Blog

By Jessyka Dooley

Recently, plastic straws have been taking quite a bit of heat for their contribution to waste in our world, most specifically our oceans. Although some might say plastic straws are not the biggest contributor to ocean pollution, it’s become quite popular (especially among those more woke individuals) to ditch those convenient, one use instruments of baby turtle torture and opt for a reusable, animal approved stainless steel or silicone drinking instrument.

You’re probably thinking to yourself one of two things:

1) “I don’t want to kill baby turtles, where do I get a woke reusable straw?”
2) “This is too much of a Crunchy Granola Boulderite* conversation for me.”

If you were thinking number two, keep reading . . . even though you probably dislike reusable grocery bags as well, you monster! But if you’re like me, you own a whole set of reusable straws and have heaps of cloth grocery bags that you forget at home more times than not when you go grocery shopping. Glad we can be friends!

Unfortunately, there’s a problem. Sipping from a fancy straw and carrying your groceries in much sturdier, environmentally-friendly bags is not going to save our planet. As much as I’d like to think that my intentional deeds with my straw will lower the ocean’s temperature with each sip, they don’t. So then why do it? Why take all the time, effort, and money to do things that seem trendier than an actual solution? Also, why do something when it’s so minuscule? Go big or go home, right? The truth is, the little things add up. The straws add up. A culture is created.

In the West, we live in a culture of convenience and, quite honestly, a bit of selfishness. We want life to be easy on us and that includes not having to tote around reusable straws wherever we go, not to mention having to wash them after using them—what a pain! Society has begun to blame global warming on oil drilling, plastic bags, air pollution, and yes, even plastic straws. These things are not holding the smoking gun, though; we are. Our culture pushes so hard to convince us not to think about the before-life or afterlife of the objects that give us a cheap and easy life of luxury. Drink from a reusable straw not because it will save the planet, but because it changes the culture—and the culture we create can save our planet. If we can make caring for our world popular in small ways, we will move toward caring for our environment in big ways.

As Christians, we should be championing every cause to do what’s best for this world. It doesn’t matter your geographical location on the globe, what news platforms you follow, or who you vote for. As Christians, anything that we can do to care for this world and the people who live here is what we are called to do.

We’re told in Genesis 2:15 that God took Adam and put him in the garden to work in it and keep it. Please let me point out that this was before sin entered the world. In a perfect world, Adam, or man, was put in the world to work it and keep it! From the beginning, God intended us to be a people who not only care for the world He created, but a people who stand up in His image and continue making it a beautiful place! Find any loophole you want, but why would you want to get out of this one?

God has given us the incredible privilege to take part in continuing the creation of this world. It is such beautiful news that one day, the earth will be cleansed and made new again, but that is no excuse to not care for what is in front of us in real time. Didn’t Jesus pray a prayer once? Something about how we want God’s will be be “on earth as it is in heaven?” I’m not sure about you, but I don’t think a polluted world is God’s will for His special Creation.

Sure, this planet is not even close to your dream, my dream, or God’s dream—and it won’t be until it is made new—but that shouldn’t stop us from eating healthy food, educating ourselves, and traveling to new places. There is still so much to enjoy about this world. We should be a people who make it more enjoyable and more beautiful in any and every way we can. Find the ways big and small that you can use to protect and care for our blue and green home. Pick up your stainless steel straws and change the culture one drink at a time!

–Jessyka Dooley is RMC associate youth director. Email her at: [email protected].

By Shelly Miller

EDITOR’S NOTE: The author has spent the last 30 years as an environmental engineer. First, training to become a professor (PhD Berkeley 1996) and then teaching and doing research at the University of Colorado Boulder as well as working her way through the ranks (full professor Mechanical Engineering 2015). Dr Miller’s expertise is in urban air pollution—sources, health effects and how to reduce exposure. She is also one of the world’s experts on indoor air pollution and especially what goes on in your home. And guess what, she says, your home is not as safe as you would like it to be. What you don’t know about your indoor air quality really can hurt you. With the Adventists’ emphasis on health, it would really be smart to impart knowledge about environmental health to our future generations.

With only a short article to impart wisdom to my readers, where should I even begin? How about with the number one polluting activity we all do in our home? Especially since we value cooking healthy foods for our families, here are some important facts about cooking. Cooking generates very small particles that we air pollution engineers call ultra- fine and fine particles. Ultrafine particles are so small you can’t see them. Consider that the width of a human hair is 100 microns. A fine particle is less than 2.5 microns and an ultrafine particle is less than a tenth of a micron. Fine particle pollution is regulated by the US Environmental Protection Agency because it has been shown in numerous studies around the world to cause serious lung and cardiovascular diseases and cause more people to die early.

