Earth Day 2008

I grew up celebrating Earth Day. This may be a function of growing up in Washington state, which is full of granola tree-huggers. But I haven't always connected conservation and ecology with spirituality. Unfortunately, it seems that environmentalism as a movement is dominated by non-Christians and is therefore de-spiritualized and (maybe) over-politicized (that may be debatable). In this context environmentalism can end up worshiping the earth itself rather than the God that created it. This is tragic, to me. God gave us such a beautiful earth to enjoy and we should feel very personally responsible for taking care of it as best as we can, just as we take care of our money, our bodies, our time, and our characters. All to the glory of God and furthering His kingdom.

That said, there are some cool events going on around town to celebrate Earth Day. On is the yearly Earthday Festival at Sawyer Point on April 19, which has lots of fun family-oriented activities and cool music. Another event is at Marvin's Organic Garden in Lebanon on April 26. Events like these certainly fit with LifeSpring's core value of community and key strategy of engaging the culture. They're also opportunities to get out and enjoy the spring weather in God's creation and spend some time with the ones you love (for free!).