“Then the LORD God took the man and placed him in the garden of Eden to cultivate and watch over it.” ~Genesis 2:15
As we return, post-lockdown, to the world around us, so does the pollution we create. If it is true, as some have said, that we ourselves are the disease (and there is truth in that), it’s also true that we hold the cure. But it seems those who focus habitually on what’s wrong with the world take little action to make things right with it, whether the world without or the world within, our souls. Yes, by all means, let us remove the toxins from the garden. But then let us go on to re-plant the garden.
“Every creature is better alive than dead, men and moose and pine trees, and he who understands it aright will rather preserve its life than destroy it.” ~Henry David Thoreau
“We are using resources as if we had two planets, not one. There can be no plan B because there is no planet B.” ~Ban Ki-moon
“Moral codes adjust themselves to environmental conditions.” ~Will Durant
“God creates out of nothing. Wonderful you say. Yes, to be sure, but He does what is still more wonderful: He makes saints out of sinners.” ~Soren Kierkegaard
“The day misspent,
the love misplaced,
has inside it
the seed of redemption.
Nothing is exempt
from resurrection.”
~Kay Ryan
“Was it you or I who stumbled first? It does not matter. The one of us who finds the strength to get up first must help the other.” ~Vera Nazarian
“We all long for Eden, and we are constantly glimpsing it: our whole nature at its best and least corrupted, its gentlest and most human, is still soaked with the sense of exile.” ~J.R.R. Tolkien
“It is not true that everyone is special. (But) it is true that everyone was once special and still possesses the ability to recover it.” ~Criss Jami
Mitch Teemley 
“We are using resources as if we had two planets, not one. There can be no plan B because there is no planet B” this is my favourite. The ozone layer is already weak due to environmental pollution caused by the industries. There is a need for precautions before the worse happen.
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Inspiring messages to begin the day.
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Great post! My favorite quote:
“God creates out of nothing. Wonderful you say. Yes, to be sure, but He does what is still more wonderful: He makes saints out of sinners.” ~Soren Kierkegaard
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Excellent words. We indeed are the disease.
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And we hold the cure.
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That too!
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Thank you for posting these thought-provoking quotations.
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I enjoyed finding them!
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🙂
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Reblogged this on From guestwriters and commented:
Man, created in the image of God, received the world to use it for the best and not the worst. The man had to take care of it, but has proven to make a mess of it.
All problems that come over man are created by man himself, him polluting his own living quarters and not respecting that what he has received in loan from His Creator, the God of heaven and earth.
Mother Earth cries for distress and signals that it is high time to do something to get better. Each individual has to take his or her own responsibility.
Let us not wait but take this pandemic to make a turnover and start to find a more respectful way of living for each living being.
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That’s so true what you said. Those who only see how terrible everything is are barely the ones who take action for improvement. How shall they? They only see the problem, not the solution. Let’s focus on the good things, treasure the beauty of our planet, and create possibilities for more beauty and healing for this world.
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Amen, Erika.
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Vera and Chriss are great quotes I had not heard before
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Once it fully dawns on us the preciousness of life, seeing violence and death are devastating. Think how beautiful and frightening it is at the same that every single life that has ever lived is unique, down to the humblest insect or leave. Nothing identical is born. And they only enter the world one time. God is life and love. God loves to create life and we are in the image of God, I think, when we are participating with him in taking care of it. Think how common the conception of a baby human or creature is, yet it’s still a miracle somehow even though we can explain. How does something that never existed grow up into a living, breathing, talking/noise making being? It’s all very beautiful but that’s why it’s so upsetting. It’s hard for me personally to get past that, but I believe we have to take care of life as much as we are able to.
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Me too, Hetty.
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It is unfortunately easy to live with contempt of creation once one has lost the awe of the Creator.
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Good Post—thought provoking indeed. There is still a Garden here we just need the right visions for the cure. Blessings and Peace.
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Love this post. Honest and action focused. And the quotes at the end are all spot on. Thanks for sharing this!!
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My pleasure.
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I agree that we are the disease. I sustain hope that we can change…even if in vain. We must save God’s world. After all he left it up to us.
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Loved the impact of reading these quotes together. Thanks for assembling them for us.
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My pleasure, CG, truly.
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Hi, Mitch,
Thank you for this thought-provoking post, which brought the following thought to mind.
I suggest that we are not the disease of the world but only carriers of the disease known as sin. Therefore, to clean up the world in which we live, we must first clean out the world that dwells within us; to first rid the disease of sin from within oneself with the cleansing power of Jesus’ shed blood by way of a personal relationship with Him. Then we become extensions of Jesus who will one day redeem the world to make all things new.
Well, it wasn’t my intent to write a sermonette 🤷♂️, but as I said it, was a thought-provoking post.
Blessings,
Darryl Orrell
A Faithful Sower
afaithfulsower.org
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Thanks, Darryl!
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The pollution industry has done well during the pandemic. I mean, the sky is better for the shutdown of certain factories and especially vehicle traffic. But the use of single-use plastic has hugely increased, and so has the trash it makes. We can do it better, as you say. It’s urgent that we do.
I admire pretty much anything Tolkien has to say. But here I rather enjoy the phrase “men and moose and pine trees” from Thoreau. And the message that it’s better to be alive.
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Me too.
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Hi Mitch,
The world itself has never fallen but it’s caretaker did. While God is preparing a perfect eternal world, He is doing the same in the souls of His children. The Lord knows that’s literally a match made on Heaven. And my heart leaps when I think of the verse: “At the renewal of all things, Christ shall sit upon His throne.”
Ahhhhmen!
Gary
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