We are learning more and more about ultrafine particle pollution, and what we do know currently is these very small particles easily translate to all organs in your body—brain, liver, kidneys, and even the plaque in your arteries. Back to cooking—when you cook, you are “burning” carbon in the form of food (just like in your car, you burn carbon in the form of gas). This combustion process generates pollution, and not only particles but also volatile organic compounds. The amount of pollution generated depends on the food you cook, the oils you use, and the temperature at which you are cooking. To protect you and your family’s’ health, this pollution should be directly exhausted outside of your home.

This is the number one rule of environmental engineering—the most effective way to control environmental contamination is to remove the pollution right at the source. Many kitchens have exhaust hoods installed over their stove. And many of these hoods do not even exhaust the pollution outside of your home, instead they spit it right back in your face. If you are lucky enough to have one that exhausts outside, chances are it’s loud and so you are usually annoyed when it is on and inclined not to use it. Recent attention to exhaust fans has led to the manufacturing of better hoods and an understanding of how to use them so that they minimize pollution in your home. One suggestion is to use the back burner and always turn on the hood even when you are using the oven. By the way, in addition to pollution generated by cooking, if you are also using a natural gas stove then you are generating an additional respiratory toxic chemical—nitrogen dioxide. This gas is known to increase asthma incidence, respiratory infections in children, and cause cardiovascular disease.

Another topic of concern is the use of toxic chemicals in our homes. Please visit SixClasses.org for more information and I will hit a few of the highlights here. Most people think that some state or federal agency must be regulating the chemicals we buy in the local stores and use in our homes and on our bodies. Unfortunately, this is not at all the case. Tens of thousands are used in our household and personal care products that have not been tested for toxicity.

Let’s talk plasticizers. Phthalates are used to make plastic products softer and malleable. They are in many toys, home flooring, food containers, etc. They are also used to enhance fragrances in your soaps, detergents, cleaners, shampoos, deodorants, etc. Encasing smells in phthalates makes them last longer in your environment. So, your clothes smell like lavender all day. Except that Phthalates are endocrine disruptors. They wreak havoc on your hormones, causing many diseases (cancer, infertility, obesity, asthma).

What can you do? Purchase products that are fragrance free (not easy to find; for example, in the Boulder Target store in the deodorant aisle, there are only 2-3 products that are fragrance free). Note that fragrance free is not the same as unscented; often additional chemicals are added to un- scented products to mask the odors of other ingredients. Minimize your use of flexible plastics, opting for silicone, glass or natural materials for flooring such as bamboo. Minimize your use of personal care products and use household cleaners with minimal ingredients that you recognize (like vinegar). Better yet, make your own. If you do enjoy fragrances and are not reactive to smells, then use of essential oils is the next best thing.

So . . . where do we go from here?

We educate ourselves on how to care for the planet, learn what are the top activities that are destroying the planet, and study how polluting impacts our health. Read books, talk about it with your friends and community, make purchases that reflect your environmental values, and demand cleaner better products for your home. Educators could teach environmental science and health modules in middle schools, high schools and even medical school (many chronic dis- eases start with household toxic chemical exposures). In the end, what we don’t know can be harmful.

As we read in Genesis 1:1, “First this: God created the Heavens and Earth.” The earth was created for us. We have been pretty rotten stewards of this beautiful planet over the centuries, with its amazing resources and brilliantly-de- signed ecosystems. We have polluted the water, the ground and the atmosphere with our consumerism and lack of fore- sight to live by the principle of “do no harm.” As in Revelation 11:18 (MSG), John writes “the time has come to … destroy the destroyers of the earth.” As Adventists, shouldn’t we be taking up the mantel of protecting our earth and be- come engaged? Not doing anything is equivalent to sup- porting anti-environmental activities, which makes us a part of the problem. Ask yourself every day, “Have I done no harm?” and more importantly “How have I shaped our planet for the future?” We should immediately step in and advocate for reducing carbon emissions to affect climate change, for reducing consumerism, for cleaner air and water for the globe, etc.

We need all hands (including our fellow church members) on deck to protect God’s creation and live according to God’s principles, which include caring for each other and our planet.

–Shelly Miller, PhD, is an environmental engineer and professor at University of Colorado Boulder. She is a member of Boulder Adventist Church. Email her at: [email protected]

By Nathan Brown

In 2016, I was in Canberra—our nation’s capital—for four days of training and political lobbying with Micah Australia, a coalition of Christian justice and development agencies, of which ADRA Australia is a part. Featured guests at the event included about a dozen church and community leaders from Pacific island nations, who were sharing stories of the effects and threats of climate change and rising sea levels in their various nations. I was standing at the back of the room during one of the briefing sessions, when one of the Micah organizers mentioned to me that the two young women from Kiribati were youth leaders in their local Seventh-day Adventist Church, as well as representatives of a community climate action group on their small, low-lying island.

