Weekly Green Practice - Get to know the birds around your house

No matter where you live, there are birds of some sort around. We go through life, often, not even noticing them. It can be a wonderful thing to simply watch them and listen to them chirp and sing. Here are ways you can help the chances of seeing them and ways to make it spiritual.

• Put out a bird feeder: You can make a bird feeder or buy one pretty cheap. They are easy to put up or hang, and you can watch birds from your porch or window. You may want to keep it out of reach of squirrels and cats, but otherwise set back and enjoy the different types of birds that come to visit.
• Put out a bird bath: Having any kind of consistent water will draw birds. It can be the fountain type that circulates water, but a simple bowl will also draw the birds in. This is another item, when properly placed, you can watch even from a window.
• Erect bird houses. There are many types of bird houses out there. Bluebird houses are popular. Martin houses are popular and, I’ve heard, help keep the mosquito population at bay. What is also neat about putting up bird houses is that you know birds are raising their young there. I love knowing that these life cycles are going on right under my nose.
• Try to get to know these birds as you watch them and become more familiar with them. You will notice certain birds move in different ways. You will recognize songs and calls. If you have a bird book or knowledgeable family member you can start picking out what types of bird are visiting you. You can read up on them and know their behaviors and what they do.

Finding the Spiritual in this Practice: It is said that Saint Francis of Assisi preached to the birds. Here is something attributed to him:

My sister birds, you owe much to God, and you must always and in everyplace give praise to Him; for He has given you freedom to wing through the sky and He has clothed you... you neither sow nor reap, and God feeds you and gives you rivers and fountains for your thirst, and mountains and valleys for shelter, and tall trees for your nests. And although you neither know how to spin or weave, God dresses you and your children, for the Creator loves you greatly and He blesses you abundantly. Therefore... always seek to praise God.

I like to imagine this image of sharing God’s love even to the animals. I also think this is a great opportunity for Sabbath time. This is a time to rest the mind and body, simply being in God’s creation with his creatures. I recommend taking this time daily and putting everything on hold for whatever amount of time you decide. Sit outside or by your window. When you begin this time, spend some time in prayer. Take time to look up scripture on the birds of the air. There are plenty in the Psalms, or the creation story in Genesis can get you started. Let those words resonate in your head as you watch the birds. Feel the connection you have there by providing something for them. If your experience is anything like mine has been, you will begin to notice birds everywhere you go where you did not before. You may also feel more urges to praise God each time you notice them.

Scripture: "Consider the ravens: they neither sow nor reap, they have neither storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them." Luke 12:24

Creation Care Team May Focus - Taking Part in the Growth of Something Living

This blog will be taking on a new focus. My friend, Troy Taylor, and I are members of the Memphis Annual Conference's Creation Care Team. So, we are going to be adding material related to our mission of helping our conference better care for God's creation. We will continue to have other material here as well, so check early and often.

Taking Part in the Growth of Something Living

I find few things as fulfilling as helping something living to grow. I realized this first while working at camp. I was involved in the lives of so many young people, and I got to watch them grow up over the years. I’ve been here long enough to see Elementary campers grow up and become staff members in their college years. It is a blessing to watch these young adults work at camp and see how brave they are. I watch them during the summers. They comfort crying children like a parent. They sing with the energy of a brand new Christian. They work until they have no energy left to give. And, I remember when they were just over four feet tall. I remember talking to them as they got out of their cars on the first day. I remember how they shied away, not sure what to make of all these people and all this excitement. I remember a few years down the road when they got out for Junior High and Senior High camp. It was a highlight to their year. I remember how they jumped out of the vehicle and ran to all their favorite people. And now, they are doing the work of this place.

I am so happy that I get to play some part in this growth—that I have had chances to talk to these guests and share their joys and their pain. I have been able to give advice and to offer comfort. I have rejoiced in their successes and continued to enjoying playing with them through all of this. To know that some of my presence in these years might have helped these young people become what they have makes my life seem so much more worth while. This is not always evident to me—it is a thing that is realized when you step back after days, months, or even years and see how something or someone has grown.

I think everyone needs to be involved in helping something grow. It can be a plant or an animal, even a person. Something in it, I feel, brings you closer to God. You are brought closer to the miracle that things are living at all. This helps you look at your life and how you have grown over the years. You see how God can work through so many things, including you.

This month, we ask you to involve yourself in the growth of something. Take on a new project or take more time with those things you already do. Grow a plant. Feed the birds. Take time to involve yourself in the lives or others. You probably already do at least some of this daily. In the upcoming weeks, though, I would like for us all to think more about how God is at work. We are providing verses, devotions, and activities to help you along with this.

