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Cheryl Duffin

Playwright & Children's Performer

Playwright, Essayist, Professional Storyteller & Children's Performer, Theater Teacher, Mom to one Amazing Kid, Wife to Magic Man (no he's not a magician, but he is magical to me!) ...

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Planet Trash....

...if you think God will clean up this mess, I pray you come to your senses!

(Note:  For those readers that don’t know where they stand on God, or are non-believers, simply insert the word “Universe” and I think, for the most part, this post will still make some sense.  And, also, I apologize to those of you whose sensibilities may be offended – but I had to get it off my chest and it’s still a free country [to date], right?)

Last week I was at a friend’s house.  She’s a Christian, very involved in her church and working hard to make a difference.  I would like to make it clear that I, too, am a Christian.  I am extremely involved in my own church – very hands on! – not just sitting in the pew daydreaming every Sunday morning.  (So, it is not my intent to ‘pick’ on the Christians, but I feel I need to make a point.)

We were talking about government and the environment.  She stated that she didn’t believe that the polar icecaps are melting and that it doesn’t matter anyway, because God could fix it all in a snap.

WHAT?  (I actually fractured my jaw by letting it fall to the floor!)

Okay, first of all….yes, I suppose if you believe God can do anything – and I do – that you can believe that God can fix our global crisis.  But, with all due respect to her – and she is due this respect, she is a good woman with the best intentions – I would like to state that I believe this is ‘wrong-thinking’.  God gave us a beautiful world to live in and I believe that it is OUR responsibility to be good stewards of this planet.  Not to trash it and think, ‘God’ll fix it – He’s the man!” 

When you buy your child an expensive toy, and they break it by being careless…..do you just run out and replace that toy?  No….many people will expect the child to prove they will take better care of their stuff before they will replace – if they ever replace – the carelessly broken item.

Okay – let’s put this in religious terms.  God said, “Don’t eat from the Tree of Knowledge!”  Eve ate the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge.  Eve offered the fruit to Adam, and Adam freely accepted and ate the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge.  God then said, “You have disobeyed me, you are cast out of the Garden of Eden.”  He cast them out.

God did NOT say, “oh, heck.  I told ya’ll not to eat from that tree.  Naughty, naughty!  Oh, well, try not to eat it again, okay?  I’ll strike the knowledge of right and wrong (knowledge) from your minds, and we’ll start all over again.”  Poof!  They started all over again with a clean slate.

Nope – God didn’t magically ‘fix’ things for them.  Oh, I suppose He could if He wanted to….but He did not.

Why?  A little thing called Free Will.  We have it and we exercise it daily.  We can freely choose to destroy the planet, or we can save it.  God could fix the planet, sure.   Maybe He will and I am totally wrong (it’s happened!) – I don’t exactly get email updates from the Almighty. God may surprise us all and wipe the slate clean, gently scold us for breaking his beautiful creation, pat us on our collective heads, and send us on our merry way with a cleaner, greener, new-and-improved, blue-green marble [planet].  It would be lovely if He did.

But, I think He may be waiting to see what WE are going to do.  And frankly, we’ve already got the knowledge to make some HUGE planet-saving changes.  So?  What are we going to do about it?  Sit around and hope that God will step in?  Or get ourselves together and clean it all up.

It’s a quarter till 5pm, Mommy and Daddy will be home any minute, and your room is a mess.  What are you going to do about it?  Do you think Daddy will clean it up for you, or do you think he will be disappointed in you, ground you and make you clean it up yourself anyway?

We already have much of the knowledge we need…we also have the ability to distinguish right from wrong [most of us, anyway]…..we have free will….and we have the responsibility to clean up our global room. 

Do I have faith in God?  Yes, I do! (though there will be those that say I do not, after this post – I assure you they are wrong.  I DO, I DO!)   But, I pray that ‘wrong-thinking’ will not prevail.  I pray that people will not just pray about it, but that they will get up, step up and clean up our planet!  So, if you think God will clean up this terrible mess WE made, then I pray that you come to your senses.  Peace out and good will to all men, women and children!

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