Back to Basics

"God cares about the creation. He displays himself in nature, and so the more that people are distanced from the creation itself and the more people become accustomed to treating the creation as something that is disposable, the more distanced they are from understanding who God is." -Dr. Russell D. Moore

I don't know... maybe it's a generational thing, or one of those cycles that just seem to occur; but, it seems as though this generation is going back to the roots, back to nature, back to pure living. I am glad to be part of it, learning how to change for the better, learning how to feed my family healthier, clean with less chemicals, and in general put less crap in and on our bodies. Most of the people I know feel that the chemicals/crap in our homes/food/medicine/etc "hasn't killed us yet"... so why is it a big deal? Why would I change anything? To quote my sister, "I am all for the advances in chemistry that make my life easier." And, I agree. There have been so many amazing discoveries in the sciences that have aided in better lives for many of us. But, why do we have to keep having these discoveries in science? Why do we have to keep finding cures/solutions to problems/illnesses? I think it's another never ending cycle. We insert crap into our bodies, most of it unknown... I mean, really, what is in that cheeseburger, french fry and Diet Coke? Then, after years of ingesting crap, we need medicine/medicinal procedures to fix us when we have an illness from the crap we've subjected our bodies to, but then there's crap in the medicine that healed us, and we go back to inserting more crap hours later. (Sorry... crap is the only word that I can think of to describe the crap in today's food/cleaners/etc)


So, what do we do? Do we go, leave everything behind except our organic underwear and live in the woods? No... it's not feasable, it's overboard. Do we just dump everything and live on the food/cleaners/etc that we can grow and create? No, once again, it's just not feasable. I think that there is a delicate balance with this. It's not always about elimination as much as it is about reduction. We honestly cannot eliminate everything that could possibly be harmful from our environment. We'd have to find new air... (if you know how to do this, you'd make a pretty penny). People need to get the crap out of their houses and out of their bodies (and out of their minds, if I can just add that in right here), but it's a process; it takes time... and it's an adjustment.


We (Nathaniel and I) started this journey by realizing the high amount of harmful chemicals in city water, and deciding to do something about it. Now, we have gone from the only change being that we have reverse-osmosis water to a family that has an organic garden, eats *mostly* organic real food (minus my daily starbucks/diet coke addiction), using green cleaners, and more! But, it's taken us a while to get here. Not only because it takes time to change, but because at first, all of these things weren't important to us, but the more we started down this path, the better we felt and the more excited we got about going back to the basics! Take a look at a bag of food in your freezer. Do you know what the ingredients are? Really... do you? I didn't have a clue! Now, I do. And I feel better feeding my family wholesome food instead of fillers and chemicals and solutions. (not that it's 100% of the time-- we still enjoy dining out and we have our favorite junk foods.)


Another thing to consider- Children (most of the time) don't have much choice what they eat. They eat what they are given, what is available. (There is nothing wrong with this...) My issue is that I feel uncomfortable feeding my children crap, when they have no say about what goes into their bodies. They don't understand that the chicken nugget they are going to eat has a bunch of things in it that aren't even food! And, even if they did know, they wouldn't care- they would just keep eating it. But, I cannot, on a clean conscious, continue to allow my children to unknowingly eat things that may harm them. It's my job to make sure that I feed them wholesome, balanced food that will help their little bodies grow and their brains learn to the best of it's ability. Adults... go ahead and eat whatever you want... you understand what you're eating- and you know the consequences of it, but, the little ones just trust us to give them what is good-- so let's make sure that we do that.


So, now that I've gone completely away from the beginning quote-- My point is this. Christians need to be in nature to fully understand and appreciate who God is. Nature shows us another side of God that so many of us have lived without.... Most of this generation grew up in a city (as opposed to a sustainable farm), watched tv, listened to music, played on the computer, sat in the school building for 8 hours a day, etc. Not all of us were brought up with the understanding that God shows himself to us in his creation, and that since it is our desire as Christians to fully know Christ, we need to seek him out in all areas where he is revealing himself. Even the buggy areas. ;) It is ESSENTIAL that we get back to nature... that we get back to the basics; not only for our health and our livelihood, but also for growth in our relationship with the Creator. He created this earth for us to enjoy and to take care of... but we cannot do that if we view it as something that is disposible and unimportant. It is of the upmost importance... plus, it is amazing!