The Earth is Yours

This post is about environmental awareness.


No, seriously.


Those of you who know me well will know that I'm not the biggest fan of environmentalism.  Those of you who, like me, had to go down to the Kentucky Theatre to see "An Inconvenient Truth" for our FLA I classes freshman year at Transylvania probably remember the "Inconvenient Rain" that poured down from the sky as we walked the "Inconvenient 15 Blocks" to see what I felt was, on the whole, a rather "Inconvenient Film"...particularly as that particular screening had several inconvenient technical difficulties added to the mess.  All I really remember from that movie is thinking that Al Gore talks too much, and being sad that polar bears had no ice to stand on. 


Don't get me wrong, I think being environmentally conscious is great and all, and I try and recycle and all that good stuff, but it's just never really been a passion of mine.  The most I've "gone green" lately in my life has been choosing a green notebook over a black one at Walgreens and purchasing a seafoam couch which now graces my living room.


But nonetheless, this post is about environmental awareness.  Seriously, it is.

I think that one of the reasons I've never been into environmentalism is because it generally comes off as a giant fad, right up there with gel pens and gauchos (both of which I love, by the way).  I was in environmental club in high school, but I don't particularly remember why...I think it just sounded like a cool thing to join.  All earthy and hippie and stuff, you know?  But I was in a lot of clubs that year, so it was probably just self-exploration more than a deep seated desire to save the whales.  Even though I like whales a whole lot.


But I like the outside.  I really do.  Not sleeping outside in tents, necessarily, but I like BEING outside.  There's something about being in open air, even in the middle of a city, that just seems more inviting than air conditioning.  And I like being able to see the sky, to feel grass squishing around my feet, or to hear water running over rocks or splashing up against the shore, depending on the type of water at hand.


I've traveled quite a bit in my 22 years of being alive, and when I look back on everywhere I've been there's a lot of awesome stuff that I've seen.  But in all of it, there have been two things that literally take my breath away more than anything else: 


Gigantic cathedrals and gigantic natural wonders.


I think there's probably a connection there, don't you?

Let's start with cathedrals.  I've marveled at the giant dome of the Oratoire Saint-Joseph atop Mont Royal and gasped at the breathtaking colors of the Basilique Notre Dame in Montreal, stared slack-jawed at the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in Rome, fought the stairs of la butte to reach the Basilique de Sacre Coeur and stood within arms length of a gargoyle atop Notre Dame in Paris, peered over an altar to a vial supposedly containing drops of Jesus' blood in the Basilica of the Holy Blood in Bruges, and wandered into countless others seeking a solitary place to think.  And every single one of them was beautiful.  And every single one of them made me stop and consider the God whom humans found deserving of such a marvelous building.


For ages people have built cathedrals and churches, no matter how hugely ornamental or quietly simple, in order to create a space to experience God.


But what about all the other ways that God gave us to experience Him?

As beautiful as all of those cathedrals are, there have been other moments amidst the chaos of travelling that have stopped me in my tracks with their awe-inspiring beauty.  The valleys of Yosemite, falling effortlessly amidst giant outcroppings of rock.  An expanse of forest stretching out under the Natural Bridge in Kentucky.  The jagged edges of the Badlands in South Dakota.  The twisting coast of mountains rising majestically above the ocean at Big Sur in California.  A heavenly landscape of clouds seen from an airplane window, a privilege completely foreign to people living before the 20th century.  


These things are all bigger, and boast more beauty than even the grandest cathedral ever built.

And God just...puts them there.  For us.

One of my all time favorite movie lines comes from "Pride and Prejudice," when Mary (the uninterestingly plain and largely forgotten Bennett sister), frustrated with her sisters' obsession with the recent arrival of a regiment filled with handsome soldiers, exclaims with annoyance, "What are men compared to rocks and mountains?!"  As a woman who has had her share of mixed signals on the part of men and has put up with a fair amount of cavity-inducing Facebook posts between lovers, this line has all the "GIRL POWER!" sentiment that I need every now and again.  But thinking about it in a different context...really, what are men compared to rocks and mountains?  What are any of us compared to the majesty of God's creation?


But we're a part of that creation too.  Shouldn't we show it a little more respect?


One of my favorite praise and worship songs (in fact, the one from which the subtitle of this blog is quoted), includes this phrase: "My eyes are small, but they have seen the beauty of enormous things."  What a privilege it is for us to live in the middle of God's glorious creation!  I mean, really...think of how often we mess things up, how often we aren't perfect.  Do you really think that we deserve to have such a marvelous world to live in?  How much does God's love call out to us from the mountaintops, from the rustle of leaves among tree branches, from the rhythmic rolling of waves along the beaches?  Job 37:6 declares that even "the shower of rain, his heavy shower of rain, serves as a sign on everyone's hand, so that all whom he has made may know it."  Why in the world aren't we paying attention?


Taken this way, the earth IS a cathedral.  It's our cathedral, a beautiful structure that God has given us in which to worship Him.


Would you leave a giant mess in the middle of a cathedral?


Neither would I.


And on that note, with THAT motivation...let's all be more environmentally aware, shall we?




***This whole post came about after I heard this song at chapel service on Wednesday.  I like this version of it, because it's performed in a forest...I hope it inspires you like it inspired me.