Then we moved here, and assumed that things were the same.  But they weren’t.  We tried to recycle, but there were no facilities within reasonable driving distance (fortunately there’s one nearby now).  We were concerned about conserving water and energy, but it didn’t seem that anyone else was.  Things like ride-sharing, car-pooling, and selecting times to mow your yard… these things are simply not a priority out here.

Why conserve in a place like this?  After all, we use much less electricity and water than our nearby urban neighbors!  We don’t have any mega-businesses that process thousands of pounds of paper a day.  Volunteers (or inmates) keep our roadsides clean of trash.  And ozone emissions are far from the minds of folks who don’t have to experience everyday the realities of smog and air pollution.

Come out to Southside Virginia and you’ll see what I mean.  Take the drive we usually make to Wal-Mart or into Richmond.  Seeing beautiful countryside like this everyday makes it hard to believe that our environment might be in trouble.

And because of that, we frequently encounter attitudes that are indifferent – if not downright hostile – to any kind of “green” activities.  Global warming is a hoax, some claim, and say that all this “green” stuff is useless… especially out here in the country.

So does “going green” make a difference in rural, small-town communities?  After all, many of these folks have been “green” for a long time – relying on agriculture and nature for their livelihood, it’s in their best interests to make sure they take care of some of those necessary things.  Talk about recycling – any farmer knows you have to “recycle” the land by leaving it fallow sometimes.  Conservation seems only natural when we’re in drought and the crops aren’t getting enough water!

But there’s so much more to taking care of the world than just doing what benefits us directly.  And that mindset – “We’re a small town and don’t contribute much to the problem… why does it matter if we’re ‘green’?” – can be used to excuse almost anything.  “I only have one vote… why does it matter if I vote?”  “I’m not tithing on a million dollars or anything… why does it matter if I give?”  “We’re just one household in a few billion… why does it matter if we recycle?”

It matters.  It always does.  Usually when we talk about how insignificant our contribution to something might be, we are trying to excuse ourselves of some responsibility that inconveniences us.

While I breathe deeply and say a prayer of thanks each time I notice the beautiful scenery on our country roads, I sometimes feel my breath catch with fear.  I know that, global warming notwithstanding, if things continue the way they are, even these beautiful scenes will one day be erased.  Melting ice caps may or may not be a reality – but as the cities expand, as people look for quieter places to live, and as our global society changes, things like trash, smog, and energy shortages will someday be as common in Lunenburg county as they are in third-world mega-cities.

The science of global warming, while persuasive, is still far from being solid fact.  But that doesn’t matter – stewardship is a fact of life for Christians, and (like it or not) the world is something we’ve been made stewards of.  From the very beginning, the greatest resource entrusted to human beings was not money, not precious minerals, not vast oil fields… but creation itself.  We were placed here to “care for it and maintain” the earth (Genesis 2:15), not simply to use it to our own devices.  Jesus didn’t explicitly speak to global warming, but I cannot imagine that he would come to our polluted planet today, and not be appalled at the waste and misuse we inflict on it.

So earth stewardship is the oldest of all stewardships.  It’s not our only task, and maybe not our foremost, but it is certainly our oldest.  And now that we’re aware and able to be better stewards of our world, we simply must.  It’s not a suggestion, or something we can decide to do later when it looks like things really are getting worse.  It’s a command for the here, the now.  It’s not simply a political command, or a corporate one.  It’s a spiritual and personal command – “take care of what you’ve been given, or even what you have will be taken away.” **

For more information on how the Bible speaks to earth stewardship and how Christians can do our part, go to the new website set up by the Baptist Center for Ethics – www.thegreenbible.org.

** – A free paraphrase of Jesus’ moral of the Parable of the Talents.  See Matthew 25:14-30 for one record of this parable.

©2010 Notes From Jon. All Rights Reserved.