Happy Earth Day!

I'm not one to celebrate all the commercially motivated holidays on the calendar, but I had an interesting observation yesterday while having lunch after church. My wife and I take our mothers to church and lunch with us each week. Typically my Mother In Law, has something to take home for later. Yesterday our waiter brought two containers for her left over chicken pot pie. One was plastic and one was lined paper. I knew what my choice was but out of courtesy, I asked which was preferred. My wife abruptly said "paper". I said that was my choice as well, but wanted to ask. Then I said, "Well it is Earth day tomorrow after all", my wife replied "Every day is Earth day".

That was just us going on, but it brings forth a very good point. We tend to compartmentalize our acknowledgements. Like one day a year we celebrate "this" or "that" or one day a week we are "this" or "that". This rings true with everyone, but I feel specifically convicted when I think of Christians. I am a Christian and at times I've been guilty of everything under the sun. If you're familiar with one of the fundamentals of Christianity, "If we confess our sins, He (God) is faithful and just to forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness." (1 John 1:9) So we are not given license to sin, but encouraged to freely confess our sins, to be forgiven, and to be cleansed. This being true, many people neglect the practice of this. People like to hold onto what's familiar. Whether it's right or wrong.

I promise this is going to tie together, just bare with me. If Christians, believe that God spoke the universe into existence, that means that God's breath went forth to create. We don't seem to have trouble identifying that God breathed life into man, but I argue that both are equally important. See the Earth preceded man, in fact the Earth was used in making man. "And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being". (Genesis 2:7) Later we see that God made a covenant with the Earth. "I set My rainbow in the cloud, and it shall be for the sign of the covenant between Me and the Earth". (Genesis 9:13) I have to say that if God made a covenant with the Earth, it's pretty darn important, valued, and special. After all, it is the one resource He has provided that supplies every single one of our physical needs, including people that He formed from the dust. I won't get into the fact that Scripture spells out that it is "His rainbow", not some other genre of people who seemed to have claimed it... A reason for this is because it's origin may not have been taught to us. Some may think it came from Skittles.

My conviction lies in that if we call ourselves Christians, why do we seem to not just ignore the opportunity to steward the greatest physical resource God has provided, but actually think it's perfectly acceptable to ignore the personal impacts we have on the health of the Earth? I've read recently that nano particles of plastic can be found nearly everywhere, in the soil, the sea, and even in our blood! Folks, that's serious!! If we are contributing to the problem, take one step each day to try and do better. As with most or all of the things I write, I indict myself first and foremost. Heck I'm typing this on a plastic keyboard! The stuff is everywhere! Just because the world does it, in masses, should not remove the conviction of the Christian, instead may it be a constant conviction that produces motivation. To practice stewardship, to honor our Creator, by managing, not manipulating. We've tried to take steps in our house to remove plastic soap dispensers, switching to bar soap, paper containers for liquid soaps, etc. Products are available with Earth impact in mind, we should support these people.

Again, I indict myself in this article. It starts with me, the man in the mirror. Then as I gain experiential knowledge of alternatives, I can share that with my family, then with my community. It always starts with one, then another, then another, and so on. My hope is that this encourages you or anyone that reads it to live a lifestyle of consciousness. That this Earth doesn't belong to us, to do whatever we please with no consequence, because we did not create it. We were meant to care for it, the way it cares for us. This should be our posture to a God and the gifts that He has given us.

With that, I bid you happy Earth day!! As my wife so eloquently put it, "It's everyday"!

Farm news; We took 7 baby turkeys to the brooder this morning with 4 currently in the incubator drying a bit before moving to the brooder. We celebrate how partnering with nature, yields the results of new life. Once we get a count of new life, I will post pricing and availability for Thanksgiving turkeys!

Life rarely gets better by chance, however it often gets better by change.

Gordon