Theology of Caring for Creation

Before I moved to Vancouver, I did very little to care for creation (the environment). Yes, I recycled my bottles and I brought my own grocery bags to the market when I remembered, but my reasons for doing so had very little to do with God and mostly to do with getting back my bottle deposits and not wanting extraneous plastic bags at my house.

But in Regent, I learned that it's important to care for the world that God has created for us. If Christians believe that our world (and universe) is a creation by the God we worship, why is it that Christians are also the worst at destroying it? Perhaps if we believed in pure evolution without the hand of God, we would have good reason to ignore the need to take care of the world. After all, if it's only about evolution, the world will just merely morph into something else and it doesn't matter. But if it's a gift from our God, shouldn't we take care of it?

With this theology in mind, I am making more efforts to be a better steward of the world God created. I still have a long way to go and need to be more willing to be inconvenienced, but I'm learning. Here are a few ideas I've come up with and try to do. What about you? Do you have any ideas?

• When I go out to eat, I try to remember to bring my own containers for the leftovers.
• When I go shopping (market, clothes shopping, Costco, etc.), I try to bring my own shopping bags. And I try to reuse my produce bags. If I'm buying very little and forget to bring a bag, I just tell the cashier that I don't need a bag.
  
• I try to avoid using/buying trash bags even though they are bigger and stronger, and try to use up the plastic grocery bags I still have as trash bags.
• Unfortunately, I still dislike the taste of LA's tap water. But instead of buying small plastic bottles, I now buy the gallon sizes and pour the water into my own reusable bottle.
• I don't drink coffee and I don't generally go out for tea, but I notice that many people tend to carry around disposable cups. How about bringing your own cup to the coffee shop next time you get your daily coffee/tea? There are great travel mugs.
• Do you go out for Asian food much? It seems that more and more restaurants now give you disposable chopsticks to use (even when you're dining in). Why not bring your own chopsticks? There are great travel chopsticks that you can purchase or you can just use a pair you already have at home (just wrap them up in a cloth napkin or clean handkerchief).

Caring for creation is often the more difficult and more expensive alternative (especially as environmentalism become more of the "cool" thing to do), but I think it's the right way to go. And I do not believe that spending more to care for creation is being a bad steward of our finances... it's about being prudent about where the money goes.

In no way am I even close to eliminating all the waste that I go through or to even being a great steward of creation, but I'm trying. I'm forgetting and failing a lot, but I still try.

Little by little...