Naturally, this information caught my attention, and, between sessions, I introduced myself to these women and we made a time for me to interview them the following day. As we sat in the warm Canberra sunshine, away from the larger group, I recorded their responses for the story I would write.1 At the end of my questions, I stopped the recording, and thanked them for their time, as well as what they were doing in their home nation and for those few days in Canberra.

Then they stopped me. “Is it OK if we ask you a question now?” one of the young women asked politely. I assured her it was fine and was curious what they would ask. “Do you think what we are doing is right?” she continued quietly. The two women went on to share their misgivings about their political involvement, where extreme weather and rising seas might fit amid the signs of the Second Coming, and

how even the Pope had spoken out about acting in response to climate change. “So,” they pressed, “do you think we should be involved in activism and actions on this issue?”

I was struck by their questions and have reflected on them since. That these two articulate young women, representing their nation to the elected leaders of a powerful neighbor, would feel undermined by their understanding of our Adventist faith troubles me. That our faith was not the primary motivation for their robust response gives me pause.

I assured them that, by sharing their story, I was keen to amplify their voices as widely as possible. I talked with them about how our original calling as human beings was the care of the natural world as stewards of God’s good creation and, while “all creation has been groaning” as it awaits and anticipates our “glorious freedom from death and decay” (Romans 8:22, 21, NLT), there is no point in the Bible’s story at which our stewardship of the earth is revoked.

We talked for a few minutes and our conversation seemed to allay their concerns, even as we acknowledged the complexity of some aspects of these issues. We prayed together before returning to the larger program. The next morning these women stood on the lawn in front of Australia’s Parliament House and told some of their story again, addressing a crowd of supporters that also included elected representatives and parliamentary staff members. Even if they still had uncertainties, I was proud of their stewardship, witness and faithful representation of our Creator.

Faced with climate-change symptoms but also the political polarization around these issues, none of us has to venture far into Adventist conversations, online or elsewhere, to find similar unease—or worse. From my observations, “Adventist” responses tend to fall into three categories of response: climate change might/might not be real but there is little we can do about it, if anything, it’s probably connected with the end-time disaster scenarios we have long predicted; climate change is a hoax, most likely a conspiracy engineered by the Pope, the United Nations, or other shadowy international powers; or the Adventist environmentalists, who rightly see climate change as a call to take up our role as stewards of creation with renewed urgency. But mostly it seems obvious that there is a collective awkwardness in our responses to this issue across our community of faith. There is also a risk that even the best of these responses

comes with a veneer of faith but is derived more from pre- existing political assumptions or allegiances. It does not help that climate change has been thought of as an article of belief or disbelief on both extremes of the cultural and political debates, which muddies the already-warming waters. Using such language almost demands that we believe either in the return of Jesus or stewardship of creation, in defending creationism or engaging in environmental activism. We need to reject these false dichotomies, as we need to resist our pen- chant for conspiracy theories. Neither of these pseudo-faiths are helpful in living faithfully or loving well in our world. Our faith always calls us beyond ourselves and our temptation toward insularity, tribalism and fear.

So, I don’t believe in climate change, as an article of faith— in the same way that I don’t believe in gravity. Rather, both are scientific understandings, explanations and projections of observable and measurable phenomena in our world. But I do believe that we are stewards of creation—charged to “tend and watch over,” literarily “serve and protect” (see Genesis 2:15), our world—that we are called to curb our over- consumption, to reduce pollution and waste, to champion our plant-based diets, to speak up for and act on behalf of the people who are most vulnerable to our changing cli- mate, and to offer greater opportunities for all people to choose healthier lives.

As attested by those young women from Kiribati, climate change is having an impact on the world’s island nations and their populations, including our fellow church members. In Fiji, four villages have already been forced to relocate away from the coastline, with more relocations planned. But this is not only an issue there, it must be an equally urgent issue in developed nations such as Australia and the United States. While climate denialism seems akin to the historical obfuscations around the dangers of tobacco—albeit on a larger scale— perhaps more pernicious is “accepting” and understanding without acting: “Those of us who know what is happening but do far too little about it are more deserving of the anger.”

Of course, this means we need to make better environ- mental choices in our lives and our homes. And, as a church, we also need to reaffirm our biblical mandate as stewards of Creation, and to implement policies and practices that reflect what we say we believe.

We need to change how we do things as a church, as well as using our voice and influence to lobby our governments and our communities to greater action to protect our environment,3 and to helping disadvantaged nations and communities adapt and survive in our changing climate. For believers, this is not a mere political issue, it’s a question of stewardship and justice.

Yes, Jesus will return—but that has never been an excuse for inaction. Instead we act with courage and creativity as faithful stewards in the light of this hope (see Matthew 25). Those of us who respond to the call to “worship him who made the heavens, the earth, the sea and all the springs of water” (Revelation 14:7) must always be concerned for the protection and preservation of the natural world and those who are hurt by its degradation. As evidenced by my conversation with my Kiribatian friends, we need a stronger and deeper theology of creation care—and a greater urgency for living it out.

