By this stage of the holiday season, I imagine you might be looking with dismay at your overflowing rubbish bin, or the mountain of debris piling up outside your back door. Food, drink, presents ”“ they all come with more and more packaging. Even the most eco-conscious of us is likely to have a bit of a bad conscience after Christmas.
Despite constant talk about recycling and thinking “green” – we’re still a society that produces fantastic quantities of waste. From the big issues around toxic industrial and nuclear waste to the domestic questions of managing day-to-day waste and the build-up of stuff around us that can’t be recycled, it’s not something we can ignore. Look at the number of plastic bags flapping around by the roadside, in town and country alike – and you see what I mean.
What I wonder is ”“ how much this influences attitudes in other parts of our lives?
In a society where we think of so many things as disposable; where we expect to be constantly discarding last year’s gadget and replacing it with this year’s model – do we end up tempted to think of people and relationships as disposable? Are we so fixated on keeping up with change that we lose any sense of our need for stability?
The God of the Bible does indeed “do waste”.
And [b]I will make your cities waste[/b], and bring your sanctuaries unto desolation (Leviticus 26:31 KJV)
I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard: I will take away the hedge thereof, and it shall be eaten up; and break down the wall thereof, and it shall be trodden down: And [b]I will lay it waste[/b]: it shall not be pruned, nor digged; but there shall come up briers and thorns: I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it. (Isaiah 5:5-6 KJV)
I think he should do A film(documentary) with the title GOD DOESN’T DO WASTE or GOD IS GREEN. I’m sure the he would win the NOBEL OF PEACE.
That’s ALL he had to say?!
Just to follow up on a previous post:
“I will lay waste the land, so that your enemies who live there will be appalled. I will scatter you among the nations and will draw out my sword and pursue you. Your land will be laid waste, and your cities will lie in ruins.” Leviticus 26:32-34
BTW…wasn’t Mt. Saint Helens an act of God?
I offer the following to provide a little perspective:
“The 200 mile-an-hour blast flattened trees 20 miles away…”
“One hundred and fifty square miles of prime old-growth forests were reduced to a wasteland of scorched timber buried under a thick layer of volcanic ash, where fires burned for weeks afterwards.”
“The eruption also sent more than 540 million tons of volcanic ash raining down over 22,000 square miles, covering Montana, South Dakota, and Nebraska, and sending ash drifting as far away as Virginia. From space, the eruption initially took the shape of a giant mushroom cloud, signifying a blast 400 times more powerful than the atomic bomb that leveled Hiroshima.”
Source: http://www.pbs.org/wnet/savageplanet/01volcano/02/indexmid.html
That was from just ONE volcanic explosion.
“About 50-60 volcanoes erupt every year.
20-30 are effusive (lava flows), 20-30 are explosive”
Source: http://www.volcanolive.com/vei.html
“Atmospheric pollution from major volcanic eruptions can influence the global climate over one to two years. Explosive volcanic eruptions can inject large quantities of dust and sulphur dioxide, in gaseous form, to an altitude of over 10 miles into the atmosphere (the stratosphere), where the sulphur dioxide is rapidly converted into secondary sulphuric acid aerosols.”
Source: http://www.ace.mmu.ac.uk/eae/Climate_Change/Older/Volcanoes.html
Then, of course there are “acts of God” like Tsunamis:
“2004, Dec. 26, Sumatra, Indonesia: magnitude 9.0 earthquake, off the west coast of Sumatra, caused a tremendously powerful tsunami in the Indian Ocean that hit 12 Asian countries, killing more than 225,000 and leaving millions homeless. It was the deadliest tsunami in history.”
Yes, I believe that we should be good stewards of what God has given us, but PLEASE stop the Gaia-worship-masquerading-as-science or even worse; Gaia-worship-masquerading-as-Christianity! It is absolute nonsense! It makes me ill.
[blockquote] In a society where we think of so many things as disposable; where we expect to be constantly discarding last year’s gadget and replacing it with this year’s model – do we end up tempted to think of people and relationships as disposable? Are we so fixated on keeping up with change that we lose any sense of our need for stability? [/blockquote]
Sort of the way the TEC treats theology, the Scriptures, the Anglican Communion, the Church catholic – disposable and discard-able; it is fixated on change. It’s time for TEC to come home.