So this Word that went into action to bring into existence this amazing planet, when the time was right, chose to lower himself and become man here on earth.  Throughout his 33 years on earth, he regularly chose to be one of the lowliest of men.  A baby born of a carpenter's wife, he never had riches.  He never sought power.  He did not have a life of luxury -- quite the opposite.  His teachings tell us that to be great, you must first be servant to others.  You must always look towards the least, the lost, the disenfranchised.  Then, at the end of his life, he chose to lower himself to the leaders of the world.  He suffered torture and mocking.  He could have avoided it all, but did not.  Instead, he set the bar exceedingly high, giving example of his earlier words of forgiving your enemies, of praying for them, of giving not just what they ask of you, but even more.  Paul speaks several times of this as a mystery.  The Word through which the world came into being gave so freely of himself, even to the point of extreme pain and eventual death.  It is no wonder it is so hard for so many to believe this to be the case.  And yet, I believe it to my core.

For me, this belief has given me a passion to serve in two areas: the environment and the disenfranchised.  As someone who loves to create things out of wood, I have slowly come to sense, at least to some extent, the joy God must take in his own creation.  I love it when someone looks at something I've created and comments on the fine details I labored over.  How God must love it when we appreciate the fine details he labored over within his creation.  I know, too, how hard it is to see someone abuse something I've made.  How God must mourn when we abuse his creation.  Psalms speaks of how all creation sings God's praises.  When one of his creatures goes extinct, Tony Campolo has suggested this is like a voice in the choir being silenced.  We have been put on this earth in part to be stewards of the world.  We certainly are expected to use the resources of the world, but we should do it with consideration and thought, not recklessly.

In Luke chapter 6 we read Jesus' words telling us that the poor, the hungry, those who weep, are blessed.  But woe to the rich, the well-fed, the comfortable.  Throughout his teaching years, Jesus is often conveying the message that we should give to all who are in need, and especially widows and orphans.  We are not to judge, we are always to forgive.  It is also clear that at the end of our days, we will see Jesus again and he will disown us if we have failed to follow these words.  We don't do it to earn our way into heaven, though.  No one is worthy and we can only go there through God's grace.  But we do so because we so love God, that we express that love by listening to these words.  Love has been freely given to us, to the point of the Creator freely suffering at the hands of his creation.  Such a love can only be answered by freely following his example.  And so I look for ways that I can freely give, and especially to those who have been forgotten by our society, or even worse, those who have been intentionally abused by our society so that others in our society can have more.

These beliefs, then, explain why I do the things I do.  For me to be fully human, I need to spend regular time outdoors.  I also need to spend regular time serving.  And more and more, I find that the best opportunities to serve are those times when I can introduce others to the outdoors, and especially those who otherwise wouldn't have the opportunity.