Nathan Brown, is a writer and editor at Signs Publishing in Warburton, Victoria, Australia. Check out the website for Nathan’s newest book “Of Falafels and Following Jesus” at www.FalafelsandFollowingJesus.com. Email him at: [email protected]

References

1. “Kiribati Adventist Youth Urge Greater Climate Action,” Adventist Review, November 22, 2016,<www.adventistreview.org/church- news/story4571-kiribati-adventist-youth>.
2.  Jonathan Safran Foer, We Are the Weather: Saving the Planet Begins at Breakfast, Hamish Hamilton, 2019, page 122.
3. Official Statement of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, “The Dangers of Climate Change,” <www.adventist.org/en/information/official-statements/statements/ article/go/-/the-dangers-of-climate-change/>. Voted in 1995, it seems time to update, strengthen and renew this call.

By Shayne Mason Vincent

Litter

I grew up in northern Minnesota, surrounded by Grizzly Adams beatniks, and your typical small-town flannel-wearing folk. What they all had in common is that they loved nature and took care of it. The forests were well tended, and the towns were clean and simple. As a result, I was raised with a very strong ethic of what you can and cannot throw out the car window. An apple core along a lonely highway, yes. But if mom caught me throwing out a wrapper, oh boy.

This was right around the beginning of the Adopt-a- Highway and Hooty the Owl programs, I never realized how effective they were until I visited Japan in the late 90s. Certainly you cannot compare the woods of Minnesota to a megalopolis like Osaka; yet even in the countryside where my host lived, I saw litter everywhere—in the ditches, on nature walks, near the rice fields. It was heartbreaking. Litter is, unfortunately, the norm in the larger world. For example, statistics of how much trash humans are dumping into our oceans is staggering. A recently published study by the National Academy of Sciences stated that:

1. There are over 14 billion pounds of trash pouring into our oceans per year.
2. Eighty-eight percent of the ocean’s surface is now polluted with plastics.
3. There is an estimated 5.25 trillion pieces of plastic debris in the ocean.
4. Of that mass, 269,000 tons float on the surface, while some four billion plastic microfibers per square kilometer litter the deep sea.
5. An estimated 1,000,000 birds and 100,000 marine mammals and sea-turtles die each year due to plastic pollution.

Ideology

Our planet has gone from the head of gold empire, to toenails resting in a landfill. And to say it plainly, material- ism is the cause. To illustrate this, while I strongly suggest that you do not watch this show, (it was terrifically vulgar) South Park, ironically, always made very profound moral statements with their episodes. One particular episode was related to Walmart. A new super-store had popped up in their town, and it was destroying all the small businesses. So, the kids went on a crusade to get rid of Walmart. As they fought their way to the source of its power, they finally made it to the “evil boss” who controlled Walmart. He said to them, “So you want to destroy Walmart, do you? Well then, let me show you what the heart of Walmart is!” At which he opened a safe, where he revealed a mirror wherein the kids saw themselves.

You see, our blame of corporations for their “evil” and “greed” is in reality, our own selfishness. We are the ones who empower corporations. It is our obsession with materialism that is turning our planet into a landfill. The Huffington Post recently revealed that, “There are now more storage facilities than there are McDonalds in the United States!” Since the post-WWII housing boom, our square footage has tripled, and our garages have doubled, yet the car sits in the driveway because it’s too packed with junk. In Luke 12:15 Jesus warns us, “Beware! Guard against every kind of greed. Life is not measured by how much you own.

Practical application

If our beaches are to be filled with sand dollars and not the refuse of the dollar, then we have to change our concepts of what actually has value. Take a lesson from the Psalmist, 49:17. “For when they die, they take nothing with them. Their wealth will not follow them into the grave. In this life, they consider themselves fortunate and are applauded for their success. But they will die like all before them and never again see the light of day. People who boast of their wealth don’t understand; they will die, just like animals.” This is perfectly illustrated in a quote I love from Joshua Becker, where he said, “We don’t buy things with money; we buy them with hours from our life.”

Gen X- Z have begun to figure this out. They realize that their parents and grandparents neglected their families and dreams in the pursuit of building bigger barns. And for what? Having worked in hospice for years, I can tell you, the average of those who die within the first year of retirement is painfully high. So, the young have begun to embrace the concepts of minimalism, buying only what they need, and thinking long-term about the consequences of their life choices. In this “new economy,” the youth are now spending their money on experiences rather than on things. They are wisely moving away from vicariously living through television and are living the adventures for themselves.

