Last week for the midweek post, I started writing about the major life-changing events that have occurred over the course of my life. Last week, I wrote a little about the Jesus quest that I went on to understand who Jesus is and what His characteristics truly are. Today, I would like to tell you about how I moved from not caring too much about the environment to being someone who cares deeply about this world and the animals that inhabit it.
When I was growing up, the schools and churches that I attended didn't place any emphasis on environmentalism and wildlife conservation. In fact, they were very much opposed to any type of environmental concern as it was viewed by them as worshipping the creation and not the creation.
I am sorry to admit that this attitude cared over with me when I started college after I had attended Bible college. I was definitely not environmentally aware. However, that was soon to change.
When I attended my second semester of college, I was enrolled in a college algebra class that meet at 8:00am. I liked to get to college at 7:00 so that I could go to the library and study for what for me was a very difficult subject. Some days, I didn't have much algebra study to do, so I would spend time looking at some of the books in the extremely large library at the college that I was attending.
By chance, I came across a book called "Tiger: Portrait Of A Predator" written by Valmik Thapar and Fateh Singh Rathore. This book recounted the experiences of these men as they studied tigers in the Ranthambore Park in India.
After reading this book and seeing the extraordinary pictures that were in it, I feel in love with tigers, and I wanted to do what I could to make sure that these wonderful animals were not eliminated in the wild. I began an in depth study of tigers and other big cats focusing mostly on Bengal and Siberian tigers.
From there, I begin to read as much as I could about wildlife conservation and ecology. I began to support organizations like the World Wildlife Fund and the Wildlife Conservation Society. I became an environmentalist.
For the first time, I realized that God has called us to preserve and care for this world that He has made. We are not to dominate and abuse this earth and its creatures. We are to tend the earth and make sure that future generations can enjoy all that God has made.
Right now, the earth is in a precarious situation. Species are becoming extinct at an alarming rate. Climate change is a real threat. We have to take action now so that future generations can have an earth that is filled with life, clean air and clean water to drink.
Reading this tiger book really changed my life. I believe that it was the hand of God that brought me to that particular section of the library to find that book at that time.
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