Footprints

May 30, 2008

By Scott Harrup

I’m an armchair outdoorsman. The last time I “camped out” was on a frigid November night last year with Austin in our backyard clubhouse. But I subscribed for a year to an outdoor magazine and enjoyed reading about cutting-edge camping equipment and exotic locales.

One of the concepts I encountered was “low-impact camping.” The idea is to leave a wilderness site as unchanged as possible. Not only should there be no trash left behind, but you should also avoid any “footprints” of your presence — no marring of trees or ground cover, for example.

These days I hear of a different kind of “footprint” in environmental news stories — my “carbon footprint.” National Public Radio did a piece on that subject in April, comparing the carbon footprints of an American and Chinese family.

Your carbon footprint is the amount of carbon dioxide emitted as a result of your energy use. Every time you drive a car, plug in a lamp, use an appliance, or fly a plane, you take part in a carbon dioxide-emitting process. Vehicles and power generating facilities emit tons of CO2, and that gas traps heat in the atmosphere and contributes to pollution.

I’m not into prophecies of global-warming doom, but I believe all of us have a responsibility to take care of the environment. So small “footprints” sound fine in principle.

But are there circumstances when our footprints should be big? Even huge? I think so.

I want my “footprint” on my children’s lives to be massive. There are so many positive choices I want them to make, and the best way for them to learn of those choices is to see me making them myself. I want my kids to avoid all kinds of negative choices as well. And I’m perfectly willing to plant a metaphorical “footprint in the seat of their pants” if they need a more forceful warning.

I want my “footprint” of love to be inescapable for my wife. Jodie should never have to wonder if I love her less than extravagantly.

And my love footprint needs to reach everyone else I meet. That’s God’s command, that’s been His example to me, and I take that very seriously.

There’s one final area of “footprinting” that applies to all followers of Christ. We’re all commanded to “go into the whole world and preach the gospel” (Mark 16:15). We’re to tell everyone about the good news of Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection in our behalf.

But me? I treat my “Mark 16:15 footprint” like my “carbon footprint” or that “low-impact camping footprint.”

And all the while God’s calling me to put on combat boots.

— Scott Harrup is senior associate editor of Today’s Pentecostal Evangel and blogs at Out There (sharrup.agblogger.org).