By Angel Dobler

When you are a child, the world revolves around you. It revolves around you and then you and your family, and then, all of creation, from your parents to the butterfly you were chasing through the garden. What a beautiful thought, “The world was created for me!” As we grow, we begin to realize there are more mes in the world, more individuals for whom the world was created. Our innocence and naivete begins to fade.

I was a child in the 1970s and ’80s in a town right on the Upper Mississippi River with both a state park and national wildlife refuge practically in my backyard. I spent my days weeding and playing in our vegetable garden, climbing trees and bluffs, swinging from vines, picking vegetables and berries and apples, and collecting nuts, and also learning to fire a weapon, shoot, and gut and skin a deer. We recycled and reused items. All around me were people who embodied a sense of connection to creation. I learned that life sustains life.
Whether it was out of necessity or want, my parents provided a childhood for me that was very simple, frugal and close to creation. Frugal ideas are often green ideas!

As an adult, it wasn’t long before I realized that only a small percentage of people embodied these characteristics; only a small percentage seem to take notice. What was this ambivalence? Couldn’t everyone see and understand our connection to creation? Did they not care?

Truth is, as the human race, we’ve become a throwaway society. We are frivolous with our resources. We don’t seem to take notice of this amazing planet that we’ve been asked to care for. We’ve become disconnected.

Being aware of green issues today goes far deeper than just changing out our light bulbs and driving our cars less.

Yet, you may be asking, “Why should I even care?”

From Genesis we read, “ ... so they can be responsible for the fish in the sea, the birds in the air, the cattle, and, yes, the Earth itself, and every animal that moves on the face of the Earth.” It is our responsibility to care. And in the Creation story, God said, “It is good!”

And don’t forget, as a church community, we have made a commitment to uphold the Millennium Development Goals. MDG 7 is to ensure environmental sustainability.

But still we ask, what has the environment got to do with anything that I do? We are a society of achievers, of wanting to gain or attain more, whether it be material wealth or status in our jobs or social standing. And we teach that God and spirituality are things to be attained. We look up from down below and spend our lives trying to get there, to attain more. We always seem to want more than we really need. Because of this type of belief system, when others have attained a different level of spirituality or understanding, or may be at a different place on the hillside, we view them as too ambitious, arrogant or having ulterior motives. We don’t understand them.

But now look at this from a different perspective. Imagine you are standing along the ridge top. This perspective gives you the opportunity to survey all that is within the valley, all people, all of creation. Spirituality and your connection with God are not things to be attained, but rather something to be developed. It is already a part of you.

Our problems today stem from allowing ourselves to become disconnected from that which makes us whole. What has the environment got to do with anything I do? Everything!
Think for a moment about your world view. Does it include anything about the environment, about ecology? To include the environment in our world view changes the way we view things.

For example, once we make the connection that all plastics are petroleum based and that they can only be recycled so many times — once we truly acknowledge that some of the chemicals we use to clean our homes will take hundreds of years to break down, that we realize that the earth can’t keep up with cleansing the excess carbon dioxide that we produce, then we begin to view things differently. We begin to change our habits and learn what small things we can do to create healthier beings and a healthier planet.

This disconnect or lack of intimacy is prevalent in our world today. It is clearly evident in the way we interact or don’t interact with the natural world. One young lady on a mission trip this last summer shared that she doesn’t understand why she should care. She stated that she is more interested in going to the mall.

She was being completely honest. She knew the right thing was to care. That’s the view of many young people today. Video games, movies and malls, technology is not a bad thing, but immersion causes a disconnect with the environment.

But, this is not just the concern of young people. Many older adults say such things as “been there, done that” in referencing interacting and being prudent stewards of creation. They feel that they are beyond the age where they need to care; they have, after all, been there and done that. And my generation, those of us in between, often feel so connected to everything else, taking care of our kids, running here, running there, making sure homework is done and so on, that we don’t see a time for caring for the environment. “It just doesn’t fit into my life.”

We see this lack of intimacy or connection in our churches and communities today as well. We are so good at compartmentalizing everything, that we miss many great opportunities.
Audrey Shenandoah, the Clan Mother of the Onondaga Nation says, “There is no word for ‘nature’ in my language. Nature, in English, seems to refer to that which is separate from human beings. It is a distinction we don’t recognize.”

Because of this disconnect, we are then disconnected from God, from creation and from our creator.

As a church, we lead by example. Churches and people of faith are always being judged and watched for their actions, to see if they practice what they preach. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we could truly embody creation stewardship and be a light to our world?

What’s happening to the planet? All you have to do is turn on the news and see the images of what we are doing. In any given week, you can find documentaries about what is happening to the earth. And complete programming blocks and channels are being devoted to green and environmental issues.

In Isaiah 24:4-5 we read, “The earth turns gaunt and gray, the world is silent and sad, sky and land lifeless, colorless. Earth is polluted by its very own people, who have broken its laws, disrupted its order, violated the sacred and eternal covenant.”

This destruction continues to happen because as humans, we affect the earth. But remember, we were created as part of the earth, and by destroying the earth, we are destroying ourselves.

So what do we do? Our first step is to reconnect with the earth and we’ll begin to know what it is we can do. Consider your world view, consider a theology of creation, of being a part of nature. Standing on the mountain top and looking down and surveying it all and knowing that you are part of it — God created it for you, to live in, to care for and to love. How do you fit in? What is your role?

Consider Job 12:7–12: “But ask the animals what they think — let them teach you; let the birds tell you what’s going on. Put your ear to the earth — learn the basics. Listen — the fish in the ocean will tell you their stories. Isn’t it clear that they all know and agree that God is sovereign, that he holds all things in his hand — Every living soul, yes, every breathing creature? Isn’t this all just common sense?”