“Let him who possesses a field, so partake of its yearly fruits that he does not suffer the ground to be injured by his negligence, but let him endeavor to hand it down to posterity as he received it, or even better cultivated. Let him so feed on its fruits that he neither dissipates it by luxury, not permits it to be marred or ruined by neglect. Moreover, that this economy, and this diligence, with respect to those good things which God has given us to enjoy, may flourish among us, let everyone regard himself as the steward of God in all things which he possesses. Then he will neither conduct himself dissolutely, nor corrupt by abuse those things which God requires to be preserved.”
John Calvin
Commentary on Genesis, chapter 2:15; translated from the first Latin edition, 1578, English translation of 1847, reprinted by Banner of Truth Publishers, 1965 excerpt from A Cloud of Witnesses by Frederick W. Krueger
God calls each and every one of us to be stewards of the earth. Does this resemble stewardship to you?
view from Kayford Mountain; photo courtesy of Vivian Stockman OVEC
You may be asking yourself, but what can I do to be a better steward? Surely I cannot help stop the powerful forces behind the destruction of our mountains. There are plenty of ways that you as an individual can take a stand!
Share the atrocities with your friends, neighbors, and church community. Let them know exactly what is going on in the Appalachian Mountains. The only way we can create a generation of stewards is by educating people about the devastation that is taking place and by laying out the impact that the damage has on people, wildlife, the environment, and God’s creation in general.
Conserve energy. Become part of the solution by cutting down on the amount of energy that you use. Taking this step will also help you save money on your energy bill. Kilowatt Ours is a great film by Jeff Barrie that examines the sources of energy in our country and explores the dangers of coal-generated electricity. On the film’s website there is a great wealth of information on steps you can take to cut down your consumption and save on your bill. http://kilowattours.org/ There is also another site affiliated with the film that allows you to count your kilowatts and show how you are conserving energy. Once you enter your statistics, it calculates your annual savings in money, pounds of coal, and CO2 emissions. http://countyourkilowatts.com/
Stand up for the mountains! Let your senators and representatives know that mountain top removal, and other practices that degrade God’s mountains, must end. Let your energy provider know that you would like to see them start using sustainable energy. The We Can Solve It campaign has some great resources on steps you can take to make your power company carbon-free. They even have a little slip that you can include with your next power bill that states how you expect them to start including more renewable energy. Check out the resource page at http://www.wecansolveit.org/content/pages/291/
These are only a few of the possibilities of ways that you can become a better steward. I encourage you to post your own ideas or share steps that you have taken in the direction of caring for God’s creation.
Go Tell It On The Mountain 