Beyond Global Warming: Creation Care Is Holy Calling
BRD REFLECTIONS:
Judges 2:1-23 and Psalm 24 (NIV)
(Yeo Su Chen, Chairperson, Communications Ministry)
READ:
For this devotion, I have focused on Psalm 24:1-2.
OBSERVE:
As I write this reflection, I am following news about COP28, the UN Climate Change Conference where world leaders come together to discuss and make policies to regulate the world’s resources and tackle the climate crisis. The question that naturally comes to mind is what my Christian approach to global warming, climate crisis, and sustainability – creation care – should be.
The answers to Creation Care can be found in many parts of Scripture, including my reading for today in Psalm 24.
Psalm 24 opens with the loud proclamation by the Psalmist that the earth, everything and all the people on it, belongs to the LORD. God is the one who created this world for us to live in. The LORD gave man dominion over it and placed man in it to tend and watch over it (Genesis 2:15).
In essence, if this world and the earth’s resources belong to the LORD, then I am merely a steward of it, and I must share all the resources with my fellow men and women.
There is no basis that a more developed nation or a person with more financial means should be entitled to more rights or prerogatives to utilise more resources for their benefit while ignoring the plights and afflictions of those with less access to resources. God has created enough resources for everyone on this earth. It is the unequal distribution of and abuse of resources in this world by us that is the primary cause of poverty, social injustice, humanitarian crisis, wars and now, global warming.
Creation care or sustainability are not just buzzwords for 2023. It is contemporaneous with what our Father has intended from the day He created us – to care for and tend to His earth.
APPLY:
Over-consumerism and excessive materialism do not align with the spiritual values and disciplines God has commanded. As a Christian, I must integrate my spiritual values with how I live my daily life.
I must guard myself against accumulating and using excessive resources because the resources God has provided everyone are meant to be shared by all His creatures.
Besides, God has intended me to be more than what I possess. My identity and security are in Christ and not in possessions.
DO:
In practical terms, I will reduce overconsumption and resist buying more than I need. I should not have a wasteful mentality but cultivate more thrifty habits. If I have more resources, I should use them to help and support others instead of excessive self-indulgence.
PRAY:
Father, thank you for the clean air, water, land and other resources You have blessed us with. Help me not to take the resources that You have blessed me with for granted. Forgive me when I am materialistic, greedy, and indifferent. Transform my mind and heart so I can change my lifestyle habits and behaviour and become more respectful of and caring towards the resources You have created for us. In Jesus’ name, I pray, Amen.
