Lent 4.5: Live more simply

The parish is offering a seven-week program called Lent 4.5 Christian Simplicity to discuss practical ways to abstain from habits and choices that harm the earth. The discussions are at 7 p.m. Mondays in the Parish Activity Center.

The ''4.5'' in the title refers to the number of acres each person on Earth would receive if it were divided equally among all people. Based on a measuring tool called Global Footprint, people in the United States use an average 22.3 acres to support their lifestyle.

This is the first of seven Lenten practices that will be posted on the blog but you can find additional information on the Lent 4.5 website

Our Lenten practice this week is to live more simply so others may simply live.

The challenge of simplicity is to live differently than the standards set by a greedy consumer culture. To begin, try setting purchasing limits that fit with your values, and live within them. Use your buying power to reinforce your faith. Let your shopping decisions make a difference. With each dollar you can select products that are socially and environmentally responsible. Clear the clutter from your home. Develop a sense of moderation and sharing. Discover the joy that comes from contentment, sensing that you have enough. And hold in your heart those people who don’t have enough – enough food, enough water, enough of basic life necessities.

Christian simplicity means setting limits that reflect your faith values by taking only what you need – not wasting or taking in excess. Good stewardship of creation results in a life that is outwardly simple, inwardly rich, and socially just.

Take small steps to simplify

• If there’s only one thing you can do … Use cloth shopping bags instead of paper and plastic. Paper bags cause millions of trees to be cut. Plastic bags kill thousands of birds and marine animals every year by being eaten or entangled in discarded bags mistaken for food. According to the EPA, over 380 billion plastic bags are distributed in the U.S. each year.
• Question: How many light bulbs does it take to change the world? Answer: One at a time. Start by replacing incandescent light bulbs with compact fluorescent (CFL) bulbs. They emit the same amount of light, but use 75% less electricity. According to the U.S. Department of Energy, if every American home replaced just one light with a CFL light, we would save enough energy to light 3 million homes for a year, save about $600 million in annual energy costs, and prevent 9 billion pounds of greenhouse gas emissions per year.
• Replace paper napkins and towels with cloth. Give up wasteful disposable paper products that end up in landfills.
• Use a refillable mug in the office or on the go. Cut down on waste as well as toxic chemicals in the environment. Buying daily coffee in disposable cups generates about 22 pounds of waste per year and sends approximately 65 pounds of CO2 into the air.
• Abstain from over-scheduling your life. Do this by planning ahead to eliminate unnecessary actions.
• Forgo TV and/or social networking sites at least one day during the week.
• Read Psalm 104. Sit quietly in gratitude for the gift of life.
• Consciously connect with God’s natural world at least once during the week.
• Try forgoing some “must-have” items. It’s a matter of training the mind to get along with less.
• Consider impulsive buying habits. When a desire for something arises, wait a couple days to make sure it is not an impulse buy.