Economy of Grace

I have been reading Walden on the subway this week on my way to and from work. I can't help but chuckle as I read about Thoreau's 28.12$ house, and his simple life next to Walden Pond. I ride along under Time Square, and 5th avenue, and think of the conspicuous consumption that characterizes typical New Yorkers, and Walden is as far from my surroundings as it gets.

I love how Thoreau encourages his readers to be satisfied with less materially, to embrace independence, self-reliance, and simplicity of life. I have enjoyed getting lost in the pages of his simple, calculating experiments and his thoughts about what is meaningful in life.

Thoreau was a Transcendentalist and he believed in the importance of a direct relationship with God and with nature. As a science teacher and a believer I really relate with some of his analogies, and writing. I feel at peace when I am in nature. Is this because of an interconnectedness I have with nature? I would say not. I am in awe of the created world, and the detail in which it was created. I think it is time that people of faith share a curiosity and inquisitiveness with scientists and put aside the finger pointing, and name calling for we are looking at the same thing. To other people of faith, what if God created the world in a big bang? What if God created the species by a process? Could this be? To other people of science, we cannot test God, no data can be collected that can prove his existence of this we can agree. Darwin said that the question of a God was a religious question and not a scientific one. There are many questions that science can not answer, such as what we should do or how we should live. Maybe there is greater meaning to life than chance, and entropy, and the cycle of life and death.

I believe that this love of nature was written into my genetic code, it was passed down through many generations and was nurtured in me ever since I was a child. Do my thoughts on God being the author of creation overstep my professional obligations as a teacher? Am I going to hell because I teach my class about evolution and how scientists look at the world? Do my lessons on evolution in biology class make me any less eligible to receive Christ's grace which is freely given? My relationship with Jesus is the ultimate transformative power in my life. If I do not utter a word about my faith I pray that my actions speak louder than words. I hope that my actions do not confirm peoples perceptions that I am another hypocrite, or close minded religious fanatic, but someone who understands what it is to be a true Christian.