Recycle or burn!

Ok. So maybe that title is a little extreme, but not ineffective when it comes to cluing you into my latest of passions. I've never been a recycler. I wasn't raised recycling, no one in my family recycles, none of my immediate friends recycle. I'm what I guess you could call a 'trasher'. I throw away anything and everything at first notice that's it a bit frayed aroudn the edges. I'm an obsessive cleaner and the waste that our 2 person family produces is UNGODLY, literally. We don't even reuse; not ziplocks, not bottles, not foil, not even scrap paper. If there's one sentence on a piece of paper, it goes to the trash.

Well, lately I've been thinking. WHY? Why are we content to sit in front of the t.v. watching episode after episode of natural disaster, global warming and species extinction without even the faintest itch in our conscience that we could be contributing to the problem and even if our psyche lets us get that far, why are we not then compelled, overwhelmingly, insatiably, undisputably compelled to do something about our lazy, self-centered, comfort and ease propelled wasteful, sinful lifestyles? And even more, what about the fact that 1 in 15 people in the U.S. will develop some sort of cancer this year? What about the babies, the middle aged, the elderly, the PETS plauged with debilitating disease? Cancer, Ahlzheimers', M.S., Parkinsons...you name it, we have it. What about the smog in the air and the mercury in the fish and the putrid bacteria in all manner of natural water? What about the pesticides and the red dye and the chemicals we soak ourselves in everyday? And we wonder why we can't breathe and why our joints ache and why we get headaches and why we're obese and why, why, why we spend hundreds on prescription medication. This isn't just about recycling..this is about becoming stewards of what we've been given; our world; the Earth, our bodies, our fellow human.

I've come to the conclusion that we have failed miserably in our stewardship and it's time we make some changes; some drastic, uncomfortable, expensive and not very convenient changes. So, this will serve as an account of one middle of the row family's effort toward change and a more appropriate view of what it means to be stewards of God's good world and everything in it. I hope you find it in yourself to join our meager attempts.