Heaven on earth?

Lately I have been coming across a collection of ideas about life that are appealing to me.
Voluntary Simplicity. No Buy Month. Buy locally produced goods. Alternative energy. Unschooling. Community Supported Agriculture (CSA). Slow Food. Organic Farming.

We are as close as we can be to these ideas. I have been an avid fan of my Complete Tightwad Gazette for years. We are increasingly reticent to spend on ourselves and are putting off buying even little things we don't really have to have, so we may have No Buy months frequently, but it's hard to be sure. Buying local is something I would like to try, but it isn't available here except for native clothing or decorative items. Warren is currently in the process of installing mini-windmills on our roof. True unschooling allowed too much control by the child for us, but school is a lot more relaxed this year. We have significantly reduced our processed foods since moving here, so now we only buy a dozen or less multi-ingredient product, half of them condiments and spreads. Instead we are using more rice and legume based meals centering around this week's box of organic produce from our CSA.

But the underlying philosophy of the people advocating these wonderful sounding ideas was something that kept bothering me. New Age shows up frequently and their ideas about government are much different than mine. I went for a walk to clear my head and as I was out and reciting Psalm 84 to myself (I am trying to memorize it) I realized what was bothering me.

These philosophies are focused on personal pleasure and creating a perfect world. That will never happen-- we will never get heaven on earth until Jesus returns. Taking a winter walk in the
Arctic while knowing another person has just died and you will attend another funeral within the week was ample evidence of that to me. The news is replete with more evidence. So we choose not to focus on creating a self-sustaining life for ourselves. It would be so easy to go and find a place where our family could take care of ourselves. But we choose not to. We are trying to give away more to others who are starving either temporally or spiritually. We are more interested in caring for others than for ourselves. Psalms 37:24 says "Yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken or his seed begging for bread." After all, "Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?" Matthew 6:25

Awaiting Heaven,
Verity