Thursday, January 10, 2008

It Ain't Easy Being Green

Pastor Joel Hunter (Northland: A Church Distributed) reminds us that no matter what a person believes about global warming, we have a biblical mandate to care for God's creation -- to steward the resources placed into our care.

When I was growing up, the two messages we heard over and over about this came from Smokey the Bear ("Only YOU can prevent forest fires?") and Woodsy the Owl ("Give a Hoot. Don't pollute!"). Actually, more memorable for most of my generation was the Native American man who stood, looking at the pollution, with a big tear slowly streaming down his cheek.

I'm afraid that somewhere beyond that two things happened for too many of us in my generation -- first, we grew to love a lifestyle that is marked by "easy" and "mine." Second, we isolated those with strong voices for the protection and preservation of the environment into a category: liberal, tree-hugging, granola-eating communists.

Okay, that might be a slight exaggeration...but only slight.

Today, I find myself wrestling with what God wants. I'm not willing to adjust my life for what is PC -- I've demonstrated that before, but I will do this for the Creator.

I'm trying to get into the habit (that is at least 2/3 the battle) of taking my own bags to the grocery story and places like Target where I can collect way too many of those plastic bags. I'm trying to combine errands (the cost of gas has helped me be more committed to this one, I confess). Probably the light bulb thing needs to happen next. Am I justifying my slowness to transition to those oddly twisted bulbs because I don't want to waste the ones I currently own? Or is that right?

This past weekend, Northland had a Creation Care Expo where various vendors offered ideas and products and such that are "green." Later this month, Northland is hosting a Creation Care Conference (C3).

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