Helping creation

Yesterday the people of Chain of Lakes Church enjoyed a wonderful service of worship on the church property. Once a month this summer the congregation I serve is leaving our current worship location on Davenport to worship at our future location—the church property.  The day was warm as we worshiped yesterday, but because of pop-up tents and plenty of water the large group who assembled was comfortable.

As part of a summer sermon series called “Need 2 Know” I preached about what is important to know about creation. The series is more than just sharing information with our head. I want to communicate what’s important to know with our heart and with our feet regarding creation.

As part of the series I encouraged people to spend at least 20 minutes in nature this week. Nature revives the heart like prayer does. One of my favorite places in the local area to be revived is the community gardens on the church property. I grew up in southwestern Minnesota and grew to enjoy the wide open spaces of the area. The north metro doesn’t have many wide open spaces. But when I stand at the community gardens my heart receives a taste of openness.

I shared in my sermon yesterday that today I would spend twenty minutes at the Community gardens on the Chain of Lakes church property. This morning I stood at the gardens for a while, and then I hiked the perimeter of the property. I enjoyed listening to the wind and the birds and seeing many beautiful wild flowers. I always enjoy taking pictures of the cross located on the southeast part of the property. The above pictures are of the cross on the property and the community gardens sponsored by Chain of Lakes. I shared more pictures on my Facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/hmoorepaul

At the end of the sermon I talked about what each person can do with their feet to put a dent into global warming.

It’s hard for me to think about what I—one individual among the 7.4 billion who live on the earth—can do to prevent global warming.  Yes I can drive my car less, and set the temperature in my house higher in the summer and lower in the winter.  But this doesn’t seem tangible enough.

In my research for the sermon I came across a web site called onetreeplanted.org. It’s a non-profit created by a man named Matt Hill in Vermont. The organization is a public 501c3. The web site offers an easy way to reduce global warming. They promise that for every dollar given to the organization a tree will be planted. According to the web site every fully-developed tree absorbs 48 pounds of carbon from the atmosphere each year. Forty-six trees can absorb one ton of carbon. The average person contributes to the emission of 20 tons of carbon a year. Through a $46 contribution any person's carbon emission can be lessened by a ton.

I don’t know anything about onetreeplanted.org besides what I read on their web site and their Facebook page. They seem legitimate to me. (I do plan on sharing with them via email how I talked about their organization in my sermon yesterday.) I made a contribution this morning that will plant forty trees. I’m trusting that when those trees are developed I will have helped reduce 1920 pounds of carbon emissions a year.  This is one step. I know that I’ve taken a small step with my feet. I’m trusting that that it’s a helpful step.