In the Season of Creation, we look to the Creator with awe for sweet peach trees and life-giving waterways and conception of babies around us. But what do we do when nature becomes a source of destruction, suffering, and financial hardship?

Too Much of a Good Thing

I chatted with a neighbor from Idaho about the climate changes and devastating droughts that have become the troublesome norm where she's from. This year, the unusually warm winter caused the peach trees to bud early, but then a single freeze occurred and killed every single peach bud. The peach farms lost their entire crop. Their annual income would’ve been wiped out by that single freeze if a legal exception hadn’t been made for those farms to purchase and resell peaches from other places. 

As we talked, my neighbor also shared about the droughts that weren’t a problem when she was growing up. Now, however, her parents are under water restrictions and their grass is so dry, it hurts to walk barefoot. She said, "if my parents could just get a tiny percentage of the rain we get here, it would help so much."

Meanwhile, the rains here continue. A week and a half of rain and now our basement is flooding. Now we're ripping out the carpets. Now we're calling around for sump pump installation and basement waterproofing. And despite a dry day here and there, the rains keep coming and the water keeps seeping into our basement. 

How do we worship God for nature when drought or floods are what we're experiencing?

Lament as Worship

Lament is an act of faith that there is a God who listens, cares, and can make change. Lament is a spiritual discipline that allows us to look suffering in the eye because we aren’t hopelessly resigned to it. 

Without faith that God cares enough to listen and do something, it can be nerve-wracking to look straight at suffering. Instead, we try brushing it off because we’re afraid that God either doesn’t care or won’t make change for some unfathomable reason. We rehearse platitudes like “God gives his toughest battles to his strongest warriors” or “God must be doing this because it’s somehow good.” You don’t have to believe that to believe in God’s power, sovereignty, and goodness. There are other wills in the world. There is an enemy who actively causes harm and wishes us ill. And we humans are a mixed bag! Sometimes, we are really good at partnering with God to bring flourishing in the world. But we also make a lot of convenient compromises when we’re too tired to make the better choice for the planet (think: composting, doing the research to buy sustainably sourced items, etc.). And these decisions cause real harm. We experience the consequences of evil and of our own laziness and ignorance. 

Lament is a great first step in the process of repentance because it can be hard to genuinely repent when you haven’t grasped the harm done by your sin. First, we grieve, lament, and believe God’s desire and power to create change. Then, we repent of our role in the harm and begin partnering with God to bring about that change. 

By lamenting in the midst of flooded basements and an entire year’s crops doomed, we worship God as Creator, Redeemer, Comforter, Restorer, and Provider. 

Quick Guide to Lament

Problem
Name the suffering, sin, or grief experienced.
“How long, Lord? Will you forget me forever? …How long will my enemy triumph over me?” (Psalm 13:1-2)

Request
Tell God what you want Him to do about it.
“Look on me and answer, Lord my God. Give light to my eyes…” (Psalm 13:3)

Statement of Trust
Call upon His character and faithfulness. This could be a great time to pray one of the names of God! 
“But I trust in your unfailing love; my heart rejoices in your salvation. I will sing the Lord’s praise for he has been good to me” (Psalm 13:6)

Creation Care as Worship

Creation care is a recognition of our responsibility as God’s partners on earth and our role in the climate crisis. Lament is grieving with hope which can move us to action. 

Greed is a big problem for the climate crisis. And a sentence like that probably calls to mind big corporations and odorous smokestacks polluting our air. But our personal greed and insatiable consumerism is also guilty. When we refuse to be satisfied with what we have, we cast off our old technology, clothes, and toys to buy shiny new, trendy things. As such, those big, bad corporations hurry to meet supply and demand– digging for the dwindling minerals to make technology and hiring as cheap of labor as possible to produce enough fast fashion to satisfy their consumers. We are in a cycle of tormenting creation for no justifiable cause. Our responsibility is to interrupt that cycle. 

We can do a lot of things to care for creation. This month, I’ve been noticing the many little things I’m “too tired” to try right now. In an "easier season of life,” I’ll care about the earth God gave us to steward.

It’s not that I’m saying we have to immediately overhaul our entire life. I recognize too much change usually isn’t sustainable. While the planet may appreciate you for a month, you’ll likely revert to old ways and, in the long term, do less. But I do think it’s valuable to consider: what level of pushing yourself will perpetuate continuing growth in your life? 

Here are a few of my own challenging creation care thoughts:

Composting: Our city has household compost bins, which I didn’t grow up with, so it’s a new habit in the last couple years. But I’m still figuring out the best way to hold a little food waste in the kitchen before taking it out to the bin. I had a little pail, but then we got fruit flies and had to stop. I haven't yet picked the habit back up. 

Using Reusable Grocery Bags: I mostly shop at Aldi, where reusable bags are the norm. However, what I can’t buy at Aldi, I pick up at another store where they are not the norm. I didn’t even think about using reusable bags at the local store until this Season of Creation! So I’m trying to extend my reusable bag habit to both stores. 

Hosting Potlucks: Most weeks, we host our Church small group. And each week, we begin with a potluck meal. But when you’re hosting 15 adults and 6 kids, the go-to is disposable products. I’ve switched to our silverware because we have enough, but to use real plates would require us to mix and match our china with our everyday dishes. And it would be a BIG load of dishes to do after group each week. So, I’m still mulling over that environmental choice. 

Your Turn

Lament is an act of faith. What environmental harm do you want to bring to the Lord in lament?  Creation care is part of the original call of humanity, but we haven’t done a great job. What changes do you want to make to steward the earth? Comment below!