Cleaning Up The Environment
The topic of cleaning up the environment has gotten bigger and bigger these days. On the one hand people like the lives they have and if this clean up involves major change then forget it! Yet the topic is not a new one. As a teen in high school one of my favorite topics was this very one.
While going over Mom’s poems and stories I came across this letter to the editor published in our local paper in the early 70’s. It may be 30 something but it carries a truth that stands the test of time.
Cleaning Up The Environment
(published in Times West Virginian 1970 something)
We have heard so much talk these days of the need to clean up our atmosphere, environment, etc. The rush to gain healthy bodies seems to fill the air and a necessity to seek ways and means whereby we may become a group fit to run a race.
That race we seek to run is often many things to many people, yet in essence, the hope of a better way of life rings out loud and clear from one end of the Earth to the other. This race for life is but a mere symbol of that which goes on within the inner man, a desire to fulfill a promise.
The promise which so long ago was but a whisper upon the lips of the feeble (not the feeble through age or disease) but rather a fear which is characterized by a weakness generated from a time of men’s minds being imprisoned by doubt and misunderstanding, whereby this age which we are now leaving has proven that indeed man does not live by bread alone, for we have been made witness to the fact that love is able to conquer all.
And via our desire to be free have we brought forward to the door of this new and fast approaching age, our hope and belief in all that is good, true, and beautiful for the whole race. We have not, as some might think, been asleep, regarding the heavy toll which has crept in among us due to our inability to handle aright the misgivings of a former age.
For whilst we were in a shadow we held fast to our beliefs and have been listening to the wee, small voice inside and have learned much of the ways wherein man in his ardour to rise to greater heights, hath been as a spoiling to the very heart of his soul. As the tree with its roots spread wide in the preparation of its stability, so have we been silently growing in strength, wherein we shall not be moved.
Now that we are established, having been grounded in faith by the love of that one life in whom we chose to place our trust, do we as a tree full grown, stretch forth our branches in a Heavenly manner awaiting the rain of our refreshing. Unto this end were we born, that man out of the weakness of his heart sought a better way, wherein dwells righteousness — a living strength as of a man mightier by the virtues of his knowledge of the things pleasing to his Father.
We see then that things pertaining to the flesh are indeed things which man is capable of changing and things pertaining to the spirit are of a truth, things which by their very nature cannot be changed or moved. It is for this cause that we have run daily, the race whose goal is fast approaching.
Indeed many are saying even now that the end of the promise draws near, or the culmination of a long awaited day is presently in our midst. Surely it is for those yet asleep, as pertaining to mysteries, concerning the word, appearing as an end to all things, yet for those whose spirit dwelling in an undaunted, changeless faith in things Eternal, these trials are but the stepping stones bridging the waters of life, the hope of a new day, just a step away from the rains of refreshing.
He in whom we have chosen to place our trust has said, “Let not your heart be troubled. It is for this end that the son of man has come into the world, that all men might have life and this life in abundance.”
Now for this reason do we look up and cry Abba, Father. For that which was once seen in a vision dimly is now being revealed. The tree that was once green is now become the dry tree, to show that in age doth mankind become full-grown.
And in this are we certain, that nothing can separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus, in whose name we have become witness to these things, that the One life having risen on the third day, being yet a symbol of a day yet to come, are now witnessing this day which was aforetime made mention.
“And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots.” This branch has now become the dry tree and recalling the words of our lord, “If they have done this in the green tree, what shall they do in the dry?”
We can only attest to that which we know. If the meaning of these words had been known, “I will have mercy and not sacrifice,’ that which was done in the green tree would not have been . Yet have we faith that the dry tree will be spared if only in a remnant, for God has promised that He would never again destroy the entire Earth for man’s sake, but would indeed save a remnant.
If so be that, we have at last learned that God does not wish to have sacrifice as meat for his table, and in preference does indeed desire a better, of the which we read in Isaiah 58: A fast, suitable to the Lord God, is to deal bread to the poor, to care for the oppressed and to hide not ourselves from our own flesh.
And indeed if we are one as a family of man, we are surely to the whole of the race as one, in the eyes of the ONE Omniscient, Omnipotent, Omnipresent God, who now advises us to be merciful, lending ourselves to the working out of the ONE Divine Plan, of the which Christ being the forerunner, has provided us the way, the truth, and the light, which leads to life eternal.
The way being the covenant that God has so provided, that life is eternal. The truth being that all things created are created for a purpose. Whose purpose? God’s and ours, to prove the effectiveness of the Divine Plan. The light being the word whereby we have access to that knowledge which leads the understanding of the Plan, whereby faith is our key to the unlocking of all doors, which lead into life.
Let us pray, but let us remember that it is faith which leads to the answer of all prayer and in our patience shall we preserve our souls.
Martha Martin
Fairmont, WV