Caring for God’s Creation Through a Spiritual Practice
During Lent, Presbyterians often take on a spiritual discipline as they prepare for the resurrection of our Savior, Jesus Christ. You may be familiar with the spiritual discipline, Examen, where you review your day and think of where you saw God working in your life.
The Creation Care Team challenges you to take on a different kind of personal practice for Lent. This practice will reduce and/or limit your negative impact on our common home, the Earth, that God so graciously created for us.
We are offering three personal behaviors for you to choose from and asking you to adopt one for the six weeks of Lent.
- EAT LESS MEAT1– There are several ways to ease into this practice. Start by eating a smaller portion of meat, then advance to eating meat at one less meal a day. Try out Meatless Monday or Fish Friday with your family. There are many meatless recipes on the Internet.
- FILL YOUR OWN REUSABLE BOTTLE2 – Instead of purchasing a plastic disposable water bottle, fill your own bottle and reuse it during Lent. It takes eight weeks to develop a habit so by Easter, filling your own bottle will almost be automatic.
- REPLACE PAPER TOWELS3– Rather than purchasing paper towels and napkins made from trees, use cloth towels and cloth napkins that you may already have. It is easy to throw them into the laundry instead of the trash can.
As you eat less meat, fill your own bottle, or replace paper towels, reflect on how not doing those things affects our planet and the lives of those on it (Read the footnotes for information). Offer gratitude to God that you can choose to do things differently to protect the living things our Creator put on this earth for our needs and enjoyment.
Let us know what you choose and your experiences on the church’s Facebook page. https://www.facebook.com/groups/318320284919387
FOOTNOTES
1 “Meat accounts for nearly 60% of all greenhouse gases from food production, study finds.
Production of meat worldwide causes twice the pollution of production of plant-based foods, a major new study has found.” https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/sep/13/meat-greenhouses-gases-food-production-study
2 “…less than 1/3 of all plastic bottles will be recycled. So, by using a reusable water bottle, you could prevent an average of 156 plastic bottles annually.” https://www.beyondplastics.org/fact-sheets/plastic-water-bottles
3 “Since cloth towels are reusable, they are more long-lasting, economical, and eco-friendly than paper towels. More important, paper towel production requires cutting down trees. What’s more, once a paper towel is used, it is usually thrown into the trash, which is then dumped into landfills.”