Barbara Fletcher, June 5-6

Sustainable living has been on my heart. Maybe that’s because I see lots of things around me that don’t seem sustainable.

I see oil destroying the Gulf of Mexico and, probably, beaches where I’ve vacationed since I was 5 years old. Loss of my favorite beaches is nothing compared to the loss of God’s sea and bird life, many peoples’ jobs and their way of life. It’s an unsustainable situation…

I see debt in personal lives and in entire countries, both here in the USA and overseas. It doesn’t seem fiscally sustainable. I see consumption of natural resources all over the globe that seems unsustainable. I see under-eating and over-eating, under-exercising and over-exercising, all of which seem unsustainable. On and on and on I could go.

I decided to Google “sustainable living.” Wikipedia defines it this way: A lifestyle that attempts to reduce an individual's or society's use of the Earth's natural resource and his/her own resources.

It was the last phrase of the definition that hit home and is the personal reason this subject is on my mind. Is it possible (or probable) that we overwork our personal resources and, in the process, deplete our bodies, relationships and souls? How sustainable are our lives? I’m engaging in conversations with God and others about my unsustainable life. It’s not easy. It’s hard work. It’s soul work.

I’m not writing this because I’m looking for advice or an avenue to complain. But as I walk my own journey with Jesus toward sustainability, I wonder if maybe I’m not alone… Perhaps you, too, would benefit from conversations with God and people you trust. I’m convinced sustainable living is His heart for us.

Barbara grew up in St. Louis, Missouri, which is why she’s a huge Cardinals baseball fan. She graduated from Purdue University, married and became a school teacher. She was called to ministry at the age of 30 and served God in Bible Study Fellowship for ten years. She attended seminary in her 40s and joined the Salem Alliance staff in 1991, currently serving as an Associate Pastor. Barbara has three children, three children-in-law and eight grandchildren who she adores!