As I reflect on today's topic I remember a scene in the Hunger Games movie "Mockingjay" where Peeta asks Katniss "Real or not real?" to help him sort out the truth. We live in a world today where arriving at the truth seems almost impossible especially when looking at Climate Change, which leads me to raise the question: For Christians does it matter if it is real or not real? Many in the evangelical world (my tribe) tend to side with the "not real" camp. This I propose is a blunder on our part. The real question that we should be asking is: Are we being wise stewards of this resource we call planet earth? Do our practices work with God's designs or against it? Do our practices fulfill the curse (Genesis 3:17-19) or limit its impact? Too often, or should I say for the most part, we fight against the earth rather than working within the design of creation. I cannot remember the exact setting, but when I was an undergraduate student studying forestry at UW - Stevens Point, one of my professors, Dr. Robert Miller, made a comment that the earth was very resilient and given enough time it could heal itself. He went on to say the question for us as humans was if we would be around to see that happen. The challenge that he was really putting out was if we would change our lifestyle to see that happen. Again will we work with or against creation?
During my high school years, in central Wisconsin, I remember sitting in Agriculture class talking about soil loss to wind and water erosion. I do not remember the exact number, but rather than the amount jolting us to ask if our farming practices were good or not we chose to rest in the fact that in Wisconsin we had a deep enough subsoil to grow crops on should all of the top soil disappear. We did talk about things like no till farming, but driving from my southern Wisconsin home to Colorado earlier this month I think it is safe to say not much has changed since my high school days except maybe the size of the monocrop fields. Rather than practices that build topsoil we continue to farm in ways that lead to erosion and soil degradation. It does not matter if climate change is real or not what we are doing is not sustainable.
For Christians we should not be getting caught up or lost in the real or not real battle of climate change, but rather educating ourselves on how God designed earth to be regenerative. Then we should ask are there ways to work with rather than against that design and then how can my lifestyle support that?
For those of us who grew up in a rural setting we tend to smile and laugh when we hear stories of kids from inner cities say that their food comes from the store not the farm, but my challenge to all of us is do we really know where the food we ate today came from? Do we know how it was raised? Do we know how many tons of chemicals had to be used to produce it?
The Harder family is on a journey to get most if not all of our food from sustainable/regenerative practices. We have been on this journey for a while now and are starting to ramp up our efforts. We have a long way to go and understand that it is not easy, but if we are going to live out our faith it is something that we must do. I would encourage all of my fellow Christians to join us on this journey and avoid the trap of "real or not real." Future generations need us to be better stewards.
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