Recycling Conversation…Recycled
November 25, 2008
In the wake of World Recycling Day, a follow up link to Rusty’s post: a nifty video refresher on what exactly recycling is and how it works at http://www.recyclebank.com/recycling#.
Curing the Black Friday Blues
November 24, 2008
Thanksgiving. I appreciate this holiday for its genuineness and simplicity. It’s known for family time, rest, and warm, hearty (and relatively local) food. It’s also refreshingly unmarketable. Although you can now send Thanksgiving cards and place giant inflatable turkeys on your front lawn, nothing about Thanksgiving rivals the outrageous commercialization of Christmas. Turkeys really aren’t the most adorable animals out there, so they don’t have a lot of advertising appeal. And brown and orange twinkle lights? We still have enough sense to hold off on those.
However. The day after Thanksgiving is when we seem to sacrifice our sense to the gods of materialism. All the heartwarming, soporific effects of the Thanksgiving holiday evaporate in an instant, and we’re driven into the cold air to wait for hours in serpentine lines with hundreds of other disgruntled holiday shoppers, all in pursuit of elusive Black Friday sales. Read more
Sabbath Keeping
November 21, 2008
“Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your animals, nor the alien within your gates. For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy” — Exodus 20:8-11 (NIV).
Do we remember the Sabbath day? In the midst of tasks undone, schedules to keep, people we’ve meant to see, and of course work to be done, where do we have time?
Family obligations, church obligations, financial obligations, raising kids, making friends, taking care of the car, buying basic necessities, and, of course, what about that one last thing we’ve been meaning to do? It would be great to have an extra day to do that, wouldn’t it?
I know, I long for that extra day, but do I long for it as much as I long for the Lord? Have I caught on to God’s vision for my day to day? Do I even remember that the Sabbath day is holy?! Not just good and right, but holy?
Do I realize that God’s commandment for Sabbath applies to my whole life, not just me, but my wife (and, when I have children, to them as well)? Really it’s even meant for my community: meant for the animals in my care, the strangers in my midst, the visitors to my home. Sabbath is meant to be an expression of Christian grace to my local community, in my local context. The Sabbath day is highly personal and highly intrusive. It is holy.
It is meant to bring us closer to our Lord Jesus Christ. It is meant to be that well-spring of water in the midst of our spiritual wilderness. It is meant to be tasted and tried and found good. It is meant for man, and it is also meant for good. We are not to neglect the good things that the Lord has given us, but we are very much to stop from our day-to-day busyness, our tasks, and the contemplation of our earthly riches.
It is meant to draw us to the Lord, and to matters of His heart, not ours. It is meant for our reflection on our earthly relationships, our relationship to the broader Creation, and our relationship to our Lord Jesus Christ. It is meant to be spent with others (though sometimes spending it on our own is good, too) and in the abundant world that the Lord has provided for us. So take a Sunday, if you’re a minister a Monday, and spend time with your family, with creation, and in fact all that is entrusted to you.
Let us Sabbath together before the Lord.
Alexei Laushkin, a graduate from Claremont McKenna College, works for the Evangelical Environmental Network. He and his wife live in Alexandria, VA.
Blog Highlight: The Wonder of Creation
November 20, 2008
RBC Ministries, publisher of the popular Our Daily Bread devotional
booklet and producer of the Day of Discovery television program, has a
new sub-site on its website dedicated to the wonder of creation and to
a theology of nature that includes a strong call to evangelicals to
care for creation. The author and host of “WonderOfCreation.org” is
Dean Ohlman, an advocate of evangelical involvement in creation care
for twenty years. The new resource is, according to Dean, a sort of
hybrid blog and website that encourages input from visitors. One
unique aspect of the site is the “Wonder Kids” page that provides tips
on getting kids outdoors and helping them develop a biblical worldview
regarding the stewardship of the creation. You can check it out at
this URL: http://www.wonderofcreation.
Family-friendly Famer’s Markets
November 19, 2008
I’m a busy mom. And with two kids constantly clinging to me, getting out to do anything is difficult. Grocery shopping is the worst. Managing a high-energy three year old and an infant who insists on being carried all the time while I push a shopping cart usually just isn’t worth the effort. Add to that the dirty looks I get from strangers if my children make any noise whatsoever, and the choice is clear: Children and grocery stores are a bad combination. I’ll go to the store at midnight as long as I can go without the kids. Finding food for the family at the supermarket is not a family affair. Read more
Down Home Environmentalism
November 17, 2008
Three recent events—the troubled economy, the presidential election, and, on a personal note, the death of my grandmother—drove me back to a book that’s been sitting on my shelf for a while: 1,628 Country Shortcuts From 1,628 Country People.
My late grandmother, a country woman her whole life, gave me this book, compiled by the editors of “Country” magazine, and indicated that it was the sort of book “someone like [me] might enjoy.” I’ve never lived in the country, and can’t appreciate advice on how to get an orphaned piglet to eat or how to loosen tight hay bales, so how would this book be applicable to my life? Well, in the case of these hints and daily-life tidbits, less=more, and simple=green. Cleaning suggestions center around safe, household substances like white vinegar and baking soda. Worn-out socks, old milk jugs, pizza cutters, and fishnet stockings can all be repurposed and reused. The life of tools and furniture can be lengthened with a touch of petroleum jelly or some dental floss. Read more
Dumping on Recycling
November 14, 2008
The practice of recycling is incredibly popular. It’s usually one of the first practices adopted by people trying to go green. But its popularity has also led to a backlash: it’s currently pretty fashionable to dump on recycling. Critics seem to make three main claims: (1) that the problem they were intended to solve (overflowing, dangerous landfills) never really existed, (2) that the the benefits of recycling are scant and the costs too high, and (3) that recycling actually harms the environment!
