Green and Black by passtheword on Blogster

I just got off the phone with my aunt. She's been visiting with my mother for the past couple of weeks trying to help her out with some things she needs done around the house. In our discussion, we got on the topic of being "green"...you know, being environmentally friendly, etc. This all started because I mentioned that my wife and I recently bought a new set of pots and pans because our old ones were, well...old. Unusable, would probably be more the word to describe it. Anyhow, she told me she hoped I didn't buy teflon pans because those were bad. "Bad?" I asked. "Yes," she said because they're bad for the environment and are supposed to emit all sorts of bad gases into the atmosphere and your food, too. She's very adamant, too, about buying all sorts of natural products because of all the chemicals our food contains when it's processed. I'm wondering if there's anything that's out there that we could safely eat, lol.

I told her after we had talked about all of this, that "Green is in". And it is. You can't pick up a magazine, read a newspaper, watch or listen to the news on your radio or television without hearing about "Being Green". Even on our AT&T home page today, there was a story entitled "5 worst excuses not to go green" (I guess Kermit isn't the only one who has a difficult time being "green"). The Weather Channel touts it every hour it seems, and there's even a radio station in San Francisco (Green 960) which devotes itself to the "Green" Phenomenon.

Now...I believe we should do everything we can to ensure our environment is safe and to take care of ourselves by eating healthy. After all, God has given us these resources; He expects us to be responsible in taking care of our bodies and environment.

But...what about the spiritual? It seems like we've gotten so focused on taking care of our physical bodies and environment around us, we've, in turn, neglected the spiritual. While Jesus was on this earth 2000 years ago, He was always insisting the spiritual, not the physical, was the most important aspect of our lives. We should focus on the spiritual much more than the physical, but now, it seems we're giving all our attention to the "green" rather than the "black". What's the "black", you might ask? It's all those spiritual impurities known as sin that are in our spiritual body. My aunt has a machine that's supposed to draw out all the physical impurities of your body (through your feet, no less). She says the stuff that's drawn out looks really nasty...I don't wanna know, lol. While we're spending our time drawing out physical impurities, trying to eat natural foods, and keeping our physical environment clean, we're devoting little if any time to our spiritual man. As mankind, we really gravitate to the physical realm. We live in a physical world, and we experience it through our physical senses, so it makes sense that we're very focused on the physical part of our lives. To devote energy to the spiritual takes a whole lot more effort. If we spend our time cleaning up our bodies and environment without looking after the spiritual, what have we really accomplished in the end? Jesus tells us that we'll reap what we sow. He used the physical realm as an example to demontrate this cause-and-effect relationship of reaping and sowing by stating that if we plant one type of vegetable, we won't have a different type of vegetable come up in its place. It's not possible. The same applies to the spiritual. If we "plant" good things in our lives, we'll reap good things in return. If we "plant" bad things, we'll reap the same. If we look around us, we are reaping what we have sown. If we open our eyes, we can see all the damage that's been wrought by sin; broken homes, addictions, school shootings, just to name a few.

There is a way to draw out and confront those spiritual impurities we have. It doesn't involve a machine, either. He's a person, and His name is Jesus Christ. He went to the cross and gave His life for us, so we could be forgiven of our sins. If we come to Him in sincerity, ask Him for forgiveness and devote our lives to Him, He'll clear all those sins away as though they never happened. Not only those, but our sins we'll commit in the future as well. He'll help us have a life that's full and give us a willingness to keep ourselves spiritually clean. We won't be perfect, of course, because we're still within human boundaries, but He promises to help us deal with those areas in which we need help. Green might be "in" but Jesus can help you "get the black out". Once the black is gone, we'll get a new color: white, as God promises to wash away our sins, making us as "white as snow". :)