Accepting the Unexpected Journey

years of a pandemic, after two years of so much talk about what was and was not working for us before we even heard of coronavirus, after two years of asking what a “new normal” could look like, can we possibly start talking about a paradigm shift away from this materialistic way of looking at our “needs” and the economy?

After years of paying for electricity, we’re now overly concerned with not paying for electricity (especially while we are going to be paying off the solar panels for awhile). We know that for the first couple months of solar ownership we are going to be dealing with shorter winter days and cloud cover more days than not. But we’ve learned that even on cloudy days when it isn’t storming, we are still producing electricity. We’ve also learned that we can control our usage and hopefully we will finally develop the better habits we’ve been telling ourselves we were going to do years ago.

Being a pro-life environmentalist means you care about the planet because you understand all the ways a damaged earth negatively impacts the health and well-being of your fellow humans, particularly those who are most vulnerable. We prioritize creation care because we understand that a healthy planet is essential for the fruitful survival of the humans charged with its care from the very beginning. We want to see safe environments for all children to grow up in, from the womb on.

Perhaps if we refuse to accept the idea that people and issues are more complicated than “either/or,” we will be willing to challenge our friends, family, neighbors, and politicians to stop making it about us vs. them and just make it about all of us.

There are so many other ways that we can practice creation care. It doesn’t matter how you start; it just matters that you do something. Taking small steps, we can all start to care for the only home that God has given us, at least this side of heaven. If we all do a little, it can add up to a whole lot.

So what if Christians changed their lens from environmentalism to creation care? What if we started focusing on taking care of our planet as a demonstration of our love for the One who created it? What if we started working for a clean environment because of our love for our neighbors? What if we started showing concern for the plants and animals because we know that their survival is essential to our survival? What if we started seeing creation care as maintenance of the delicate balance that God put into place and taking responsibility for not intentionally destroying that balance?