wo new subdivisions had gone up not far from where I live, and the county did a highly commendable thing. They put in an asphalted trail for walking and biking, beginning from the center of the two neighborhoods, and running about a half mile to a nearby park. I'd often driven by, wishing I would get a chance to walk it. Then one Sabbath morning last March, I did. It would be a pleasant way to begin the day, I thought.

Wrong. Instead, it virtually wrecked that part of the Sabbath for me. I discovered that what looked so untainted, viewed from a 40 mph driveby, told quite a different story on the ground. Here's a partial list of what met my eyes along the path: Styrofoam containers, paper plates, paper cups, fast-food napkins, beer cans, beer bottles, drinking straws, a discarded chair, a spent bullet casing, a huge bag that once contained something for roofing shingles, a stuffed paper bag (looking as if it still held someone's lunch), spray cans, a picnic cooler, and broken bottles strewn all along the way like some sort of asphalt fertilizer.

I was so outraged that on my way back, when I saw a real estate person adding to the litter with signs for homes in those same new neighborhoods ("Luxury Homes," the signs said), I decided to take action. Moments after he put them up, the signs were down.

That very evening I left for Geneva. The beauty of the Alps was something else as I took it in on the flight from Paris. There was no other word for it but wow! Then we landed, and (surprise, surprise!) some of the same kind of people had preceded me. In this part of the world, renowned for its pristine environment, a few polluters had done their nasty work-in the grassy areas along the runway (of all places), and here and there along the train tracks from the airport into the city. Discarded bottles, fast-food containers, paper.

Are people becoming nastier? more filthy? All across the Washington, D.C., area and in Maryland and Virginia I see trash lining the streets; dumped in parking lots by people eating in their vehicles; strewn on sidewalks; and scattered in parks. Where are our elected representatives? I often think as I commute. Do they take helicopters to work? Or have they gotten used to the dirt? Why aren't people receiving heavy fines-even going to jail-for this?

Exceptions
I thank God for the exceptions. Switzerland is one of them. Apart from the instances just mentioned, the parts of the country I saw were simply whistle clean. Driving through Wisconsin following camp meeting last June, I couldn't help thinking: What a clean state! You drive through miles and miles of immaculate fields of purest green, as far as the eyes can see. I can't remember seeing a single piece of misplaced trash anywhere in the state.

In Portsmouth, England, for meetings a few years ago I would watch from my hotel window as a man came, several times a day, to pick up trash in the square below. Conscientious to a fault, he would always find some little thing that didn't belong, even when my naked eye could detect nothing there. How heartening it was to see it!

When I visited Indonesia years ago, the folks taking me around said you could tell the homes of Christians at a glance. The yard is unkempt, and there are pigs around. By contrast, the Muslim yards are immaculate, with no pigs in sight. What a witness!

In this respect, we Adventists should be like Muslims. And to a large extent, we are. "There was a light rain falling as I drove to work," I wrote in my computer when I got to my office one morning last May. "We needed the rain, to be sure. Still, the day looked drab. But as I came to the corner where Randolph Road meets Route 29, I gave out a wow! For that's when my eyes fell on the flower garden the General Conference grounds people had planted on the bluff overlooking the intersection. The flowers in full bloom, contrasting with the drabness of the morning, were like a glimpse of heaven. They spoke volumes about our faith, about the message we hold.

And on our grounds there wasn't a piece of trash in sight.

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Roy Adams is an associate editor of the Adventist Review.