We were driving down the Periferico (Loop) the other day and saw another one of those things you only see in Mexico... a green grass Chevy.
Hummm.... should I repaint my car or just cover it with AstroTurf?
I remember recognizing just how much trash I throw away after moving to Mexico. When we lived in Cuernavaca, the garbage truck only came by our house twice per week. As in many parts of Mexico, a young man walks through the neighborhood ringing a cow bell to let everyone know that the garbage truck will soon arrive. At this point, everyone in the neighborhood goes out to the street with their trash. It was not hard to tell who was throwing away the most stuff. I was often embarrassed, even ashamed, at the amount of trash I was hauling out to the street. Of course, now that I think back on it, we did have two kids in diapers at the time. Not only did I realize how much trash I was throwing away, but I was also bewildered by how little trash my Mexican neighbors brought out to the truck. How did they do it? I began to take note of the how efficiently Mexican people live and I have learned from their example.
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For too long many Christians, including myself, have allowed secular humanists and pantheistic thinkers to determine the major issues concerning the environment. As Christians, we should have been at the front of the conversation from the beginning. The Earth, after all, is God's good creation and he has made us its stewards. Whether we believe all the media hype about global warming or not, we are still responsible to care for what God has given to us. This was first brought to my attention in a conversation I had with my good friend John Cooper, shortly after becoming a Christian. We were discussing Romans 8:19-22 high above the University of Arizona campus atop the football stadium (circa 1991). The concepts were later reinforced when I read one of Francis Schaeffer's masterpieces, Pollution and the Death of Man.
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Is not our motive for being stewards of God's creation much stronger than the "save the planet" for our grandchildren argument. To be honest, the implications of becoming stewards of God's creation make me somewhat uncomfortable. May God be honored as creator in my life today!
