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written by Stephan Joubert

A recent study by a British television channel, Channel 4, about what the average Briton’s ‘life footpint’ looks like, pointed out that the average person in her lifetime: uses up 3.5 washing machines, drives 8 cars, uses up 15 computers, receives 628 Christmas presents, uses 135,960 liters of fuel, knows 1,700 people, produces 750 tons of CO₂, reads 532 books, reads 2,455 papers (equivalent to 24 trees that needed to be felled), and cries 61 liters of tears!

What does your life footprint look like? What are you spending most of your time and energy on? What role does possessions play in your life? And that of your family and friends? Is your Sunday-language — that you love God — only restricted to Sundays? Do your footprints during the week ever leave a trail leading to those who are in need? Are the friends of Jesus — the poor, the outcasts, and the lost — your friends too? Does your faith cause your footprint to look any different than what it previously did?

Talking about footprints — what does your daily carbon footprint look like? A recent Cape Town study found that the average South African family expels carbon dioxide equal to 3 Olympian swimming pools into the atmosphere every year. We can’t allow God’s creation to be destroyed right here under our noses. Drive less. Use less electricity. Did you know that every kilowatt-hour of electricity you save is equal to one kilogram less CO₂ in our air? Please be creation-sensitive. The creation is God’s gift to us. Now it’s being damaged and destroyed. That is why a material part of our faith should be to help restore the Father’s world. We should take care of it in his Name. This week, don’t look away when the creation is suffering (Romans 8).

Prayer guidelines

• Ask God to open your eyes to the creation’s great value.
• Pray for wisdom regarding how you and those around you can make a difference to help protect creation.