I recently heard that “If every household in America switched out one [regular light bulb for a] compact fluorescent bulb it would reduce energy consumption as much as taking a million cars off the road.” -Rob Bell 7/29/07 brackets mine.

A million cars off the road! Imagine that.

I was introduced to these bulbs by my European in laws. Not only do they reduce your energy usage, they last longer, which means more for your money. Now, perhaps you’re like me, when I hear the word fluorescent I think of those long tubes giving off the nastiest, most unforgiving light. Not the case here. These bulbs actually give off light similar to a regular light bulb. We have switched out almost all of our bulbs for these. It’s really probably the easiest thing you can do to be more mindful of the earth we live on/with.

think about it.

I have been listening to the Mars Hill Bible Church, God is Green series. The series has been pretty interesting. A lot of it is stuff I have been trying to practice in my own life. The best part of the series came at the end, on July 29^th. The preeminent piece is all the practical information (in the form of a list of websites and books) on how to make simple life changes for a huge positive environmental impact. So, I thought would reproduce the list here below. You can download it directly from the Mars Hill Bible Church website here.

And now for the list:

1. energystar.gov

2. consumersenergy.com [green generation program]

3. dmaconsumers.org/cgi/offmailinglist

4. Habitat for Humanity ReStore [5701 S. Division] – habitat.org/env/restores.aspx

5. localharvest.com

6. eco-cell.org

7. thegreenoffice.com

8. rateitgreen.com

9. ecologicalmail.org

10. treehugger.com

11. grist.org

12. lime.com

13. eartheasy.com [cleaning supplies]

14. earth911.org

15. coopamerica.org

16. crsfairtrade.org

17. javaforjustice.com

18. ecocycle.org

19. gdiapers.com

20. restoringeden.org/about

21. creationcsp.org

22. creationcare.org

23. sustainablestyle.org

24. wmsbf.org

25. clothingmatters.net

26. floresta.org

Books:

• For the Beauty of the Earth by Steven Bouma Prediger

• Saving God’s Green Earth: Rediscovering the Church’s Responsibility to Environmental Stewardship by Tri Robinson

• Serve God, Save the Planet by J. Matthew Sleeth, MD

• Living the Good Life on God’s Good Earth by contributing authors, edited by David Koetje

There is something distinctly beautiful about the desert when it rains. It is always a little ironic. It’s kind of like financiers handing out balloons at an animal shelter. We expect it every year. It is the season that justifies the fact that we call desolate washes, rivers. And they really do become rivers, if only for a couple of days. It usually starts with a lot of humidity and heat. There is some meteorological juju that happens with that combination. And, before you know it, the sky becomes black. We sometimes see lightning, we sometimes hear thunder, and we usually get torrential rains from out of nowhere. The storms don’t usually last long, but while they last, they are vicious. Streets become streams, and as I said earlier, washes become rivers. It’s dangerous to drive. People inevitably try to cross washed out roads and often get trapped. In this situation the best case scenario is, needing to be rescued by the fire department. The worst case scenario is peril. It’s so bad that, we here in Arizona, have enacted the stupid motorist law.

Okay, so the point of all of this is, contrast. I was in Belfast this summer hanging out with some friends. When we arrived the weather was rather warm and balmy. They told us it had been like that for a few days, and that such weather was really odd. We were told that there was supposed to be a change the next day. Sure enough, the next day it began to rain. It continued to rain for the duration of our stay. It was that second day however, that was really remarkable. I guess because it had been so hot previously that when it began to rain, the ground wasn’t ready to receive it. Consequently, they had what we refer to as the great flood of Belfast. It was so bad that a friend of ours had to be rescued by firemen. I had left the windows open at the house we were staying, the house of our friend Jayne. I had met her the day before and thought for sure that I had destroyed her house. Rest assured that her house was not ruined.

This week we have been enjoying a pretty good monsoon season. Now, note that I am a native to Tucson. I have seen my share of monsoon storms. So when I say this year we have gotten some decent storms, it means something. Twice this week my street has become a river. It has been nice. So, at last we come to the anti climax of this narrative. I wanted to share some photos with you. Enjoy. All of these photos were taken outside of my home near the University of Arizona.

So I promised Ben that I would upload some photos of the cookout we had outside of his home. Don’t let him fool ya, he can cook a mean steak for a Finn! we also had grilled figs filled with chocolate, very interesting. Oh and notice that even in Finland weber is the only way to grill.

if you were presented with the option of living a long but rather regular life or a shorter but more inspired life which would you choose?

Quiet, subtle and queer, the man like Jesus.
He wore eyes like emerald in their sparkle-
Much like a warriors’ arms, disarming hostility.
Blessed are the peace makers.

Landscappy, abstacty, and smiling eyes.
Cheers

Jerky, quick, generous and genius.
The philosopher is. And always laughing.
He’ll speak in tongues when no one is looking,
Buckdaft, nice one, take the piss, bang on, and cheers.

Oh and she knows pain, she’s so creative with it, that, and those liquid Caucasians’ she’s an artist-princess and he has such cool hair, he’ll rouse the crew for a drink or two.

I feel hope; it emanates from the wall of this new expression. Roxie’s a dreaklock dog that aint dreading so well.

Oh well, he’ll ramble us through and explain it better than any of us, with fire.

Add tunes and she’ll capture our faces landscaped in a dream.

They are… iconic, apocalyptic, heretical, emerging, failing…

and they are friends.

So this past lent season I gave up morality. What a ride. More to come…

We spent the week with Pete Rollins, author of “How (Not) To Speak of God“, and a founder of ikon. What can I say except it was fun. Pete is a great guy and if you ever get the chance to hang out with him, do it. I say it is even better than reading his  book.

A friend sent me this and I just couldn’t resist sharing.