Chewymom

I love green. My dining room walls and ceiling are the most relaxing shade of green. My laundry room is a cheerful apple green. Two of my favorite coffee mugs (one of which was made by DS16) are green. My coat, one of my favorite sweaters, and even the inside rim of my black glasses are all green. In my new house, I want to paint the den and kitchen green, and even the “taupe-ish” shade I’m considering for the siding has a greenish hue. Green calms and relaxes. And more and more, I find that I am drawn to the colors of nature. Browns and greens. In spite of my bright red sofa and mustard yellow den walls, which I also love.

Green is also the symbol for environmentalism. And more and more I find that I fit into that camp. Frankly, it seems to me that all Christians should. That doesn’t mean all Christians should align themselves with the “radical left” politically, or that Christians should never use paper plates and all need to drive hybrid vehicles. The fact is, we live in America, and we are not likely to start living as though we were in the third world. But it would be wise and good for us to consider our impact upon this earth and to strive to be responsible in our stewardship. The world is a gift from our loving Father! We want to lovingly care for it.

Over Easter, our weather was just freezing. We didn’t get snow–we are in Alabama, after all–but over our sleeveless dresses and strappy shoes, we sported heavy winter coats. Someone scoffed to me, “Do you really believe in global warming?” I felt sad at the remark, because yes, I do. And thinking that an unusual cold snaps proves once and for all that global warming doesn’t exist is an ignorant, Rush Limbaugh type of statement. If you read even a little bit about global warming, you will see that extreme weather is a symptom of global warming.

But hey, let’s pretend for a minute that there is no global warming. Does that mean we go back to living as we please with no thought for the environment? There are other things that are affected by the typical American lifestyle, including people. God’s ultimate creation, being in his very image. Let’s take asthma for example. Cigarette smoke, smog, pollution, pesticides–they all contribute to the problem. And this hits close to home, as I along with two of my children have asthma. In fact, it was one of the reasons we desperately wanted to get out of Atlanta when we lived there. We were suspicious that our son’s asthma was made significantly worse by the pollution. Whether we were correct, I don’t know. His asthma is significantly better now, in our small Alabama town, but it is possibly because he has outgrown it. Either way, I am happy to not be inhaling the constant fumes and smog that are Atlanta.

And there’s not just that. Did you know that factory farming (which I have addressed here and here) uses a significant amount of land, not just for the animals, but also for the grains they are fed to fatten them up? If that grain were instead shipped to third world countries, it could make a huge dent in the lack of food. I realize there are corrupt governments involved in many of the feeding problems. Still, if we as individual Christians would cut back our meat consumption (or better, go vegetarian! ;)) it would make a difference at the least in terms of the cruel treatment of animals and employees at the factory farms, and in the pesticides used for the grains.

And what about our appliances? Not many of us are willing to go without our refrigerators–in fact, I could safely say not ANY of us. Or washing machines, ovens, and even dishwashers. But when it comes time to replace them, if we took the time to do a little research into the most energy efficient ones, and if we looked for Energy Star appliances, we would save on energy consumption. Not only that, we would save money, too, on our power bills. Do you know how much money it costs to run a clothes dryer? Me either, but I’ve heard it is a TON! Think what we’d save if we dried our clothes on a line, rather than in a dryer. (And I’m saying this as a VERY sporadic line-dryer, so don’t think I’m going all “holier-than-thou” on you!)

I don’t think it is realistic for any of us in our busy American lives to go completely “green.” But I think we would be wise to research the ways we can be more careful in our consumption. We need to lose the “I have the right to…” mentality. For one family, it may mean not using paper plates. For another, they may downsize a vehicle. Another may replace old appliances with energy efficient ones and switch to fluorescent bulbs. Someone else may choose to walk the one mile to the store or cycle the five miles to work.

What are some ways that YOU show your love for the color green?

This entry was posted on Sunday, April 22nd, 2007 at 9:40 am and is filed under Biblical Thinking, Healthy Living. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.