they couldn’t make the final decision. so right now i’m still in limbo waiting and hoping that this sunday we will get to be in the midst of 40,000 people praying for individuals and trusting GOD to be GOD in their lives. i really hope we get to do this.
SIDE NOTE – please don’t read this as an anti-earth day post. i believe GOD created the earth and therefore it is special and sacred and should be taken care of. if i remember right that was the first job given to humanity … to take care of what GOD had created. earth day is pretty cool and most of the people involved have no problem with CHRISTianity. we evangelicals have just dropped the ball on the environment and therefore earth day is not the normal place to find us. it should be though.