Going Green

I want to go green. I honestly, positively do from the bottom of my heart. It bothers me that my fellow Americans and I consume so incredibly much, abusing the earth by filling it with garbage and smog and acting like there are no consequences.

It troubles me the attitude that Christians have had concerning the world we have been put in charge of by the Creator. I've actually heard it said that it doesn't matter what we do with the earth because Jesus is coming back soon anyway.

I believe He's coming soon more than I believe in my own existence. That's not the point. The point is that God gave man a job to do at the very dawn of life. He told us to take care of the world and all the creatures that lived in it. We don't need a single other reason to do so. We should do it because He said so and it would please Him.

But obviously it would be to our own benefit as well. Who wants to live in a dirty world?

It's at this point that it gets sticky. So far, the only people interested in saving the earth are liberals who believe the theory of global warming. Radicals who would rather use grain in biofuels than to feed the hungry in poorer countries. What Christian could in good conscience go along with the ideas that are so obviously formed on the panic of living without a knowledge or belief in the God who created and sustains this world until He's ready to make a new one?

So I think it's time for Christians to make our own decision to "go green" in our thinking. There's no reason to consume so much. There's no reason for us to live like it doesn't matter. Recycling, buying organic or natural products, using less fuel and making less garbage are goals that each of us can and should work toward, because God wants us to. Be creative, think of ways that you can make a little bit of difference in the way you live. Try to get by with fewer diapers. Use washable water bottles instead of disposable. Take a walk or a bike ride for family night instead of getting in the car and going somewhere. Put a bin in your garage and throw your cardboard and other recyclable material in it and arrange for it to be picked up, or just drop it off at an appropriate site when it gets full. You'll be surprised how quickly it becomes habit.

Just a few suggestions, in view of the beautiful resources God has given us in this world. No need to panic, no need to despair that God does not have it under control. But every reason in the world to take care of what He gave us as a gift. To show our appreciation.

This picture is my dad's. You can see more of his photography on his website, link is on the left.

Thoughts on Parenthood

Busy days, growing lives

sometimes it's hard to realize

that these precious hours are some day gone

fading into distant song

What will I do with a moment in time

when you are here and you are mine

what will I do and be and say

to lead you on in the only Way?

Your high pitched voice, your childish lisp

carried away with a gentle wisp

This day will be a memory

Lord, make me ready to set you free.

Within My Heart

You ask me how I know He lives? He lives within my heart!

-Ackley

We sat together on her bed, praying before she went to sleep. My four year old daughter prayed and then looked at me thoughtfully. A beautiful smile spread across her face.

"Mommy, it's easier to pray with Jesus in my heart!"

I've been thinking about what she said ever since. Such simple, untarnished faith combined with depth not expected of one so young. But what she said is absolutely true.

In our little homeschool-preschool, Hannah and I talked about the death and resurrection of Jesus the week before Easter. On the day we were talking about the Passover, and it's prediction of the sacrifice of Christ, Hannah became quiet. I put away the Bible and got out her math and alphabet work. She stopped me.

"Mommy, I want to ask Jesus to come into my heart." she said, and didn't wait for an okay from me. She bowed her head, closed her eyes, and asked Jesus to forgive her sins and come into her heart and "never leave her."

All the time I'd spent wondering how to help her understand, how to explain salvation to her, and she didn't need to know anything except the basic facts. Jesus loved her, Jesus died for her sins, Jesus wanted to live in her heart and be her Lord for the rest of her life. And she wanted that too. I didn't need to do anything besides model the joy of living in His Spirit and loving Him myself.

It amazes me to know that Hannah was chosen by God long before my fervent wish to become a mother finally became reality. He knew that she would follow Him before He even made the world. That fact, that His will and His wisdom is so far above mine, is what makes it possible to be a parent.

When Alfred Ackley wrote the hymn "He Lives" I quoted above, he was answering the honest question of a young Jewish man, who wondered why he should worship a dead Jew. I don't know what the man's response was. But I do understand Ackley's answer with all of my heart. At the age of six, I realized what Hannah realized, that I needed, and wanted Jesus to change me. I realized, on some level, that Jesus had to die to take care of the wrong things I had done. That he rose again in victory so that He could be Lord of all, and Lord of me. And I welcomed His Spirit in.

He's never left me. That's why I can promise Hannah that He'll never leave her either. And that is the source of my peace, and my desire that others also know Him. Not because I want another check in my file that says I got another person saved, as if we get extra points in heaven for bringing friends. Because I see all the heartache this life provides, and I know, I know Jesus is the answer! Not because I'm paid to sell Him, because I know what He's done for me, and I know without a shadow of a doubt that His Spirit dwells within me and guides me, comforts me, gives me strength and hope for each new day.

I pray that every reader of this blog entry knows the same.

"For he himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by abolishing in his flesh the law with it's commandments and regulations." - Ephesians 2:14-15

"Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!" -2 Corinthians 5:17