Earth Day and Creation Care

April 22nd is Earth Day, a day when people around the world celebrate our beautiful planet and take action to “Restore Our Earth.”

For the secular world, this restoration is reactionary to ailments like climate change, destruction of eco-systems, deforestation, pollution, killing of ocean animals with plastic waste, and depletion of natural resources. But for Christians, Earth Day is a calling to engage in the mandate for environmental stewardship and creation care that has existed since Genesis (Gen 2:15) and extends beyond the tangible care of creation to include introducing others to the Creator of the Universe who longs to forgive their sins and maintain a relationship with all His creation.

“If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.” (2 Chronicles 7:13-14)
“The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God.” (Romans 8:19-21)
“Through him God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace through the blood of his cross.” (Colossians 1:20; cf. Ephesians 1:10)

The Bible is full of commands and guidelines on creation care from animal husbandry to agriculture to protecting pure water to destroying wild habitat to providing food and shelter to the aliens, widows and orphans. It’s all in there.

“The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.” (Genesis 2:15)
“You must keep my decrees and my laws…. And if you defile the land, it will vomit you out as it vomited out the nations that were before you.” (Leviticus 18:26, 28)
“The land itself must observe a sabbath to the Lord. For six years sow your fields, and for six years prune your vineyards and gather their crops. But in the seventh year the land is to have a sabbath of rest, a sabbath to the Lord…. The land is to have a year of rest.” (Leviticus 25:2-5; cf. Exodus 23:10-11)
“If you follow my statutes and keep my commandments and observe them faithfully, I will give you your rains in their season, and the land shall yield its produce, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit.” (Leviticus 26:3-4)
“You shall not pollute the land in which you live…. You shall not defile the land in which you live, in which I also dwell; for I the LORD dwell among the Israelites.” (Numbers 35:33-34)
“I brought you into a plentiful land to eat its fruits and its good things. But when you entered you defiled my land, and made my heritage an abomination.” (Jeremiah 2:7)
“Is it not enough for you to feed on the good pasture? Must you also trample the rest of your pasture with your feet? Is it not enough for you to drink clear water? Must you also muddy the rest with your feet?” (Ezekiel 34:17-18)

As Christian leaders we set an example for others of what it looks like to love God and our neighbors. We care for the heart, mind, body, and soul of our colleagues by creating a God-honoring work environment, protecting the work-life balance of our colleagues, and introducing them to their Creator and Redeemer Jesus Christ. But are we also aware of the detrimental or restorative impact we have on our community and our environment?

My journey in creation care started with my up-bringing in a state where we loved to play in the wild outdoors: hiking, skiing, camping, fishing, back-packing, rock climbing, rafting, hunting, and mountain biking. We worked hard so that we could play hard. But we also worked hard to protect the land that we called our playground.

The journey sped up exponentially when I was traveling to South Asia for DAI’s Master of Arts in Organizational Leadership (MAOL). I saw the negative impact that more than one billion people can have on the environment. But I also saw that I could live for 2 weeks out of a carry-on suitcase, purchase unpackaged fresh foods from street vendors, and shower with just 5 gallons of water. I had been engulfed at home in a comfortable, pre-packaged, consumer culture. I was so removed from the products I consumed that I did not realize the impact my consumer choices were having on this world.

Then two years ago, my husband and I moved to a rural part of my state. We now live in a dark sky community[1] surrounded by small farm and ranch lands and next to the headwaters of the Arkansas River, which flows through 4 states on its way to the Mississippi River and eventually empties into the Gulf of Mexico. Our community talks a lot about our stewardship of the waterways to protect both the drinking water for tens of millions of people and the fish populations in the river and the Gulf of Mexico.

Through this journey I have started to tread more lightly as an act of love for God and for His gift of this Earth to us. I followed the Indian mantra when approaching a seemingly insurmountable problem: “How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.” The steps I took were incremental changes to restore my habits to a level that the Earth’s resources can sustain. It didn’t happen all at once or overnight.

There are many creative ways to decrease our carbon footprint and our consumption of resources. One place to start is by doing an audit of your trash can. Inventory what you routinely throw away. How can you decrease it? What are the areas of consumer waste that your garbage can is showing you? Next, examine your energy, petrol, and water bills. How can you decrease your use of these resources? Now, I am not saying that we should quit using our natural resources. God gave them to us for that purpose. But using resources wisely and using them wastefully are very different things. Our call to be wise stewards of creation demands that we take stock to ensure we are not wasting God’s blessings.

Here’s some of the ways that I have changed:

I pick trash up wherever I am, even when it’s not my trash nor my property.
I intentionally recycle and compost more than I throw away.
I buy and eat less in general. I don’t go hungry, but I no longer over-indulge, either.
I buy second-hand goods rather than buying the latest and greatest electronics or fashions.
I opt for organic, fair-trade, locally made or small business produced products. These are generally more environmentally friendly and have a smaller carbon footprint.
I buy beef from my neighbor’s ranch.
I buy produce from the local crop share alliance to support the small organic farmers in my community.

Here are some options to decrease electrical, water, and energy use:

Replace broken appliances with energy efficient ones.
Use CFL and LED light bulbs.
Turn off lights when not in a room.
Turn off computers and your WiFi router at night.
Turn down the heat or turn off the air conditioning at night.
Combine errands when going into town.
Take public transportation, carpool or opt for a shared taxi.
Find ways to reduce water usage: low flow toilets and shower heads, for example
Dry clothes on a clothesline or at least take them out of the dryer before they are 100% dry.
When getting hot water in the tap, fill up a pitcher with the initial cool water and use it for watering household plants or other tasks.

We can decrease consumer waste use by:

Buying things in bulk or making items from scratch rather than purchasing individually packaged items.
Choosing products with less packaging or packages made from recyclable material.
Opting for online purchases to be shipped in the same box.
Decreasing the number of single-use items by using a water filter and water bottle, steeping loose leaf tea, and brewing refillable Keurig coffee cups rather than creating a piece of trash with every bottle of water, cup of coffee or tea.
Printing less and printing double-sided.
Requesting electronic billing statements when available.
Opting-out of catalogs and credit card solicitations based on my consumer credit. See credit reporting agencies for ways to safely opt-out.
Purchasing solid shampoo, conditioner, soap and lotion to decrease the amount of plastic containers.
Using reusable shopping, produce, and zip-top bags for groceries.
Buying household cleaners in concentrate and reusing cleaning bottles.
Buying spices in bulk and reusing spice jars.

When I was five years old, we planted a garden as a school science project. I brought a pine tree to plant and watched it grow just as I, too, was growing. By the time I was in the 5th grade it was large enough for birds to rest in the branches.

In the same way the small ideas and small steps we take today grow into bigger and better things that create a place of refuge and redemption for the world around us. Isn’t that what being a steward of creation is all about?

Happy Earth Day!

Notes:

[1] A dark sky community is one in which there is only limited man-made light at night, allowing the stars to shine and be visible in the dark sky.