Environmentalism has always been simple for me. You cannot live life to the fullest when you degrade, diminishing, or depleting something to do so. You cannot gain by taking. You can share, use, and develop but you must take accountability for the cost involved in doing so and pay it back, pay it forward, or something that is of greater value in exchange. Nature is beautiful and that beauty is regenerating to our soul, so to waste any of the gifts that nature gives to us in my book is not living life to the fullest.

No matter what our doctrinal or spiritual understanding we must take care of the earth, our home. Christians need to do so because it is a gift from God. We need to be the first to recycle and to cut our energy demands and to protest about pollution. Others may have other reasons, but as a Christian, if I am saying God is in control, then I cannot do as I please. It means I must help take care of what is His.

I remember hearing as a boy that recycling was for the hippie losers and I remember thinking no it is not. Recycling is for anyone who wants be a human and be part of what is good. And I am charged to do that to the best of my abilities as a Christian.

The amount of trash that our family sends to the landfill is 25% of what it use to be just a few years ago. We do that because it is good for the earth, but we also do it because that is what we need to do as Christians. I was recycling before there were cans for it and I am always looking for ways to reduce waste. Not using as much in the first place is one of the ways we do that. Again that is another great Christian value, not being a glutton. Also in our house, the light bulbs have been switched out. When the hot water heater needed to be replaced we spent the money and went to a reduced energy tank-less system. We have not been able to add solar yet but we will. All of this is part of my Christian duty as far as I am concerned and I have a hard time listening to someone that calls themselves a Bible believing, Creation thinking Christian that is not doing this.

So Happy Earth Day and enjoy the beauty of the earth and look for ways to replenish the earth for tomorrow. It really is just obvious, no climate change study needed.

The following was taken by my friend Atom Biggs