A Testimony of Hope in the Face of Climate Change

I’ll be quite frank. I’ve always had half a mind to just leave, to just carry out the rest of my life in the wilderness. I could escape to the rustic cabin where I spent many a summer as a child immersed in nature. Whether it was gallivanting through the woods with my grandma, swimming in the lake with my parents, creating sand castles with my sister and cousins or constructing the perfect campfire with my uncle and grandpa, I knew I was at home in nature. I have always felt intimately close to God in the wilderness.

Last year, I adventured to the boundary waters in northern Minnesota for the first time and portaged out from a beautiful Lutheran camp called Wilderness Canoe Base. I experienced the presence of God all around me among my church friends with whom I portaged, within the towering storm clouds through which the setting sun radiated and within the depth of the waters through which we canoed. These are moments—cut off from the rest of the world—I wished could go on forever.

For a long time, I was extremely discouraged when I pondered the people in this country who are in power and what little they are doing to reverse the effects of climate change. Their minds are filled with money, power and success so much so that they have lost touch with reality. The reality is that our planet is dying, and the people who are fortunate enough to have the means to instigate change choose to lead lives of ignorance and greed. As much as I would like to go live in the woods and enjoy nature while I can, I know I cannot. If I ran away from the problems facing our world, I would be just as selfish as the ignorant people who discouraged me in the first place.

It wasn’t until a rainy, Tuesday morning a few weeks ago that I realized I had entirely the wrong approach to the crisis of climate change. I was allowing the dreariness and gloom of the situation to overwhelm my emotions when I should’ve simply been letting the rain fall. I viewed climate change as imminent destruction that would result in eschatological catastrophe due to the disconnect between humanity and nature.

We live in a sheltered world often shielded by doors, ceilings and walls, which have separated our species from our environment. Pondering the nature of my own current disconnection from the storm outside, I peered out a window separating me from fields of green grass nourished by the freshly fallen rain, and I realized that sometimes a storm must dwell overhead in order for growth to occur. I felt my spirits rise as my own internal storm passed. My heart swelled with an intense longing to break through the window and feel the rain on my skin and in my hair, so I exited the building and did just that. The rain healed my soul. From then on, instead of letting climate change sadden me, I used my emotional capacity and care for nature to motivate me. Instead of running into the wilderness as a way to escape, I could love the earth and connect that love to changing people’s hearts and minds—to grow care for the earth in other people.

It is my hope that our planet’s struggle with climate change will eventually lead to growth, and I now feel incredibly motivated to instigate that growth and care. Occasionally, my motivation falters, and sadness attempts to take over. But, in times of spiritual or emotional warfare, I look to the word of the Lord for guidance. For example, Hebrews 10: 23-25 says,

“Let us keep firm in the hope we profess, because the One who made the promise is faithful. Let us always think how we can stimulate each other to love and to do good works. Don’t stay away from the meetings of the community, as some do, but encourage one another.”

As the author of Hebrews writes, “Let us keep firm in the hope we profess,” the word “we” refers to the first-century Christian population to which the author is writing. In a broader context, “we” can be interpreted as the whole Christian population itself, and thus, the author reminds Christians to be a hopeful people whose faith in the Lord is unfaltering. In terms of climate change, this is a call to a positive outlook. We must profess hope even while facing ecological hardships, even in the face of devastating climate crises.

The author of Hebrews continues, “the One who has made the promise is faithful.” This speaks to God’s covenant with us. In terms of our planet, this reminds me of the covenant that God makes with Noah and all creation. After the great flood overtakes the earth, God promises to protect the world from future floods and sets a rainbow in the sky as a sign of this covenant. I think this can be viewed as a promise from God to protect the earth from total ecological destruction. This, however, must not be construed as license to disregard care for the planet. We’re part of the covenant, so we must live faithfully into that covenant to care for the earth.

Finally, the author of Hebrews states, “Let us always think how we can stimulate each other to love and to do good works. Don’t stay away from the meetings of the community, as some do, but encourage one another.” We as Christians are called to love and serve others and, as Lutheran theology explains, our faith sets us free to do good works in the world without fear of sin. We are called to be bold in our quest for climate justice, and we are called to meet with others in our communities to brainstorm ways to reduce carbon emissions and reprogram technologies to utilize renewable energy. We are called to encourage one another to use sustainable alternatives and practice sustainable living. We are called to be stewards of our planet—and to be so in community

This message from Hebrews inspires me and my commitment to respond to the earth that I came to love in the wilderness. The interconnectedness of science and religion has always been something about which I am extremely passionate — I am a double major in biology and religion. One of the facets of my vocation is to become an ophthalmologist and another is to become a published theologian. Someday, I am going to publish books about how people can believe in creation and evolution simultaneously in terms that the layperson can understand. Surely there are scholarly articles that highlight this topic, but I feel called to educate the public about this matter and many others. Once we understand these connections, we see that it is our very faith that moves us to respond to the scientific realities of climate change.

In the meantime, we people of faith must go into the beautiful world to educate our peers! We must go affect change!  With God by our side and in our hearts, there is nothing we can’t accomplish in the face of greed and ignorance.

Allison James is a sophomore at Gustavus Adolphus College and is from Eden Prairie, MN. She is a double major in Biology and Religion with the hopes of someday becoming an ophthalmologist and published theologian. She is currently employed by Gustavus as a research assistant in the Department of Religion. Allison grew up attending Normandale Lutheran Church in Edina, MN, which has rooted her life in faith and sparked her passion about the consilience of science and religion.