According to Webster, environment is the circumstances or conditions by which one is surrounded. This definition is very clear, very specific and very common. No question that we all are subject to some kind of environment wherever we might be.
Many times we select our environment, other times we are subject to an environment. By selection or by subjection, we can be found in the wrong environment that will bring to our lives and our relatives (especially the ones subject to us), apathy, nostalgia, despair, pain, and if we don’t do anything about it, sickness and misery might take place.
Webster also defines environment as the act upon an ecological community and ultimately determine its form and survival. By this I understand that we all need to find our environment and be able to process with determination our way of life with fashion (form). This means that we need to select the place we live (city, neighborhood, street), where we work, with whom we associate and what church we attend. The best way to understand this is through the example that I use many times. If you take a fish out of water, he will die. Everybody knows this, right? But not everybody knows that if you put a fresh water fish in the ocean, he will die. And if you bring a fish from the ocean to a river, the same way, he will die. Now, if you bring a fish, for instance, from the Pacific Ocean to the Indian Ocean, he will die. Why? Because he is not in his environment. Different waters, with different temperatures, different movements, different food, different light, etc. etc.
We need to select and change our environment in order to live the good life that God has planned for us. Look what happened to Adam when he was kicked out of his environment. He died. If you live in a bad neighborhood, get out of there! If you live in an area with high unemployment, move! If you work in a place where your personality, your behavior, your beliefs, your health, your honesty and your character are being affected, look for another job! If where you live is messing up with your children’s mind, attitudes, emotions and behavior, you need to make some changes no matter what.
Some people can live and will live in poor neighborhoods, because that’s their environment. Others can live and will live in cities or towns where there’s a high percentage of immorality, because that’s their environment. Some people have no problem to work in a place where there are a lot of schemes, lot of swearing, dishonesty and all kinds of irregularities that don’t dignify the purpose of a business, because they are in their own environment. Here I can think about the words of Jesus in Revelation 22:12, where He says that; “He who is unjust, let him be unjust still; he who is filthy, let him be filthy still; he who is righteous, let him be righteous still; he who is holy, let him be holy still.”
Webster also defines environment as; the aggregate of social and cultural conditions that influence the life of an individual or community. In other words, for a healthy living to be a constant and have a presence in one’s life and his family, all conditions have to match. If you live in a great city but you hate your job, your environment is messed up and you’re not living with comfort, with happiness and joy. Another factor that is part of our environment is the people that we associate with, directly or indirectly, on a daily basis. They talk different, they think different, they act different and they behave differently and they are different because they are in their environment. When we find ourselves in this status quo, it is time to move on, no matter what.
When someone is in the wrong environment he’s in poverty. Benjamin Franklin once said that; “The best way to help the poor, is to make them uncomfortable in their poverty”. This quote from Franklin fits very well in this context. Franklin is saying that when we feel uncomfortable… we move – we get out of whatever the situation might be – we do something about it. And the reality is that when we feel too comfortable, we create a comfortable zone that will hinder us from pursuing our destiny.
Influences from the wrong environment can stop you from developing your vision towards your assignment for progress. You might live in a great city, in the best neighborhood, working in the place of your dreams and wherever you go you’re surrounded by people of integrity that match you, but… you’re attending a church where you go in empty and you come home empty. In other words, you’re not being fed with the Word of God. You might pick up some crumbs here and there, but that nutrition will never empower you to live (as I say many times) a life above average - the abundant life that Jesus promised to every believer in Him. Because in Him… “we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17:28).
At this point, your environment is not perfect, it’s in jeopardy. Here you need to make some tough decisions. You need to upgrade your environment, you need to find the right church where you can receive the Word of God in its essence and be able to move on with your life, having the ability, God’s ability, to live the fullness of God’s promises, with joy. In Matthew 5:30 Jesus said that; “if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and cast it from you; for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish, than for your whole body to be cast into hell”. Here Jesus (in reference to this subject) is saying that there are times in our lives that we need to make some tough sacrifices in order to get to our goal. In order to reach the objective that our dreams (like Joseph) have presented to us as our future. Sometimes we get to comfortable with our environment, we stagnate. If you have a big dream, whatever it takes, whatever you need to cut off, you have to do it, to succeed. And like Jesus said, to be “more profitable”.
At first sight Joseph was in a good environment. But in reality he had more enemies than friends. His dreams presented to him something big that he himself could not understand it. He was brought to a new environment that with some sacrifices here and there (some cuts) got him to the ultimate stage of his dreams. In reality, what he went through, were necessary transitions. Each factor was simply adjustments to his new environment where he settled in victory. So, whatever needs to be done, let’s do it. If your dreams don’t come true where you are now, that’s a perfect sign that you’re in the wrong environment. That’s a wakeup call for new beginnings. It is time to move on. Ecclesiastes 3:1 says that; there is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven (NIV).
