Empathy for Nature & the Poor

I recently read a list of suggestions for "becoming the answers to our own prayers." These are ways of empathizing with the poor and respecting nature as well. When nature is abused, no one suffers more than the poor.

1. Wash your clothes by hand and dry them on a line. Remember the 1.6 billion people who do not have electricity.

2. Learn to sew. Try making your won clothes for a year.

3. Eat only one bowl of rice a day for a week. (Be sure to take a multivitamin.) And remember the twenty-five thousand people who die of malnutrition and starvation each day.

4. Keep the Sabbath holy. Rest one day a week this year--don't answer the phone or the door, and don't use the internet. Do something that brings you life that day.

5. Go to a city council meeting. Pray. Speak as the Spirit leads.

*Note: This list taken from 'Common Prayer/A Liturgy for Ordinary Radicals.'

Think of your own ways to save energy, money and relate to the poor.

Don't forget to pray for them as well. God cares for the poor.