For a long time I did not see being a good person as an ideal relevant to my life. I believed that it was not about what you are but about what you contribute. I ended up finding out that it’s both; so I’ve been making a lot of effort in both directions.
There are people who think that the only thing you can change or control is yourself. This is completely untrue; people change all sorts of things in all sorts of ways all the time. I’ve also heard it said that one needs to work on oneself before one can work on anything else. Once again, I do both.
Me working on myself makes me a better person. However the world does not cease to exist because I work on myself. Global warming, rainforest deforestation, the war in Ukraine and the federal debt continue regardless of what I do with myself. These problems require our attention, whether or not we are doing any work on ourselves. If you have the discernment to see a problem, then you should be addressing the problem. You should not be working to make yourself more like the people who are too blind to see the problem and insist on causing it.
Every person has an orientation both to themselves and to the world. Both need to be served. It is important to be the best person that you can be; it is also important to contribute what you stand to contribute. Being either by itself is insufficient. There is a need for both.
So we have people claiming that the world is one of ego or sin. Meanwhile one has air in his lungs because of nature and has his TV, air conditioning and truck because of civilization. It is valid to seek spiritual wisdom; it is not valid to spit on the world while benefiting from the world. Doing that is not being righteous and it is not being enlightened; it is being a pig. Both nature and civilization are amazing accomplishments; both deserve to be treated with respect and care.
Of course the world can go very badly wrong. When people forget spiritual wisdom they can do very wrong things, such as claiming that spirituality and religion are stupidity or mental illness, or waging extermination campaigns against Jews or gypsies or narcissists or sociopaths, or persecuting love and beauty. In those situations it is correct to look outside of what such people believe to be reality and acquiring a fuller and more honest perspective. When I did that, I was accused of leaving the real world. No; I left a mindset. I ended up gaining a better perspective on many things.
Is the world one of sin? Once again, there are many amazing accomplishments both in nature and in civilization. For as long as one gets benefits of both, sinful or not, one has to treat both with respect. Going off the grid is an option only for a few. Most people will want to remain in the civilization. Which means that we need to transition to better technologies that fulfil people’s needs at present or greater levels without being ruinous to nature. And that is the true, ethical and Christian stance to take.
In most cases, there is a need both for inner-directed effort and outer-directed effort. Once again, I have done both. And that is a fuller perspective than either thinking that the only thing you can change is yourself or thinking that what you are as a person doesn’t matter.