Newly Inspired

"When the sea rises, it rises everywhere." -Wangari Mattai

Tonight the Saint John's School of Theology and Seminary hosted the 2004 recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize- Wangari Mattai, as a speaker on campus. Tonight she was awarded the Dignitas Humana award for her work towards restoring the dignity of people in Kenya after deforestation led to a circle of poverty.

Dr. Mattai is beyond the most inspiring person I have ever had the privilege to hear speak. Her work began decades ago with teaching women to plant trees to help restore their land, and has led to a movement that hopefully can one day be global. After talking for a while about changing the world, of course everyone in the auditorium was just itching to change the world as well, but how? Plant trees? Her work, her vision and her beliefs are more than that. She helped us all to realize that God created this world and our environment for everything to work out. But when we destroy the earth that He gave us, we are destroying the cycle of life and we can no longer pray to Him for a miracle. We are destroying what He has given us, and we are responsible for restoring it. We can't always depend on Him to make everything okay if we don't do our part.

My favorite quote of the night from her (it seems a bit cheesy at first, but think about it) was when she began talking about the gardens on campus and how so many of the flowers are still in bloom. She then led into saying that flowers are always blooming and they don't choose who they bloom for. A flower doesn't see someone and say, "I don't like you, I'm going to close up." We are put on this Earth and given our beauty from the Lord to share with others. Right now, it is an older generation who is responsible for making decisions and taking care of the change in the world, but we need to always be learning and doing what we can to prepare ourselves to be in that position; when we are, we need to share that beauty with everyone, no matter what, and to not choose the people with whom we share it.

I didn't think of this before but as I was writing the last paragraph I was reminded of a quote I came across a few weeks ago that I think sums this post up well:
When I stand before God at the end of my life, I would hope that I would not have a single bit of talent left and could say, 'I used everything you gave me.'
-Erma Brombeck