It’s Not Easy Being Green

Last week we celebrated “Earth Day,” reminding one another to protect our natural environment. I support this premise, but it’s not easy being green.

I patronize the restaurant/deli of a local natural foods grocery store. They have an array of menu items that would pass muster (if not mustard) on any nutritional diet list. They also encourage recycling trash used for meals. That’s where it gets difficult.

Their disposal area features several receptacles, and diners are instructed to discard waste according to category: glass and cans; plastic bottles and containers; paper (clean cardboard, newspapers and magazines); miscellaneous trash; and a bin for plates, silverware, cups and plastic glasses.

The first time I attempted to dispose of my trash, that took longer than it did to consume my meal. I confess putting my plastic glass in with the plastic bottles and containers (an understandable mistake, right?), and started to put paper napkins in the paper receptacle, until a friend pointed out the error of my ways. I tell you, this recycling stuff isn’t easy!

I endorse environmentalism: We should try to keep our world as healthy a place as possible. I don’t worship “Mother Earth,” but do worship the God who created it. In the creation account, it states, “Then Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it” (Genesis 2:15). In other words, we’re to be good stewards.

When I’m a guest in someone’s home, I feel obligated to leave it as nice as it was when I arrived. The Bible says one day the earth as we know it will come to an end, but that’s God’s job, not mine. In the meantime, we all have a responsibility to be conscientious caretakers – even if being green isn’t always easy.