Moving forward

As stewards of God’s planet, we can lead in this new sustainable capitalism, through how we, as individuals, impact the environment by the power of our wallets: through where we shop, what we don’t buy, and how we spend money on time rather than things. Because the only way this will ever work, so that it isn’t just another ideology, is to make ecology profitable for corporations. After all, it only takes one knucklehead in the fast lane to slow down miles of traffic. So, stop counting your influence as irrelevant, and begin to recognize, society itself is merely the collective decisions of millions of individuals. And that means me and you.

–Shayne Mason Vincent is lead pastor, Casper Wyoming District. Email him at: [email protected]

By Jenniffer Ogden

We were stopped at a red light when the car in front of us randomly expelled a drive-thru bag full of burger wrappers, French fry holders, and napkins out its passenger side window. This pile was followed shortly by a drink cup with a lid and straw intact. When the cup hit the pavement, the lid popped off and liquid splattered and drained on the asphalt. My friend and I gaped at the mess and looked at each other, quite shocked at the occurrence. My friend gently put the car in park, opened his door, walked up to collect the heap and stashed it in a bag in his car for proper disposal. As the light turned green, the litterer once again rolled down the window and out popped . . . a straw wrapper.

As Christians, we believe that this earth is a crafted treasure, handmade by a loving Creator. And actions that destroy and harm this planet should grieve us. We must fight to en- sure that care for the ruggedly delicate home, in which we all reside, is both learned and pursued.

In Genesis, we have the poetic narrative of a formless void being intentionally shaped to create space for flora and fauna. The water to nourish life flows, the skies fill with the calls of birds, sturdy trees produce fruit, and the stage is set for the pinnacle of creation to arrive. From the soil which will produce all that is needed to help physically care for them, God shapes humanity.

A directive is given to the humans by the master artist “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth” (Genesis 1:28). This hand-crafted planet is entrusted to the human stewards and their progeny. The earliest humans have the privilege of managing a freshly born environment with God educating them on how best to precede.

However, this shoulder to shoulder partnership was cut short. The abuse of creation, instigated by a rogue part of the creation, has been shaped in ways unintended. Fast fashion creates toxic rivers and enslaves millions of people. The demand for fossil fuels has deforested and damaged miles of earth. The unwillingness to create sustainable water usage has caused encroaching deserts to move more swiftly. The abject refusal to reduce, reuse, and recycle has left heaps of trash dotting the planet, including the oceans.

The terminology of “have dominion over” lends itself to being interpreted as dominate, command, control or even enslave. Dr. Ellen Page, professor at Duke Divinity School, points out that “the Hebrew phrase (radah b-) includes a preposition that is in most cases not equivalent to the English preposition “over.” This means a varying translation would better suit the original texts and leave the text, in the English, more diligently rendered as “Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness, so they may exercise skilled mastery among [or, with respect to] the fish of the sea and among the birds of the air” (Genesis 1:26).

The earth can be viewed as a resource to be exploited. And that mindset will continue to lead to species going ex- tinct, polluted water sources, and terrible air quality. The earth can also be viewed as a space to treasure. And that will enable species to thrive, water to be readily available, and breathing to remain enjoyable. We are not here to damage, diminish, or dominate the planet. We are here to partner with God in the furtherance of creation. In Genesis 1:30 God makes clear his plan for a space, this earth, to sustain life “everything that has the breath of life” will be fed by the planet on which it lives. When we view ourselves as responsible stewards for the space in which we live with wombats and weevils, sequoias and saguaro, snowflakes and sunsets, the choices we make about how we live on this earth will change.

Dr. Richard Bauckham, in his book The Bible and Ecology, links the Bible to science with the acknowledgment that “Bible writers were not able to plot such interconnections scientifically, but they articulate a vision of creation that is coherent with the science, while focusing, as science properly cannot on matters of value, ethics responsibility, and especially, the creation’s relations with God.” The research science provides, teaches us of the deeply interconnected relationships in this world. The Bible teaches about Gods relationship to this world. And together, the pictures developed by both the Bible and science help us establish a practice of care for this home base. The combination of being aware of the interdependence of life on this planet and the being aware of God’s role in the making and sustaining of this planet, leads Bauckham to the idea of a community of creation. This community of creation groans with the effect of sin. And it is the whole of creation that “will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God” (see Romans 8:21). Just as humanity depends on the soil, and air, and water of this planet, so it depends on us. As a large, interwoven community, we benefit from the integrity and diligence with which we all care for the world around us.

As we understand that our relationship with God will also bear the fruit of caring for the planet, the way we interact with the planet will change. The money used to buy food will buy more local produce and fewer heavily packaged items. Cheap clothing items will not make their way to our closets. We will walk more and drive less. We will buy and use reusable water bottles. The effect of our connection with God will be one that benefits not only our eternity, but also our present.

