Last night I dreamed about riding the transit bus.
Weird? Yes! But, it’s “waste” week in The
7 Experiment Study, so I’ll chalk it up to that. Like you might be, I was
confused about what this week entailed. If you guessed recycling, gardening,
buying local, shopping thrift and second-hand, conserving energy and water,
composting and driving only one car (hence, the bus dream), you win the prize.
Why is it these fasting weeks occur at the most
inopportune times in my life? My hubby and I are traveling in a week, and I
need to purchase last minute articles at Target, not mom and pop stores. Not to
mention, our Roof-Crasher’s (aka RC) Bible study will be packing Operation
Christmas Child boxes this week, and I’d like to buy the needed items at a
cheap chain store where I can use coupons. Can that count as being thrifty?
And, sharing a car doesn’t work in a family that spends four days a week
driving to gymnastics an hour away. Gardening? If only summer would return, I’d
be planting before you could say zucchini. October has my permission to chase
Old Man Winter into Never Never Land.
Sarcasm aside, waste week for me will be a
hodgepodge of elements. Since we already recycle, drive a hybrid, organize
errands strategically in order to conserve time and gas, consume leftovers,
monitor our home electricity and gas, what else could we possibly do? Honestly,
thrift store shopping fell off my list of options the minute I read it. I can’t
even stomach garage sales (sorry, dad).
One area that I should incorporate into my regular
lifestyle is buying from local vendors. I struggle with this mostly because I
clip coupons to save money. It’s difficult to justify buying local when I am saving
money for my family. Yet, wouldn’t that be the best way to support small
businesses in my community? I have also been lax when it comes to bringing my
own recycled bags to the grocery store. Week after week they lay in the dark
trunk of my car, but I continuously forget to bring them inside the store.
So, I’ve placed two additional goals on my list
this week: buying local and using recycled bags.
In her study, Jen Hatmaker quotes from Wendell
Berry’s book, What are People For?:
“The
ecological teaching of the Bible is simply inescapable: God made the world
because He wanted it made. He thinks the world is good, and He loves it. It is
His world; He has never relinquished title to it. And He has never revoked the
conditions, bearing on His gift to us of the use of it, that oblige us to take
excellent care of it. If God loves the world, then how might any person of
faith be excused for not loving it or justified in destroying it?”
Yes. Exactly.
Photo courtesy of Apple's Eyes Studio, FreeDigitalPhotos.net
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