This pile of trash, consisting mostly of cans and bottles from alcoholic beverages, was left on a large gravel bar on the Paluxy River in north-central Texas. So much for “Don’t Mess With Texas”. When my son and I came upon the mess during our reconnaissance float of the Paluxy, I instinctively hated the litterbug, whoever he or she was. I wanted to give them a knuckle sandwich and a tongue lashing.
What kind of jerk walks their trash down to a river bank and leaves it there for the next good rain to wash it away?
Apparently, someone who doesn’t care. Reading the contents of the pile, someone who is so weary of life that their only break from the pain is when they’re drunk. The only moments of peace they enjoy are when they are disengaged with reality. Their only happiness is a fantasy.
Do better! Be better! These are common imperatives shouted by the morally superior in ALL CAPS on social media at mean people, stupid people, and Darwin Award winners. Often a photo is posted of the offender and/or their offense. Does this work? If I yelled at the litterer who didn’t care “CARE MORE!” would it change their behavior? Do they have a littering problem or a sin problem?
“The mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.” Romans 8:7-8. When Paul wrote these words under the inspiration of the Spirit of God, he was speaking of people who are not saved. Paul continued, “You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, but if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you.” Those in the flesh are not new creations in Christ. Because they are spiritually dead, people who are not saved by Jesus do only what their physical nature desires to do. Even their good deeds are ultimately driven by self-interest. Jesus said to His disciples “I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.” If even Christians can do nothing good apart from Christ, how much more helpless are sinners who know nothing of God’s forgiveness, who have not been born again (see Jesus’ conversation with the Pharisee, Nicodemus, in John 3).
Litterbugs don’t need to be yelled at with more volume, or cussed, or beaten. They don’t need better morals. They need new natures. Our world isn’t suffering because too few people know enough about science and the environment. The world is trashed because “all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God”, Romans 3:23.
Haiti suffers terribly from soil erosion. Despite being a tropical island with ample rain and sun, the landscape in many communities is poor in grass and tree cover. With every rain, every hurricane, every earthquake, rich topsoil slides towards the ocean, sometimes in catastrophic mudslides that bury people alive. Besides the obvious long-term impacts of soil loss on agriculture and the farmers’ income, the nation struggles to export their world-class tropical fruit because road conditions prevent the transport of crops, such as mango, from reaching ports before the produce rots. The energy of falling rain isn’t dissipated by vegetation and the mechanical erosion of rain and runoff causes potholes the size of two-ton trucks to rapidly develop. 
While working in Haiti in 2003, I asked why every yard was swept clean of grass and shrubs. The answer was startling – and revealing. Many Haitians believe that demons inhabit bugs, snakes, and other creepy crawlies. In order to keep them away, you need to destroy their habitat: grass. The Voodoo religion which permeates Haitian society and informs the Haitian environmental ethic, leaves people in crippling fear of nature and of one another. This was explained to me by the Haitians themselves. Is that cat a shapeshifter? Is that spider a demon? Did my neighbor hire a witchdoctor to curse me? It isn’t en vogue to be critical of another’s religion, particularly in a culture not your own. What do those who preach against Christian missions propose be done to address the Haitian heart and mind? Tell them to do better? To be better?
I prayed for the stranger who left the trash on the Paluxy River. Because I’m a sinner who has been forgiven much worse crimes, I realized I was guilty of harboring hatred towards a person that needed to hear the Gospel. Those who have been forgiven much, love much. I love Jesus because He first loved me and has forgiven me much. Because I love Jesus I love the things He loves, and that includes the creation that was made through Him and for Him. The sustaining motivation for applying myself to sensible water management is not daily doses of rage at environmental destruction, crisis response, or moral superiority, but Christ’s Spirit dwelling in me.
New creations in Christ are made capable to nurture creation as wise stewards, equipped to address the spiritual root causes of environmental destruction. Jesus didn’t come to show us how to be better humans. Dead people don’t respond to instruction and can’t follow examples. Jesus came to make us new living creatures able to do His work.
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” ~ 2 Corinthians 5:17
The Gospel is so rich, true, and comprehensive. Thanks for showing one more way it can be applied to avoid our own fleshly, useless reactions to others’ misbehavior. Our world desperately needs examples of living faith – Christ constraining and restraining His people for good works:
For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men,teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age,looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, – Titus 2:11-13