An acquaintance of mine used to laugh at me as I begged him to, “Please, recycle that!” His response to my plea? “God is just going to burn it all up anyway.” This earth will indeed be made new one day. In the meantime, we live here and demonstrate our care for the great community of creation daily. This earth is here as a testimony of the mastery of God. Let’s choose to partner with God in this community of creation and care for this home planet with diligence and integrity.

–Jenniffer Ogden is senior pastor of Boulder Adventist Church. Email her at: [email protected]

References

Holy Bible: English Standard Version. Crossway Bibles, 2001. Ellen F. Davis, “Meaning of Dominion,” n.p. [cited 28 Jan 2020]. Online: https://www.bibleodyssey.org:443/en/passages/related-articles/ meaning-of-dominion; Bauckham, Richard. Bible and Ecology: Redis- covering the Community of Creation. Darton, Longman & Todd, 2010

By Brenda Dickerson

As Seventh-day Adventists, we highly value our Sabbath celebrations. Much time, energy, effort, and money go into facilitating weekly worship. This investment rightly reflects our belief that the Sabbath was established at creation to be a continual reminder of the value of God’s relationship with us.

But what about God’s other directives to humanity given during creation week–specifically, the charge to care for the world that He had just brought into existence? How much time, energy, effort, and money are we currently investing in maintaining the earth? How important is it that we embody creation care as a global church, local community of believers, and individual citizens?

Some may argue that creation care doesn’t matter because “it’s all going to burn” when Jesus returns. However, the last two chapters of the Bible tell us clearly that our final home is not heaven, but this earth. Consider the following summary from Chris Blake’s book Searching for a God to Love:

Our final destination (forever home base) is not heaven, but this earth made new—where we will plant gardens and tend them and eat their produce. How we treat this planet now is how we will treat our future home forever. When we understand this, we realize why environmentalism is especially important to Christianity.

Perhaps, in the end, practicing creation care is as much about building our characters as it is about protecting the earth.

A billion acts of green

So, how can we as Adventists become more diligent stewards of the space God created for us to inhabit? There are, in fact, a number of easy ways for local congregations and individuals to honor our responsibilities to the earth. Since 1970 when U.S. Senator Gaylord Nelson founded a teach-in Earth Day (celebrated yearly on April 22), educational Earth Week activities have been big with schools. And recently companies and community organizations have also gotten involved. If your local community lacks Earth Day activities, your church members could be the ones to get the ball rolling.

Living green at home and church

We’ve probably all heard the slogan Reduce, Reuse Recycle. These concepts are not new; many of our grand- parents followed them as a way of life. They just make good sense. Here are a few ways to live green you may not have thought of yet (or used to do but kind of forgot about).

1. Recycling: What’s working, what’s not. Recycling continues to be one of the best ways to minimize the amount of damage we do to the environment, and it’s something every- one can—and should—do. According to the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) most recent statistics, we are re- cycling steel, aluminum, and glass products endlessly.

But recycling plastic is an entirely different story. The EPA reports that despite the sharp rise in the amount of plastics generated, large-scale recycling still lags far behind the recycling rate of other product types.

2. Paper or plastic? Neither. Each year the United States consumes 10 billion paper grocery bags, requiring 14 million trees and vast quantities of water.2 However, plastic bags are not a better solution since hundreds of years from now they will still be floating around. The truth is that our usage of plastic and other disposable items doesn’t need to continue. Just remember to bring reusable bags for grocery shopping and mesh bags for your produce (leave them in your vehicle). There are many eco-friendly, high quality alternatives available today, including biodegradable trash bags.
3. Let’s talk about cleaning. Try using old T-shirts cut into rags instead of buying sponges or paper products that will end up in the landfill. When purchasing cleaning products, look for ones made with toxin-free and biodegradable ingredients, such as those found at methodhome.com. You can also make your own cleaning products from baking soda, vinegar, lemon juice and olive oil.
4. What about your wardrobe? Doing laundry is a never- ending process that affords opportunity for downsizing your carbon footprint. You can start by reducing the amount of laundry you do. Most outer clothes do not need to be laundered after only one wearing. Minimize your washing by dressing in layers and choosing clothes suitable for your task. For protection from food spills, dirt, etc., wear an apron or old shirt over your clothes.

When you do need to launder clothing, the first line of defense for the environment is to use as few chemicals as possible. If you’ve been able to install a rain barrel, use rain- water for soaking your hand washables. Then you will need only the tiniest bit of soap, as rainwater is very soft.

One of the biggest environmental burdens in laundry rooms is the dryer. Clothes dryers use large amounts of electricity and emit carbon dioxide. When possible, hang laundry on a rack or a line outside to dry.

5. A natural lawn and garden. A lawn is the most expensive and highest-maintenance part of any yard, so only grow grass where you really want it. When you mow, leave grass clippings on the lawn. Sometimes referred to as “grasscycling,” this provides nutrients (nitrogen and phosphorous) equivalent to one application of fertilizer.

