Environmentally Unconscious



My son Shane and I spent a wonderful afternoon over the Thanksgiving holidays exploring a primitive area around the Withlacoochee River near our house. I visit the area often and usually see anything from foxes to wild turkeys roaming about. As we walked the river bank near some small rapids, we were enjoying identifying fresh tracks of deer, raccoon and some we didn't recognize. It was like going back in time and I wondered what it must have been like for the first Europeans when they walked these same forests for the first time. Of course, Native Americans had lived here many, many years before the white man ever set foot here. The name Withlacoochee is best translated from the Indian name to "little big water". It was a perfect time except for one thing, man had left his mark. Abandoned materials littered this almost pristine landscape. All along the river and into the adjoining woods we saw fish bait containers, broken fishing poles, and yes, old tires! It all took me back to a different time when I was first aware that this was a crime against nature and in a way against God. The year was 1971 and I had just been discharged from the U. S. Navy. Teresa and I had lived in San Diego, California for about 3 years. While there, we had traveled the West Coast and was so impressed by the state of the outdoors. The rivers were pure, the mountains and the forests looked as if you were the first ones to visit them. As you hike trails in the West, you hear everywhere, "pack it out". It means that whatever you take in, you take (pack) it out. I liked it!

In 1971 we moved from California back to the Southeast. One day I drove my new (old) pickup down to the Satilla River for some exploring. I was stunned! Everywhere I went I saw trash and garbage! Old refrigerators, tires, stoves, all left as a decaying gift to what had been the unspoiled beauty of God's creation. What a crime!

Certainly things have improved in the last 30 years but my visit this past weekend proved that our progress hasn't been enough. I heard about a neighboring county that is following many other counties in closing their trash and garbage drop off sites to the public. I fear we are headed in reverse to a time of trucks dumping garbage and worn out appliances along our rivers, streams and roadways. (I can show you such a place even today!) Protecting our environment must become more important to all of us. We must speak out and yes we must do it in the Church as well. As Christians we have been silent too long. It is as if we felt that Jesus was coming soon and "it doesn't really matter about the earth anyway." There seems to be this unspoken attitude that "it will last as long as it is needed and then Jesus will fix it". Let me suggest that, as the Psalmist wrote, "The earth is the LORD'S, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein." The inescapable message here is that we do have a responsibility to be good stewards over this beautiful place we call home.