Check out our monthly video here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YSLCutcOtkY

Green Speech

Wanted to kick off "Earth Week" in a big way. Here's a letter Joel Allen (Minister of Discipleship at FUMC) and I sent to the editor of The Jackson Sun. Not quite nailing 95 theses to a church door in Wittenburg, but it's something.

Caring for creation is primarily a theological issue, and people of faith who see creation as a gift from God have a deep responsibility to lead the way in an overall “greening” of Jackson. Given the number of faith communities in Jackson, the city should be one of the “greenest” in the nation. Unfortunately this is not the case. Perhaps this is because caring for creation is often confused for a political issue in which there are polarized sides. Of course this is a mistake because people of all political stripes (as well as other definitions by which we divide ourselves) are dependent on creation for life in the same way. It is one of the great levelers in life. We all share this planet, and its health is vital for ours and all other creatures. “The environment” is not something separate from us. We are all part of the environment - intricately woven into it and inseparable from it. This should be evident to all humans, but people of faith have a further responsibility. We who profess to love God must love what God made. Certainly this applies to our loving one another, but we are called to show great care for all that God brought into being. It is wonderful to see curbside recycling and other movements in our community, and we pray people of faith who call upon the God of all creation will recommit themselves this Earth Day to loving the Creator by caring for creation.

Rev. David Brent Hollis

Rev. Dr. Joel Allen

Turning Over A New Leaf

I've been pretty nonexistent on here lately. It's certainly not due to a lack of passion about this issue, but lately I have struggled with "the next steps." I think for a while I have felt a stirring to pursue something "big." For whatever reason, I've been putting it off. Well, a couple of things have happened.

First, the church I serve (www.jacksonfumc.org) committed to host the "Hope for Creation" Simulcast on April 21st at 6:30 p.m. (CST). This was even accomplished without my cajoling, and I'm very excited about it. You can see more about the simulcast here: www.blessedearth.org

Second, the conference in which I serve has a creation care team that I have been a member of but on which I have done very little. The other day, one of my closest friends shared with me that at the last meeting (which I didn't attend - a cautionary tale) we were nominated to have more responsibilities. He's pumped about it, and so am I. This blog may become a larger forum for this work, and he might even become a co-contributor.

So, the big thing is I want to help bring curbside recycling to my community. I have really no idea how to accomplish this. We have some recycling, but honestly it's pretty meager especially considering our size and resources. All I really know is we generally live in a society where if enough people want something badly enough it tends to happen. So I hope I can be a catalyst for this. If anyone reading this has accomplished such a goal, please tell me how.

I also hope to post each day during Holy Week to make up (slightly) for my dismal record lately.

Weekly Green Thought

"I do not worship matter. I worship the Creator of matter who became matter for my sake, who willed to take His abode in matter, who worked out my salvation through matter...Because of this I salute all remaining matter with reverence, because God has filled it with his grace and power. Through it my salvation has come to me." John of Damascus, On the Divine Images 1:16

Weekly Green Thought

"The whole earth is a living icon of the face of God." John of Damascus (675-749), Treatise

Combine and reduce

My calendar post the other day had a great suggestion I hadn't considered. I constantly look for ways to cut my lifestyle and live simpler. This post suggested combining as many hygiene products as possible. If everyone in the house can use the same shampoo, body wash, etc. you can buy in bulk and use refillable containers. Cuts down on waste and expenses. Of course, I'm single so there's no one to share with except my dog, and I'm not sure I should use her shampoo. But hopefully I'll have a larger family someday to share with.

Weekly Green Thought

"Poor innocent little creatures, if you were reasoning beings and could speak, you would curse us. For we are the cause of your death, and what have you done to deserve it?" Isaac the Syrian (late seventh century)

Happy Green Year!

For Christmas I got a "Living Green: 365 Ways to Make a Difference" desk calendar. I'm quite excited about it, and I will use its wisdom to supplement the "Weekly Green Thoughts" (which will hopefully be more weekly than they were in 2009 ;) from The Green Bible.

I like this one a lot since I recently bought a new house. It is on the calendar's box rather than an actual page I've seen yet - but I think it works anyway. "What is the good of having a nice house without a decent planet to put it on?" - Henry David Thoreau

What if we start to think about the virtue of a house not in terms of square footage or amenities, but in terms of its impact (or hopefully lack thereof) on the earth which is home to all creatures?