During the last few months I’ve climbed on the “living natural, going green, frugal living, etc.) bandwagon. Or, as my husband calls it, “crunchy granola, and just shy of tree hugging.”

I really never saw myself ever going down this road, but then again, I had never envisioned myself as a homeschooling, stay-at-home mom either. Funny what happens when you say you’re never going to do something.

Despite being teased by my husband and others for my new found appreciation for things like vinegar and baking soda, I’m having a lot of fun turning my house upside down, figuratively speaking, in an effort to clean it with safer products, serve my family whole foods, and care for my body with products made out of natural, non-lab modified products. And, there’s a plethora of great blogs out there to feed my new obsession.

However, the more I delve into this new kind of doing things, the more I’m aware of a deep seated problem that pervades every area of living “wholly” and “naturally.” It is easy to swing to extremes in the attempt to live as safely as possible, and leave as small of a carbon footprint as possible, but in the end, our world is broken, fallen, depraved. No matter how carefully we live, or how diligent we are in what we purchase, the ultimate problems in the world are not going to be fixed.

One current issue that has been of interest to me of late is that of natural gas drilling. The process, called frac-ing, uses water to bring up natural gas from deep below the surface of the earth. There are plenty of people who don’t like this method, claiming that the process pollutes water and can cause health issues, so they attempt to block the drilling. But, in situations like this, what alternative do we have? Which is better? To potentially pollute water, or to have coal miners die of black lung or mine cave-ins? Which is better, to have unsightly oil rigs spotting the horizon, or to have windmill farms that possibly create hearing issues with local residents? Which is worse, to have oil rigs in the ocean that can potentially leak massive amounts of oil, or move people out of their homes in order to flood an area, and create a reservoir for hydropower?

There’s no one good solution to these problems. The same goes with products that we use everyday. We hate those non-biodegradable, non-recyclable plastics, but the development of those very materials coincided with the production of better prosthetic limbs, various implants, safer cars, and so many of the other things that make our lives more convenient today.

Ultimately, I’ve concluded that while I need to be extremely cautious about the products that come into contact with my family, and I need to work to conserve energy, recycle, and protect the environment, there is no perfect way of living. Everything in the world is subject to futility, and only when Jesus comes again will everything be made right.  Green living is good, but building relationships with people and helping to usher in God’s kingdom are of infinite value.  This world will one day be gone with all of its problems, but people will remain.  They are eternal.