As for the rest of the yard, try growing at least one thing you like to eat. Even if you don’t have much space, as long as you have some sun you can grow a tomato vine or some organic lettuce in a pot. To feed your garden, try composting food scraps. All you need is a container with a lid to control odors and a place to make your compost.

You may have noticed that creation care goes hand-in- hand with another of our crown jewels—our health message, often referred to as “the right arm of the gospel.” The principles of earth care beautifully strengthen our physical health, and vice versa.

The bottom line

As with establishing any habit, choose something that’s interesting to you and can be done fairly quickly and easily. Then just do it . . . and keep doing it until it’s a natural action. Each year try to add something new. Whether it’s using cloth shopping bags or recycling containers or growing a community garden at your church, you can know that you are helping to protect our earth and fulfill our role as guardians of creation.

–Brenda Dickerson is Mid-America Union Conference communication director and OUTLOOK editor. Email her at: [email protected]

By Mark B. Johnson

I have often been asked why it is that Adventist health- care, which had such a wonderful blueprint for health so early in our history, and was originally so universally admired, has never quite been able to regain our past reputation or obtain the credit we so richly deserve for our unique and inspired views on health reform.

This article provides some thoughts on that question and how Adventist healthcare might fit our blueprint today.

You’re not going to like what I have to say.

The assumptions behind the question are inaccurate— our work in healthcare has never been as exceptional or as innovative as many Adventists believe and Dr. John Harvey Kellogg was a quack.

Please, hear me out.

It can be argued that Dr. John Harvey Kellogg, under the initial guidance of Ellen G. White, was the founding medical authority for the ministry of healing in the Adventist church. Taking over the struggling Western Health Reform Institute in 1876, he almost single-handedly turned it into the most renowned health facility of his time. I’m sure you’ve heard how his Battle Creek Sanitarium attracted many rich and famous luminaries.

What you may not have heard is that most of these celebrities also spent time at the Bernarr Macfadden Sanitorium in Battle Creek, at the Jackson Sanitorium in Dansville, New York, and at many other health spas around the world. In the late 1800s, that’s what rich people did. They spa-hopped.

America in the late 1800s was saturated with ideas on health and fitness. It was a time of great enthusiasm for better living but with very little science on which to base sound recommendations. There were myriad “health faddists” from whom one could obtain “inspirational” guidance, and innumerable quacks, promoting and profiting from “unsubstantiated methods that lacked scientifically plausible rationales for their therapies.”

Orthodox medicine was using “heroic” measures that had no scientific basis and was dispensing useless and dangerous medications, often with high concentrations of alcohol, opium, cocaine and other noxious substances. This made the “natural” philosophies much more appealing. Most Americans felt that nature was the best physician, and the prevalent populist philosophy taught that everyone had the God-given right to care for themselves and their families. It is still a popular feeling today.

Many “medical schools” at that time required no prior education and their courses often lasted only 16 to 20 weeks. Most “medical students” were apprenticed to an established doctor and set out on their own when he (doctors were usually male) thought they were ready. There were no accredit- ing bodies and many states had no medical licensing requirements.

The confused condition of medical education and the haphazard practices of medicine in the United States were so substandard that in 1910, under the aegis of the Carnegie Foundation, Abraham Flexner did an investigation of the 155 medical schools then in operation in America and Canada. He recommended that 124 of them be closed. He also advocated for educational reforms and endorsed state licensure for the practice of medicine.

Ellen G. White and John Harvey Kellogg lived through this time of upheaval in American medical education. Kellogg obtained his training both at Dr. Russell Trall’s Hygieo-Therapeutic College, which specialized in hydrotherapy, and at New York University’s Bellevue Hospital, which practiced more orthodox medicine.

He then became a celebrity, known for his writings on health reform, his food creations and exercise equipment inventions and his status as a surgeon. Many questions have been raised, however, regarding his peculiar views on sex, pantheism, hydrotherapy, the application of electricity and his prodigious use of enemas. He was seen as one of the greatest physicians of his time, but today you will find him referenced almost exclusively in books and articles on quackery.

The practices at both the Western Health Reform Institute and the Battle Creek Sanitarium stemmed, in large part, from two visions Ellen G. White had on health reform which focused on natural cures and lifestyle choices. This has been called our healthcare blueprint: the use of water, air, light, heat, food, rest, exercise and light labor; trust in God; abstinence from alcohol, tobacco and stimulants; and the correct use of the will. These natural remedies are currently reflected in the Weimar Institute’s NEWSTART program (Nutrition, Exercise, Water, Sunlight, Temperance, Air, Rest and Trust), and in AdventHealth’s CREATION Health curriculum (Choice, Rest, Environment, Activity, Trust in God, Interpersonal relationships, Outlook and Nutrition).

