Jan Fawcett is a CFO’er from Perth, Australia. She and her husband Michael has been active in CFO for many years. Jan recently shared this reflection on our Hour Farthest Out Zoom call. We hope you enjoy it here! 
As my family and friends know well, I am into sustainability! It has interested me for years, but my real journey began several years ago. As we approached retirement, Mike and I began to pray and discuss our future direction and felt led to sell our home and build a new, purpose built home that met the needs of this new season in our life. So my love of research, reading, fact gathering, developing concepts and harvesting ideas began. As my family and friends would also attest to, I regularly express the desire to know all there is to know in the whole world! (Lofty ambitions, I know!) I love to ‘focus’ and absorb facts and ideas, maybe, as my husband points out, a little ‘over focusing’ occurs at times. But I was determined to discover the best solution for our retirement.
Building a sustainable home was an easy decision to make. We found the prefect designer and company to work with. Then we faced our biggest ‘problem’… money! Yes, it so often comes down to that doesn’t it? Oh when will I learn, ye of little faith! Having been in full time ministry/study all our married life, and choosing to be a one income family to free one of us up to do whatever we felt God wanted us to do – study, parent, volunteer, serve, teach – our income was very limited. But our God, as He regularly does, made a way for us to achieve our sustainable home dream. How that happened is a story in itself!
We are so often asked what a sustainable home is. By definition sustainability is 1.) The ability to maintain at a certain rate or level for as long as is wanted. 2.) To meet the need of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own need. 3.) That something is the always the same and does not change.
Sound familiar? Our home operates with reduced utility costs. It is energy efficient and makes the most of our environment – sun, wind and changing seasons. No heating or cooling is needed as it maintains a fairly constant temperature all year round. Solar power, cross ventilation, window and door placement, shading and insulation all play a big part. Our home is also disability proofed – no steps, wider doorways, no hall ways, hobless showers, lower light switches, higher power points, no dead space. We use all of our home on a very regular basis and it will remain suitable for the rest of our lives. Our home is the result of decades of thought, study, experiment and physics and all that knowledge makes up our beautiful and very livable home.
I love the concept of sustainability! Generally it comprises three main Pillars… Social, Environmental, and Economics… or informally, People, Planet and Profits. But for me God has been speaking about the spiritual aspect of sustainability. Surely, Spiritual should be a pillar too… Social, Environmental, Economics, Spiritual… or informally People, Planet , Profit and Prayer. However the more I considered it and chatted with the Lord, the more I realized that it wasn’t a pillar at all, but the starting point of sustainability!… The whole building itself!… Not just a pillar! Our Creator God, the author of all things sustainable, the same yesterday, today and forever!
As Christians, we have entered into a new season in our world and societies. The time to be complacent is over. The time to stand has come. It can seem overwhelming at times, but we have a sustainable God and a sustainable faith. His Word remains the same yesterday, today and forever. We cannot change things because we think it is necessary for progress. Our Christian faith needs to be sustainable. God’s laws, His promises, His teachings… each are the same now and are as relevant now as when they were first written! No compromise. Truth is truth, let God be God! He made the rules, we follow. As in the past, God meets our needs now without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.
Ephesians 6:10-17 talks about being strong in the Lord and His mighty power and to put on the armor of God in the battle we face. It tells us to do this so we can stand our ground!
Ephesians 6:13 says “Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes you may be able to stand your ground and after you have done everything, to stand.”
Romans 12:2 says “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is – His good, pleasing and perfect will”.
For our Christianity to be truly sustainable this verse is key! God has already decided the fundamentals of life and living and they remain regardless of what the world may say. So we are left with a choice – please man or please God?
However in maintaining our sustainable Christianity we need to do so with God’s grace and love reflected in our lives. Philippians 2:14-16 says, “Do everything without grumbling or arguing so that you become blameless and pure, children of God, without fault in a warped and crooked generation! Then you will shine like stars in the universe as you hold firmly to the word of life”.
So, for our faith and for us to be truly sustainable Christians in the world today, we need God… “The Main Building” and sustainable pillars in our life to strengthen us;
Ephesians 6:10-17 Standing firm and protected from attack.
Roman 12:2 Only being transformed by the renewing of our mind by God’s will.
Philippians 2:14-16 Shining like stars to be an example of God’s love and grace in the world.
With these pillars in place we can maintain our faith in God’s principles, knowing that God is the same, His Word is the same… they do not change! Surely a definition of Sustainable Christianity. May I encourage you, even urge you, to live a sustainable life – Spiritual, but also social, environmental and economic. This will be transformational for you as well as our world. With God’s help we can do anything. Even move mountains!
