What are we doing about our natural resources?

Natural Resources

§  In one of Jesus’ parables (Matt 25:14-30) three servants are entrusted with the wealth of their master, each one only received what they were capable of handling.  The first two servants worked with the resources they were given and doubled their master’s value. The last did nothing and sat on the wealth they were given.  The last servant was punished for being lazy with what they were given.  Why did Jesus tell this story?   It tells us something about how God deals with us, his servants.  The parable speaks of the Master's trust in his servants; he leaves them with his property to use as they think best.  This was a test to see if the Master's workers would be industrious and reliable in their use of the property entrusted to them.  The master rewards those who are industrious and faithful and he punishes those who sit by idly and who do nothing with what they were given.  The point of the parable seems to lie in the servants' conception of responsibility and stewardship.  The servant who hid away the master's wealth was irresponsible.  The master expected his servants to be productive in the use of his wealth.  What do the laws of economics have to do with the kingdom of God?   The Lord entrusts the subjects of his kingdom with resources and graces and he gives his subjects the freedom to use them as they think best. With each gift and talent, God gives sufficient the means (grace and wisdom) for using them in a fitting way. As the parable shows, God abhors indifference and an attitude that says it's not worth trying. God honors those who are faithful with even a little and they are entrusted with more! But those who neglect or squander what God has entrusted to them will lose what they have.  We have obligations to use what was given us in the Christian life.

We are given a command to be good stewards of what is given to us and are expected to utilize what is before us.  Trying to live a sustainable life forces us to rely on God to provide, but also helps us be good stewards of our resources, never exploiting or wasting what is given to us. 

What are we doing?

Rainwater harvesting

It may seem like a ridiculously easy thing, but we have learned that it may not be so simple.  Often we see rain barrels provided by various garden groups and counties.  Sometimes we see 4 or 5.  We recently passed a local church that was growing a large vegetable garden, I am assuming to donate to food banks.  It had three large (45 gallon) rain drums set up on risers to collect from the church gutters and water the garden.  It was very pretty looking.  Like this church we also started small.  We purchased and installed a large 100 gallon tank.  It was 7 feet tall and about 2 feet in diameter.  We set it up next to our small garden that measured about 10 feet by 10 feet.  It was very pretty and impressive; we even painted it to match the house.  In the start of the late spring / summer dry spell we were able to water for about 2 weeks, watering every three days.  Then our garden was dry for 3 weeks before any substantial rain came.  It wasn’t pretty anymore.

King County- 35 gallon barrel waters what?  It will irrigate a 4 foot x 4 foot garden for less than 2 weeks, watering every 4 days.  I know what the county pamphlet says, but we measured it.

We than thought bigger and installed a 3,500 gallon rain cistern.  Required us to be much more intentional about our decisions.  Our neighbors though I was making beer when they first saw the giant 10 feet tall, 10 feet in diameter cistern in our driveway.  I don’t drink beer, especially that much.  What do we do with that much rainwater (when it rains and fills in 8 hours of moderate rain)?  Flush all our toilets, wash all of our laundry, irrigate our entire yard, and water all our miscellaneous animals.

Note: Rainwater harvesting using existing buildings no longer is bound by natural resource depletion laws or runoff requirements under the Washington State Department of Ecology.

What it did was enabled us to use the money spent here, elsewhere.

Worm bin and composting

By utilizing our worm bin, it helped us reduce our garbage, allowing us to go to a small garbage can and save over $30.00 every bill.  It also teaches our kids how ecology works, provides us with worm tea concentrate (fertilizer), worm casings (compost) and worms for the birds (they have to eat too).  In short, we are using everything God gives us, even the waste byproduct.

Recycling and Yard waste myths- reduce, reuse, and recycle

Yard waste is a waste.  We need to use what we produce, even the byproducts. Grass / brush clippings and food scraps to worm bin or animals.  Food waste back to ground as compost (done correctly).

Recycling—why should we be concerned with reduction, reusing and recycling when the real problem is source packaging.  One of the very few good things I can say about Costco was their initiative to reduce overall packaging by changing the specs of how food and commodities were packaged.  Their incentive was to reduce the weight of packaging, thus reduce the cost of shipping. We need to push this business case to large scale producers.  Many intentional decisions we make are at least partially based on packaging.

We have a garden

What better natural resource that your own land.  We grow what we can and what we cannot grow on our property, we use local suppliers.  Apples, peaches, pears, strawberries, wild blackberries from the local green spaces.  Can and / or freeze everything for use out of season.

Why should we look at this radical change in behavior?

o   Helps us to be a good steward of what God has given us.

o   God honors those who are faithful with even a little and they are entrusted with more! But those who neglect or squander what God has entrusted to them will lose what they have. 

o   We have obligations to use what was given us in the Christian life. We are given a command to be good stewards of what is given to us and are expected to utilize what is before us. 

o   Trying to live a sustainable life forces us to rely on God to provide, but also helps us be good stewards of our resources, never exploiting or wasting what is given to us.