The critics are right about point number one: We’re not “running out” of landfill space, and we never were.
Ethical Soda Pop
November 13, 2008
When it comes to Fair-Trade, Organic Soda Pop, there is only one certified company out there, and that’s JavaPop. But it’s not your normal Soda, it’s Coffee Soda. I’ve never had Coffee soda so I’m not 
sure if it fits in with the Pepsi and Dr. Pepper products, but it is a Soda, and your coffee addicts might just love it. JavaPop was created to fill the niche market of beverages for those looking for Fair Trade options. They get their beans from a well established fair trade roaster, Green Mountain Coffee, so you can be pretty sure it’s the quality and value your expecting.
Coming Up: Following Christ 2008 Conference
November 6, 2008
Many people don’t realize that Intervarsity’s Following Christ 2008conference –coming up on December 27-31 in Chicago–is for just about everyone! You don’t have to be in an InterVarsity group, you just have to be active in or care about the world of the university and professions. Registration is happening now for this incredibly exciting conference.
The theme of the conference for 2008 is Human Flourishing–”what it truly is, what’s wrong when it’s absent, and how God is calling us to both model and multiply it.” The conference website has a great essay on the theme of human flourishing. Plenary speakers
include Anglican Bisoph N.T. Wright, Andy Crouch (author of the new book Culture Making), Francis Collins (former director of the Human Genome Project), Anne C. Bailey (historian of the African slave trade), and others.
Rusty Pritchard, editor of Creation Care magazine and National Outreach Director for the Evangelical Environmental Network, will lead the conference’s “God’s Green Kingdom” track, addressing the connections between theology, environment, and human societies. The track will also feature Steven Bouma-Prediger, one of the world’s leading scholars of theology, ethics, and the environment, and Scott Sabin, the executive director of Floresta, an evangelical development agency focusing on microenterprise and reforestation.
The conference’s other multi-disciplinary tracks include “The Promise of Shalom” and
“Doubting Jesus,” plus a host of tracks centered on more specific disciplines and professions. You can go ahead and download the 1.8 Mb conference brochure here
or visit the conference website for more information.
Election 2008: The Day After
November 5, 2008
This post originally appeared on Will Hinton’s blog, Good Will Hinton.
The day has finally arrived. You have been consumed by this election that seems to have lasted forever. You watched the debates. You likely had many conversations with friends about the campaign. You may have even volunteered for a campaign. And you have finally cast your vote. So how do you respond the day after, once the results are in?
Unfortunately many people will wake up Wednesday morning in a very bad mood. They will believe that because their candidate didn’t win that we as a nation are doomed, perhaps that God’s judgment is upon us, or that they must now threaten to leave the country. Once reality has sunk in, many people will start thinking about how to fight against the president-elect and may even begin engaging in character assassination.
As a Christian, I have tried to give some thought as to how I should properly react to the election results.
- Negative attacks and character assassinations are unChristian.
- Christians are commanded to speak the truth with love.
- We should be willing to serve our country and our communities.
- God is in control.
It is entirely acceptable for one to oppose political positions that a candidate takes. However, it is entirely unacceptable for Christians to impugn the character of those they disagree with. Somehow over the years we have believed the lie that politics are different and that if we want to win then we have to fight dirty. I just don’t see warrant for that attitude in the Bible. In fact I see just the opposite. I see Jesus commanding us to love those who oppose us.
I have often seen Christians gathered together to pray for our country and our leaders. Even if the candidate that we did not vote for wins, we should pray for that man. We should pray for his well-being. We should pray that he prospers.
For years I believed the lie that if I spoke “truth”, that inherently I was speaking with love.
How will we speak to others, both Christian and non-Christian, who voted the opposite of us? If we are on the winning side, will we gloat? Will we revel in the angst that our opponents feel in loss? Or instead will we extend grace to those we disagree with? If we are on the losing side, will we assume the worst of the other side? Will we immediately assume a victim status? Or will we be humble in our defeat? Will we genuinely congratulate those on the winning side?
I think that there is also a tendency for those on the “losing side” to line up in opposition for a fight rather than thinking about what is best for the country and their community. Is constant partisan bickering good for our country? I would argue that it is corrosive and only exacerbates our real differences. Christians in particular are called to serve our communities. No new government programs or policies can or should take the place of people giving of themselves and their resources.
Do you believe that the government shouldn’t be providing “hand-outs” to lower income people? Then you should be giving so sacrificially that there is nothing left for the government to do. Do you believe that the government should be leading the way in caring for our environment but that the “wrong” candidate got elected? Then you can lead the charge to encourage others to voluntarily change their lifestyles to have less of an adverse impact upon our world and our climate. Christians should not abdicate our responsibility to care for the poor or oppressed in the world.
Regardless of today’s outcome, my faith will not be shaken. My faith is not dictated by such temporary things as elections. I do believe that God is in control and is working to redeem this world. Not just individuals but systems, government, societies. I also believe that we as Christians need to approach today’s election with great humility and avoid the temptation to assume that we know what God’s will is.
I pray that tomorrow Christians will not be known for their “righteous indignation” or for their apocalyptic pronouncements. I pray that Christians will be known for their love. Love for our neighbors. Love for our enemies. And love for our elected national leaders.
