“Earth Day” for me took place on November 22, 2009. I was out at Laurel Lake Camp and Retreat center conducting a Spiritual Retreat for the PA Conference Educators. We practiced focused Bible study, prayer, journaling and a discipline of silence for 14 hours each day, in order to come apart from the press of the world, and listen for the leading of God through prayer and meditation. (See chapter 38 in Desire of Ages, “Come Rest Awhile”)
During the morning while observing silence, I would walk 2-4 miles. Sunday morning I decided as I walked the road along LLC, that I would take 2 large garbage bags and pick up the trash along the side of the road on LLC’s property.
While doing that, I came to an amazing discovery! Alcohol drinkers have to be the worst litter bugs of all! Through a scientific process, I found there to be more discards from alcohol drinkers than any other type of trash. That was rated by quantity, volume and weight. Even when you factor in the junk tire I found, the beer bottles, cans and six pack carriers took up more space and weight in my bags that all other trash combined.
While helping to clean up the roadside for LLC, I wondered why there are more beer garbage items than even plastic soda bottles.
What if just some of the energy dedicated to greenhouse gasses and global warming also included factoring in the amount of energy and waste that goes into making glass beer bottles and aluminum beer cans that are then thrown out alongside of the highways and polluter our ecology?
It also made me think that as Seventh-day Adventists, we could be among those who are committed to responsible garbage management and reasonable environment issues. As children of God, as wise stewards of God’s world, as those who recognized that “The earth is the Lords and the fullness thereof…” we could be intentional about caring for God’s world and using the best wise management of its resources.
One day soon, Jesus will come and take us from this sin-filled world. The fact that we are soon to leave this world, does not mean we can leave off wise and proper environmental actions, just because we are about to leave the world. This world is a training ground for living throughout eternity with the Lord. And in a world re-created by the Savior, we want to bring habits of care and trust. Can God trust us to properly appreciate the beauty and inter-connectedness of His creation, His natural world? Will we treat the earth made new any better than we are currently treating the handiwork of God here in this world?
It was great to pick up LLC’s roadways and “spruce up” our camp.
What will I do at home? What might you do in God’s home that He has entrusted us with?
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