Visionaries in My Sights

My nephew, Zachary Schrock, who is very knowledgeable about many things in the natural world, posted a link yesterday to a TED talk on permaculture.  I watched the 18-minute presentation before school and held forth about it to our principal and several other hapless listeners over lunch.  With the barest hint of a cautionary tone, he commented that implementing the permaculture vision sounded like a major undertaking. He was absolutely right, of course, as he usually is.

I had always thought of permaculture in terms of plant communities only.  Geoff Lawson and his mentor, Bill Mollison (Mullison?--the British English falls on my ear indistinctly here.) present permaculture in much more sweeping terms--not only for water harvesting, but for creating many other systems: soil, energy, local economies, people systems, and useful living resources.  Stabilizing our climate occurs simultaneously with the creation of new systems, and it all begins with water harvesting.  The end result of all this is how they define civilization and development.  Now there's a concept . . .

The permaculture ideas and the comment from Wesley kept churning through my mind repeatedly throughout the day and now this morning.  The Grand Vision.  Is it evidence of foolhardiness or genius?   Divine anointing perhaps?  A mandate for service?

My hyperactive brain leaps easily from one novel idea to another, but plods slowly when those ideas must be meshed with others to effect sweeping change.  Foundational to my idea of what is possible in the natural world is the knowledge that it will all end some day.  In the intervening time, disorder and disasters will increase.  Our best efforts will be insufficient to stand against these realities.  I know also, however, that all of us have been given many gifts from God, which are to be offered back to Him in acts of service.  These gifts are surely acts of mercy on God's part, a way of offering hope to man--His crowning creation.  If God gives grand visions and people can paint them in strokes so large and striking that they inspire enthusiasm and motivation in others, should those visions be modestly "sat on" or boldly proclaimed?

Is it different when grand visions come from people who make no profession of faith?  Should those visions be rejected?  An affirmative answer makes some sense.  How can they get anything right if they don't get the foundation right?

A negative answer also makes sense.  I firmly believe that anyone who is capable of making accurate observations has something to offer all of us.  In other words, a clear-eyed perception of reality is so essential to any grand vision that wherever it occurs, it is to be celebrated and embraced.  Realities understood from our Christian faith must then be brought to bear on interpretation, application, and a mandate.

Last week my father passed on an idea he'd like for me to pursue in a realm very different from the permaculture realm.  Yet it has some of the same appeal, and much of the same laboriousness--trying to effect system change in an area gone far wrong on its own.  Geoff Lawton and my father.  If I could synthesize  both their wisdom . . . well, then I guess you should all listen.  Don't hold your breath.  In the meantime, just listen to whatever vision God is creating in you, by whatever means He chooses.