A Life Less Ordinary

According to most sources the earths population has followed the following trend :

1804 = 1 billion people

1927 = 2billion people

1960 = 3 billion people

1974 = 4 billion people

1987 = 5 billion people

1999 = 6 billion people

2011 = 7 billion people

When JFK was the President of America there were less than half the number of people on the planet than there are now! The period of time it takes to add a billion people to the world population has gone from 31 years to 12. Every year there are about 90 million more people on the planet than the year before. Could it be that we are successfully fulfilling God’s order to “Be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth.”? (Genesis 1:28)

On a recent trip to Bangkok I was very uncomfortable riding the train and seeing high rise after high rise after high rise after high rise. When studying waste management with my students I learnt about the scary statistics involved with waste production and disposal. When I look at global warming, deforestation and the fact that only 2.5% of the water on the planet is fresh, I start to wonder how sustainable our way of living is.

Matthew Simmons, energy Advisor to George W Bush said that ‘Maybe I’m hallucinating but I actually think that there is an optimistic life after crude oil if everyone quickly understands how unbelievably serious this is and starts behaving in some radically different manners.”

The crude oil crisis is basically the reverse of a surplus of supply and demand. Since the first discoveries of crude oil we have found more oil than we use but that trend is changing. What will happen when the price of petrol becomes $50 or $100 a liter?

When I consider all these things taken together, two quotes come to mind :

Albert Einstein “We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.”

If our education system and our expectations as parents are focused towards kids getting good grades, finding a good job, getting married and having a savings account, then I see little hope for the planet 100 years from now. As educators and as a society we have to throw out the old curriculum and inspire in our children the kind of thinking and living that will lead to a sustainable future.

Sir Winston Churchill “It’s not enough that we do our best; sometimes we have to do what’s required.”

I know we are not capable of doing it, but if we are brave enough to release our hold on what is normal and comfortable and secure and step off into the void we will find that God has a path prepared for us. If we value human life over the economy we will break through into a new bright future of love and hope. The choice is yours, choose to live a life less ordinary.

God Bless You, Gef

A Picture of Faith

This is one of my favorite photos. It is me paragliding in Bali and I love it because it is probably the last possible opportunity to take a photo before my foot leaves the ground. When you paraglide you basically run off a mountain or cliff and the wind catches your chute and you fly.

I have resigned from my job and am trying to sell my house so I can move my wife, kids and I to Bali. I don’t really know what I am going to do there but I had a very vivid dream that God has been in control through so many events in my life and they were all leading me to this point.

Just like in the photo, I feel like I am one step away from leaping away from my old life, my house, my job, security and heading to a new life. But more reliable than the wind catching my paragliding chute, I KNOW that God will carry me and my family on to the next stage that he has prepared even before any of us left our mother’s womb.

I can barely imagine what the future holds but I have faith in the God who I KNOW, who LOVES me and who PROVIDES for me and my family…… as He does for you if you call Him Father. GBU