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Our journey to the Galapagos Islands continues this Sunday as we encounter the famous Galapagos giant tortoises. Here’s a preview. (Photo by Dusan veverkolog on Unsplash)
They are massive creatures! I knew they were big, but I never dreamed just how BIG! According to galapagosconservation.org.uk, “Males can weigh more than 500 pounds, and females average about 250 pounds…The largest recorded Galapagos Tortoise was nearly 6 feet long and weighed 919 pounds.”
The arrival of the conquistadors in the sixteenth century was devastating to the giant tortoises. Conquistador is a Spanish word that means “one who conquers.” And, boy, did they ever conquer.
There is no doubt they were incredibly brave and curious as they set sail from the Old World and set out to explore the New. Unfortunately, they didn’t just bring their courage and curiosity with them; they also brought a mindset that said, “All the earth is ours to conquer and control.”
But the earth wasn’t theirs. And the earth isn’t ours. “The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof,” as Psalm 24 proclaims. The earth is the Lord’s.
In his book The Galapagos Islands, Brian McLaren is very right when he says, “The conquistador spirit lives on today” (p. 48). I see it everywhere. Including in the Church, which begs the question: Will we embody a conquistador spirit or will we share the Spirit of Christ out in the world?
What is the Spirit of Christ? How is it different from the conquistador spirit? Because we certainly use the word “conqueror” in relation to the power of God.
God conquers the shroud of sin; God conquers the sting of death.
But note one crucial difference between God’s kind of conquering and the conquistadors’ kind of conquering: God’s kind of conquering leads to liberation and life; the conquistador kind of conquering leads to destruction and death.
This is the lens by which we should examine everything we do and say: Does it bring liberation and life, or does it bring destruction and death? What’s it going to be–the conquistador spirit or the Spirit of Christ?
I’ll see you Sunday.
Jennie
Worship at 8:15 and 10:30 a.m.
On-site at 302 South Main Street Eureka, Illinois
Online at eurekachristian.org/worship-online or facebook.com/eurekacc/live
