Greenish

The weatherman is predicting another "arctic blast". I am looking forward to Groundhog Day. At least then we can start the countdown to temperatures above freezing. According to Channel 13 WZZM, we have had 1% of our weather above 32 degrees since December 30th. No wonder our heating bill was so high! All of this winter weather makes me wonder about the hype surrounding global warming and some of the environmental issues that are so prevalent in media today. My dad commented tongue-in-cheek that wants "Al Gore to come over and shovel the global warming off the driveway."

I don't really have an official "position" on this issue but am probably less environmentally minded than a lot of people. I do have a few thoughts I want to put out there for discussion or reflection and to get them off my chest. Sometimes I think we are being awfully presumptuous when we are humans take credit for changes in climate. I acknowledge the presence of evil in the world as cause for why bad things happen and maybe it is our fault if there truly is a problem with our environment but do we really think that God doesn't have his hand in all things? God asks these questions of Job (chapter 38):

Where were you when I laid the earth's foundation?
Tell me, if you understand.
Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know!
Who shut up the sea behind doors
when it burst forth from the womb,
when I made the clouds its garment
and wrapped it in thick darkness
Have you ever given orders to the morning,
or shown the dawn its place,
that it might take the earth by the edges
and shake the wicked out of it?
Have you journeyed to the springs of the sea
or walked in the recesses of the deep?
What is the way to the abode of light?
And where does darkness reside?
Who cuts a channel for the torrents of rain,
and a path for the thunderstorm...
Does the rain have a father?
From whose womb comes the ice?
Who gives birth to the frost from the heaven...
when the surface of the deep is frozen?
Can you bring fort the constellations in their seasons
or lead out the Bear with its cubs?

Reading these questions is very humbling to me. How arrogant and untrusting we are, to think that God does not have his hand on his very own creation and especially us, whom he loves.

With that said, we do not have free license to do whatever we please. I think we are called to live as stewards and care for what is God's. I take a very practical approach to this issue: For me to choose something "green" it has to make practical and/or economic sense as well. I about blew a gasket when the Home section of the Saturday paper had a feature article on recycling wrapping paper. My family has been doing this since before I was born! We also save, wash and reuse tin foil, plastic storage bags, and plastic containers. My friends and I share, borrow and pass down kids and maternity clothes. We drive a diesel car (50 mpg), keep our thermostat as low, as use cloth diapers, breastfeed the babies, shovel snow, mulch grass clippings, keep the grass long, use central air only when it's above 85 degrees and on and on.

Green is not a word I'd use to describe myself. Once I started thinking about "going green", I realized I didn't really have to. I think I'll just continue to live practically. Makes sense to me....