I am back from a few days in the mountains and thinking about the question, “How green is green enough?”\u00a0 The earth is definitely getting messed up, but what should I do about it?\u00a0 It seems we humans make messes wherever we go.\u00a0 The oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is the latest big example, but there are plenty others.\u00a0 BP is not the only one fouling the ocean.\u00a0 I’ve seen ocean shores awash with plastic bottles in Haiti, drink cans in the Cherokee National Forest, and cigarette butts almost anywhere imaginable.\u00a0 The air may be smoggy, but the conclusion is clear:\u00a0 We are making a mess.<\/p>\n
Of course we humans are not the only ones making messes.\u00a0 If you have ever owned anything, you know it is a constant battle to keep it from falling apart.\u00a0 My house is the biggest example for me.\u00a0 The sun bakes my house paint.\u00a0 Woodpeckers dig in my siding.\u00a0 Tree leaves fall in my pool.\u00a0 Ground squirrels dig holes in my yard and other, more yucky varmits occasionally leave their droppings in my garage.\u00a0 Even the ants have devised a plan to dig all the dirt out from under my concrete driveway so it can crack in a million pieces.\u00a0 I believe their queen has declared war.<\/p>\n
Every home purchase comes with a to-do list that never ends.\u00a0 The notepad is longer than the mortgage term because things get written to the list faster than you can cross them off.\u00a0 It seems I spend most Saturdays fighting to keep the small stuff off the list while the big things keep adding on.\u00a0 The only solution is to prioritize.\u00a0 Learn what must be done, and what should wait.\u00a0 The list can’t rule your life or you’ll die with a beautiful house and a bunch of regrets.\u00a0 So, back to the original question.\u00a0 How green is green enough?<\/p>\n
I don’t know how green is green enough.\u00a0 However, when I think about my earthly home, there are a few things I do believe:<\/p>\n
1) The earth is not my mother.\u00a0 It is my home . . .for now.\u00a0 Just like my house, the earth was built for me, not the other way around.
\n2) The Builder did a magnificent job.
\n3) The Builder fully intended for me to care for my house.\u00a0 God planted the garden, but Adam had to tend it.
\n4) People are more important than houses, but people need houses.\u00a0 Sometimes the house must sacrifice for the people (you should see how my son’s room suffers) but if you sacrifice the whole house, everybody suffers.
\n5) Someday, we’ll get a whole new house.\u00a0 Until then, we should enjoy and take care of this one.\u00a0<\/p>\n
How do we know if we are doing enough to protect our earthly home?\u00a0 I don’t know.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0What I do\u00a0know is that we need to keep working on that to-do list.\u00a0\u00a0Keep in mind, we don’t really own the house.\u00a0 We’re just tennants, and the Landlord is watching.<\/p>\n
The earth is the LORD’S, and all its fullness, The world and those who dwell therein. I am back from a few days in the mountains and thinking about the question, “How green is green enough?”\u00a0 The earth is definitely getting messed up, but what should I do about it?\u00a0 It seems we humans make messes wherever we go.\u00a0 The oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is the latest big […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-504","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-consider"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/markspruill.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/504","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/markspruill.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/markspruill.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/markspruill.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/markspruill.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=504"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/markspruill.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/504\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":507,"href":"https:\/\/markspruill.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/504\/revisions\/507"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/markspruill.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=504"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/markspruill.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=504"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/markspruill.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=504"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 -Psalm 24:1\u00a0 NKJV<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"