Go Green With Your Heart

In the last month our family has watched three different nature documentaries.  Each one portrays man as the bad guy destroying the earth and using up its resources.  We aren’t green enough, we need to give more money to this cause or that cause, we need to stop cutting down trees and driving cars.  The list goes on and on. 

At the end of the movie my kids think that if we would just turn out the lights more, recycle more, or adopt a whale, we could save the planet.  But the truth is not one of those things, if we all did them perfectly or did without them, would have a saving impact on the earth.  None of those things are bad. We want to take care of God’s creation.  But man is depicted as the bad guy here for all the wrong reasons. 

“The earth dries up and withers, the world languishes and withers, the heavens languish with the earth. The earth is defiled by its people; they have disobeyed the laws, violated the statutes
and broken the everlasting covenant.  Therefore a curse consumes the earth; its people must bear their guilt…” Isaiah 24:4-6

Here in Isaiah 24 it clearly states that the earth, the world, and the heavens are being destroyed because the people have defiled it by disobeying God’s laws and violating His statutes.  This is what has led to the curse that consumes the earth.  The root of this issue is not whether I choose paper or plastic or, better yet, my reusable bags at the grocery store.  It’s not the kind of car I drive or how many whales I adopt.  The root, as always, goes back to my sin, man’s sin. 

 

It is man’s sin that has destroyed the earth and is destroying the earth.  The heart is the real root, the real cause.  But, as with so many things, we allow the enemy to come in and distract us from the heart.  We so easily fall prey to simply skimming the surface of an issue instead of taking it to the depths, to the heart, our own hearts. 

 

There is no way for us as humans in our fallen state to redeem and save the earth.  The earth is not even the real issue.  It is really just one more thing God has given us to point us to the main issue, which is the fallen state of man’s heart, the consequences of that, and our need for a savior. 

 

“On this mountain he will destroy the shroud that enfolds all peoples, the sheet that covers all nations; he will swallow up death forever.  The Sovereign Lord will wipe away the tears from all faces; he will remove his people’s disgrace from all the earth.
The Lord has spoken.”  Isaiah 25:7-8

 

“He will remove His people’s disgrace from all the earth.”  He will remove the curse.  He is the only one who can. 

God, take me to the heart of this issue and all issues in this temporary home you have given me.  Remind me that it is always about the heart and relationship with you.  Help me to guide my children to the heart and not just skim the surface with distractions.  Father open my eyes to see other areas in my life and in my children’s that are dressed up to avoid going deeper and looking at the heart, at the sin.