Tao te Ching II

"Do you want to improve the world?
I don't think it can be done.

The world is sacred.
It can't be improved.
If you tamper with it, you'll ruin it.
If you treat it like an an object, you'll lose it.

There is a time for being ahead,
a time for being behind;
a time for being in motion,
a time for being at rest;
a time for being vigorous,
a time for being exhausted;
a time for being safe,
a time for being in danger.

The Master sees things as they are,
without trying to control them.
She lets them go their own way,
and resides at the center of the circle." -Tao te Ching

The Sabbath mind relates to improving the world, from Genesis:

"Then God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good. So the evening and the morning were the sixth day.Thus the heavens and the earth and all the host of them, were finished. And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made. This is the history of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens, before any plant of the field was in the earth and before any herb of the field had grown. For the Lord God had not caused it to rain on the earth, and there was no man to till the ground; but a mist went up from the earth and watered the whole face of the ground. And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living thing."

Man has indeed tampered with God's creation, and has done some ruining to be sure. I'm struck by the Ecclesiastes "a time for". I'm struck too that it didn't rain, that the water misted over and watered the ground. Even though we faltered at the beginning, and continue to do so, God did create us in His image; moral, intelligent, with a soul, perception, and the capacity to take these things and use our God given abilities and talents to improve God's creation to more of what He intended. We should strive for that, to improve things on this earth, and improve things about ourselves too. He entrusted us with His image. Think on that for a while. He's given us all we need, all of Him. For God's blue earth that we can turn back to fulfill His vision, and for each of us individually, that we can turn back to fulfill his vision of us. To do any less...
I think too on the word 'good'. What God created He saw as good. What He created was perfect. There is perfection in goodness. Some mornings, when greeting people, and they ask "how are ya?", and I say 'good', it's sometimes thought that I'm not my usual exuberant self. When I say 'good', to me, at that moment, I am feeling God's perfection within, that I am perfect in His eyes, and am grateful for that. Very grateful.