I was at lunch with a friend the other day and she decided to grab napkins for our table. She grabbed quite a few and I sort of chided her for grabbing so many since we obviously weren't going to use them all. She responded by saying a few napkins wouldn't hurt the world and that Jesus was going to come and take us all to heaven anyway so there wasn't a need to get stressed out about the earth. I was disappointed by her response and I made it known to her.
So what's so deep about napkins? nothing really. The incident just got me thinking about how we as Christians, respond to environmental issues. Because if my friend's viewpoint is the popular one among Christians, then we're in trouble. Most Christians will agree that we should be stewards of the earth and its resources; we will agree that it is good to leave something better than you met it; we will agree that the earth is one of God's gifts to us as humans beings. But when it comes to deciding to what extent out stewardship should go, then problems arise.
I think Christians find it hard to deal with environmental issues because we try too hard to look at the big picture: global warming, resource depletion, conservation of energy, waste management and so on. What we need to do instead is start with the little things or as my pastor would say, "living simply so that others may simply live". We forget that while our individual actions may not amount to much, the aggregation of similar actions does. For example, not leaving the water running today means everyone else has a little more the next day, and ultimately, for the future.
So instead of thinking of the bigger things, let's do our own little part today. Sufficient for the day is its own troubles...
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