I got into another environmental discussion. I think this is starting to become a passion of mine. Uh oh.

The other “Christian” viewpoint that came up when we began discussing this issue was “well, this is all going to come to an end soon anyway – God is going to wipe the whole slate clean and start over again.” Another excuse for not taking care of our home.

The problem with this is that everyday behavior of Christians is driven by their understanding of the Bible. One simple change in understanding can have such a huge impact.

Or to put it more simply. Would you put your car in your family room, and leave it running all night while you sit there with your family and watch a movie? I hope not! You would all die from carbon monoxide poisoning. Somehow we know that in our own house, this is a bad thing – but in our own world, we drive our cars for hours, and hope the poison will just go away. Disappear. Vanish somewhere without impact.

So where am I going with all this? I guess I’ve found a passion I didn’t even know was there. We as Christians are commanded to “be responsible” for this earth. That’s not a passive, “sit back and hope things get better” charge from God. That’s an active command to get up and do something. To use natural resources responsibly. To recycle. To buy products that are ecologically sound. To carpool whenever we can. To think about this globe as our living room, and treat is like we live in it.

This is a command from God. It’s like “honor your father and mother”. Or “do not lie”. This command was given to us long before those other commands. If Adam had looked God in the face and said “no way – I don’t want to be responsible for all this – I’m going to poison it all until everything dies” – wouldn’t this have been a sin, just as not obeying these other commandments is a sin? That’s the thing about living in this world – we’re just not good enough, ever, to live up to the standards and commands God called us to. This is yet another reminder. I’m sure glad we have God’s grace to fall upon for all of this, otherwise we’d be in a world of hurt. No pun intended. Or maybe pun intended just a little bit.

Nathan