idk, my bff jill?

I can't believe its already half way through JULY.

Only 3 1/2 more weeks until I'm basking in the warm jamaican sun. That seems so soon, but yet the end of my shift today at work seems sooo far away. Oh the paradox.

I've subscribed to the Relevant magazine podcast recently, and I've been listening to it while I work out. [www.relevantmagazine.com] Man, oh man, they are so funny! There have been a number of times I've been on the elliptical and had to cover my face with my towel with one hand to stifle the sound and grip firmly to the bar with the other to keep from falling off the thing in laughter.

I read an article a little earlier about this guy [20-something] in D.C. who recently bought a Hummer. We'll call him Eminem, [just because he kinda looked like him and my Russian prof [my prof who is Russian, not my Russian class prof] made an analogy today where we were to pretend we were Eminem, before being famous, living in Detroit, shopping for a car]. The story goes like this: Eminem has wanted a Hummer for a long time. Eminem gets his finances in order enough to finally buy said Hummer. He immediately sends it off to have it customized to his specifications, one being a 'lift kit' to be added to the Hummer. This lift kit on Eminem's new Hummer raises it 7 inches, making it impossible to fit in his complex's garage, so he parks it on the street. The typical cars on Eminem's street consist of a number of Prius', Volvos, & other generally non-environment-threatening vehicles. In the middle of the 5th night since having his Hummer, 2 vandals come and attack it with basesall bats, shred his newly purchased custom tires, and a number of other atrocities including, carving the message, 'for the environ' on the side of the car.

It's probably really wrong to laugh.

But I did for a few seconds.

Anyway every single day I read articles about some new study, or energy saving solution, or as a first for today vandalism in the name of all that is green. I have come to one conclusion about all this as far as how/if we should be responding to 'Global Climate Change'. And as far as I can tell science and the Bible coincide about how we should be living.

Consume less.

That's it. The goal is not to buy all eco-friendly products, in fact all this marketing for green everything kind of contradicts in a way the solution. However, buying flourescent light bulbs, using the dryer less, only running the diswasher when it's full, etc. are the kinds of things that we should be doing - not because of a trend or it being the IT thing to do but because it makes sense. Here's my logic - and it is lacking but for now this is what I've got - consuming less in general [clothes, food, electronics, electricity, etc.] is in line with the standard for Godly living. Nothing we have is our own anyway [psalm 24:1], so hoarding lots of things certainly is not good when we are called to be giving and pouring out into others and our different ministries [1 Corinthians 9:19-23,1 Corinthians 10:24] . Consuming less energy specifically is good because you're not wasting as much a money - a resource the Lord has given you - that could be going towards other things.

I think this passage in Haggai [1:1-11] I came across paints a good picture, these people were ignoring what God had been telling them [to build a house for Him] and instead focusing all their efforts on their own houses and only serving themselves,

This is what the LORD Almighty says:

"These people say, 'The time has not yet come for the LORD's house to be built.'"

Then the word of the LORD came through the prophet Haggai:

"Is it a time for you yourselves to be living in your paneled houses, while this house remains a ruin?"

Now this is what the LORD Almighty says:

"Give careful thought to your ways. You have planted much, but have harvested little. You eat, but never have enough. You drink, but never have your fill. You put on clothes, but are not warm. You earn wages, only to put them in a purse with holes in it."

This is what the LORD Almighty says:

"Give careful thought to your ways. Go up into the mountains and bring down timber and build the house, so that I may take pleasure in it and be honored," says the LORD. "You expected much, but see, it turned out to be little. What you brought home, I blew away. Why?" declares the LORD Almighty. "Because of My house, which remains a ruin, while each of you is busy with his own house. Therefore, because of you the heavens have withheld their dew and the earth its crops. I called for a drought on the fields and the mountains, on the grain, the new wine, the oil and whatever the ground produces, on men and cattle, and on the labor of your hands."

So pretty much just keep doing what the Lord tells you to do. Pretty groundbreaking huh?

kg