Leave It Better
So I saw that there is nothing better than that a man should rejoice in his work for that is his lot. Ecclesiastes 3:22a
“Leave it better than you found it.”
She said it every time we were packing up!
In a family of six children, our vacations were almost always camping trips. This principle is one my mother would declare as we were preparing to go home.
She also used it in someone else’s house where we had been playing, a backyard that had been used as a playground all day, and any other place she felt we had a responsibility, not just to clean up, but leave it better than we had found it.
This admonition sums up something every Christian should practice in this life.
I was recently introduced to the teaching of Hugh Whelchel.* In the series I am listening to he is talking about “work” and how God has wired us, called us, and uses us in the work we do.
In one of his lectures I could hear my mother’s words – this time with a more faith-filled tone.
In Genesis 1:31 God saw everything He had made and “behold, it was very good.”
But, just before this declaration of the good of His creation, God commanded the man and woman He had created to “be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth (Genesis 1:28).”
After the Fall things lost the state of “very good” that God had made them in. While no one person is capable of returning the earth to its original created state, God calls each one of us to leave it better than we have found it.
God created everything and rules over all (1 Chronicles 29:11-12). Think about the areas this covers (a sampling follows).
Evangelism – the quickest route to restoring what God created is to have more people who love Him and obey His commands.
Family – The world is trashing the family, God’s ordained structure for society, to anyone who will listen. As Christians, we should be the saltier and brighter voice.
Education – God has clearly stated the responsibility of parents for the education of their children. Many Christians believe that the curriculum of the public school is not detrimental to their children because they have “good teachers.” The problem is that those teachers have to teach what is prescribed. With no intervention by Christians to stand against the humanistic teaching of public schools, we are sending our children to the wolves. (I see many Christian teachers positively touching the lives of children through their faith. This does not negate what the child is learning in the curriculum.)
Government – by believing that Christians and Biblical principles should not be involved in politics, we have seen the downward spiral of our nation. Are we willing to be the light shining in that dark place?
Environment – God has given us a responsibility to take dominion over the physical earth. This is not a call to worship the creation over the Creator but to use the creation for the glory of the Creator.
We are to make good use of what God has given us in every sphere of life. In my mind I hear that as “leaving it better than we found it.”
How can you, using the gifts and calling God has placed on you, leave this world a better place from a godly, Christian viewpoint?
* Biblical Stewardship—The Problem w/ Work: tinysa.com/sermon/6618181174