After I wrote the title, I almost changed it when I read it out loud, but it had me laughing so hard I figured everyone needed a good Friday laugh.
The past few weeks in our bible study we have addressed the excess of stress and waste in our lives. Many of you just rolled your eyes pleading, "How do you fast from stress?" Such a fantastic question! In the insane, over committed, soccer and ballet, mini-van, mom society (whew, long run-on sentence moment, sorry Miss K ;) that we live in; we all have areas that need evaluation and trimming. Our dear friend, who happens to be a high school English teacher and lover of words also, sent me this fantastic quote, "When things don't add up in your life, start subtracting!" (thanks, B!)
We have four kids, and each kid is allowed one extra curricular activity. That's it. I think during this season of their lives they need quality, daily life interactions with Mark and I, far more than they need a cranky chauffeur who totes them to and from Parks and Rec activities in a flurry of stress. Now, please do NOT hear what I am NOT saying; extra curricular activities are fantastic! They certainly can add tons of fun and skill to every child's life. We have just chosen to keep tight reigns on what that looks like for our family. We do this mainly to protect our marriage, our precious and limited time with our children, all of our health, our sanity, and our rest.
We talked a lot protecting the Sabbath this past week, and I could write and write about the beautiful purposes the Sabbath contains, but one thing stuck with me; when God created the world the very first thing He declared as holy was the Sabbath. He had made man, woman, animals, oceans, vegetation, constellations, etc..etc.. but it wasn't until He intentionally and graciously created the Sabbath that He spoke blessings of holiness upon it. Something that is worthy of protecting and celebrating EVERY WEEK!!
"This is My Father's World!" is one of my all time favorite hymns. This could have been our theme song for our week of waste. This whole experiment in 7 has been for me a wake up call; that if we claim that we love God with all of our heart, soul, and mind, but then comfortably keep Him at arm's length when it concerns our pantries, bodies, food, health, our clothes, our closets, our possessions, our basements filled with crap, our media, our time, our stress, our care and keeping of HIS world, then we are a clanging gong. We have totally missed the point of a Savior who wants to be in and about ALL areas of our lives. He wants every area to imitate Himself, not just the areas that are taught about in Sunday School.
Job 38-40 left me totally speechless this week. If you think that your God is not obscenely passionate about His world and His creation, then you are mistaken. And what we purchase, consume, and waste is a direct reflection of our ignorance, or how we really feel about our earth and the one who created it.
A few quotes to chew on, "The ecological teaching of the Bible is simply inescapable: God made the world because He wanted it made. He thinks the world is good, and He loves it. It is His world; He had never relinquished title to it, that oblige us to take excellent care of it. If God loves the world, then how might any person of faith be excused for not loving it or justified in destroying it?" ~ Wendell Berry
" I wonder if we enjoy such a cavalier attitude about creation care because we're so removed from the effects of its squandering? We are Americans. We are above the nuisance of depleted resources. We'll just buy more. Surely there is always more. " ~ Jen Hatmaker
"When science advances and reveals something we didn't know before, something we understood incorrectly, it doesn't mean God was wrong; it means we were. Believers once thought the earth was flat and sin caused blindness." ~ Jen Hatmaker
"Creation care is a prophetic opportunity for the church. Theologically, our response here has great effect. According, to Scripture, it is fully integrated with appropriate worship, justice for the poor, and a healed land. We do God's story a great disservice to relegate creation care to the margins, imagining it has nothing to do with discipleship or redemption or worship or holiness. " ~ Jen Hatmaker
I hope your weekend is celebrated with moments of rest, and more green than ever before!
~Sara
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