Monday, January 22, 2007

On Global Warming

Ten Truths I Hold To Be Self-Evident About Global Warming:

1.) God created the heavens and the earth.

2.) God is sovereign over all of His creation. Our God reigns.

3.) God clearly calls us to be stewards of His creation.

4.) We are doing a spectacularly poor job of fulfilling our obligations as stewards, as we regularly fail to obey Lord and care for His creation and His people.

5.) We cannot intelligently expect to continue polluting our fragile, intricately woven, and life-sustaining environment indefinitely without expecting to eventually harm it irrevocably.

6.) Since the creation of this planet, there has never been one nanosecond when the climate, tectonic plates, land, sea, air, ocean levels, temperatures, weather, conditions, and life on this planet were static and unchanging. There has never been one moment when we stood still at some elusive point of pristine inertia.

7.) No amount of compost piles you have in your backyard or the act of driving your electric vehicle around town is going to hinder the next tsunami, earthquake, flood, or tornado.

8.) It's still noble and honorable to do whatever we can, to the best of our abilities, to answer God's call to steward this gift He has given us: this planet. And the lives we live upon it.

9.) When I was in elementary school, we were taught about the impending reality of the next Ice Age. Which was imminently going to cause global climate changes that would bring about catastrophic events that culminate in the destruction of all life on the planet.
Now as I sit here in my mid-30's, we are being taught that the polar ice caps are melting. Which is imminently going to create global temperature changes that will bring about catastrophic events that culminate in the destruction of all life on the planet.
That we are newly noticing the sometimes dramatic degrees to which our climate and earth changes should not cause us to embrace a global panic like a bunch of lemmings. After all, who created this earth? Who maintains control over all of creation, and promises us that He knows each hair on every one of our heads and intends to care for us, not to harm us? Do we really believe by faith these powerful promises of our Lord, or are we more compelled by the tangible drama we notice around us? Where is our FAITH?

10.) I reject the burgeoning sensationalism and delusions of human capability we are at risk of falling prey to when we adopt an "inconvenient truth" crafted by human beings when it conflicts with the real truth of the Bible. We're just so confident that we have perfectly defined this "global warming" problem and have all the answers to it, aren't we? I'll openly tell you: that kind of rabidly narcissistic meandering always sends up red flags for me. Certainly, there is common ground between the commonly digested human perspective on this and the Godly one. But in the end, God is in control. This is HIS Creation. Our sin prevents us from admitting our own powerlessness over His creation, and so we grapple with alternative ways to address it without actually having to admit our own powerlessness. We want to exert control, don't we? And that is where we fail. We are not in charge of this planet - God is.

The extent of our control is found in our total, humble submission to His will.


2 Comments:

Blogger Roxy Wishum said...

So......you've given this some thought? Obviously. Extremely well stated. Now, are you headed back to Target or not?

4:31 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Two winters in a row we've had snow here in Phoenix. I just don't get it. I am so confused.

3:22 PM  

Post a Comment

<< Home