You may be shocked to learn that each year at least 14 million tons of plastic trash end up in God’s oceans. For us things have reached a tipping point — the last straw.

From a biblical perspective, “trash” is an affront to the glory of God; it mars the beauty of God’s creation; it diminishes the witness of creation. We think we “throw” so-called trash “away.” But what that really means is we no longer see it — literally out of sight, out of mind.

But God is not mocked; there is no “away” from God’s sight; there is no “away” in God’s creation. Trash always ends up somewhere, and that somewhere belongs to God. It’s as if we sneak into God’s backyard and pile all our trash there and then pretend like it never happened.

The things we label as “trash” are really failures of stewardship, failures to treat God’s creation as He does, which is our calling as images or reflections of God’s will here on Earth. The way God created things, everything is “recycled.” There is no trash. God doesn't make junk.

Unfortunately, we do. And when we look at the magnitude of the problem, we quickly see it’s much too big for any one of us alone. What can one person do about a yearly deluge of up to 14 million tons of plastic trash?

You can join with us by taking The Last Straw Campaign Pledge! No need to feel overwhelmed, because the journey of repentance begins with a single step, and the Lord is with us as we go. The first step is for all of us to stop using plastic drinking straws and to politely decline them when out at restaurants. This may not seem like much, but even one straw can adversely impact the life of one of God’s sea creatures such as a sea turtle.