These remedies have the advantage of being natural. They use modalities that are free to all. Their judicious use has quantifiable health benefits. None of them requires the use of expensive drugs or technical equipment. You do not need a license to prescribe or practice them. They do not require certification. Anyone can use them. Anyone can train others in their use. Anyone can claim to be an authority in their use.

But none of these natural remedies is unique to Adventist health reform and we were not the first to advocate for the use of any of them.

So, is there anything special about Adventist healthcare?

I believe there is, and I believe it forms a crucial element in the beliefs of a church that claims to have a special interest in end time events.

Ellen G. White and John Harvey Kellogg had a stormy struggle over what course healthcare should take in the Seventh-day Adventist denomination. Ellen White won the initial skirmishes, but the war is far from over. The fight, as I see it, is still being fought along two main battle lines: the role of science in healthcare and healing as an integral part of the Gospel.

Almost all the health reformers of the 1800s eventually went down the path of Vitalism, the belief that there is a mystical, invisible, unmeasurable energy source which is the basis of all life and causes disease when it is out of balance.

In the New Consciousness and in much of holistic health, (this energy) appears under a variety of aliases, such as universal life energy, vital forces, Ch’i, bioplasma, para-electricity, and animal magnetism. We are told that . . . this energy pervades everything in the universe, unites each individual to the cosmos, and is the doorway to untapped human potential. It is at the root of all healing, all psychic abilities, all so-called miraculous occurrences. It is what religions have called God. It is the crucial link between science and religion, and it is awaiting our command.1

Kellogg was on a similar mystical trajectory when Ellen White and the Adventist leadership blocked him. Ellen White, almost uniquely among early health reformers, came to support evidence-based science working together with religion. She feared mystical fanaticism.

There is constant danger of allowing something to come into our midst that we may regard as the workings of the Holy Spirit, but that in reality is the fruit of a spirit of fanaticism. . . . I am afraid of anything that would have a tendency to turn the mind away from the solid evidences of the truth as revealed in God’s Word. I am afraid of it: I am afraid of it. We must bring our minds within the bounds of reason, lest the enemy so come in as to set everything in a disorderly way. (2 Selected Messages, p. 43)

She also warned that in the last days satanic forces would both cause and cure diseases and that there would be many “spurious works of healing,” claiming to be divine. I fear that many Adventists are not prepared to evaluate such supernatural manifestations of healing, but we have been clearly forewarned that they are coming.

I believe our church also continues to struggle along the other battle line over which Ellen White and Kellogg engaged. Kellogg moved more and more to calling health re- form a social good, a way of reaching and helping people in need. He began to avoid talking about the spiritual aspects of health care. Once again, Ellen White directly confronted him. Our medical ministry was not just a social way of look- ing compassionate. Physicians and ministers were to be equal partners in the presentation of the Gospel, and health care was a clear revelation of the Gospel, an allegory that revealed our need for both physical and spiritual healing. I like the way Chuck Sandefur, past-president of the Rocky Mountain Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, described it in a presentation at an Adventist Health System meeting in 2013:

To do health care well and to transform people’s lives is not some sort of marketing ploy for the Gospel; it’s not a (prelude) to the Gospel; it doesn’t lead to the Gospel; it doesn’t help us think about the Gospel; it doesn’t warm people up for the Gospel—it is the Gospel!

We no longer have sanitaria. We now have hospitals. Most of them are very good and are known to be good, but we don’t have anything approaching the reputation of the Battle Creek Sanitarium. I believe this would please Ellen White if she were alive today. Medicine and the care of the sick has changed dramatically since her day. Few people “hospital-hop,” searching for a celebrity physician and a months-long course of diet, exercise, education, and enemas. Our institutions continue to offer well-received educational programs on healthy eating, active living, smoking cessation and other beneficial lifestyle changes, but now with well- documented evidence-based data and no particular concern over who gets the credit.

Our healthcare blueprint should not just be to produce more “blue zones” where old folks live 7 to 10 more years of active life. Our goal should be to help prepare folks to live forever. Our blueprint is not to provide natural “holistic” alternative care but is to provide whole person care for the physical, mental and spiritual aspects of the multidimensional unities that God created us to be. Let us give Dr. Kellogg his due recognition for peanut butter, corn flakes, granola, and the mechanical slapping massage device, but let us be thankful that our healthcare ministry has so far withstood the forces that, on the one hand, wish to take us down the path of mystical Vitalism, or, on the other hand, just want us to be seen as good people doing good things for folks who are ill.

–Mark B. Johnson, M.D.,  has directed Jefferson County Public Health for the past 30 years. He has taught a course on the history of medicine and public health at the Colorado School of Public Health for 10 years. Mark is a member of Boulder Adventist Church, and may be contacted at: [email protected]

Reference

1 Paul C. Reisser, M.D., Teri K. Reisser and John Weldon, The Holistic Healers: A Christian Perspective on New-Age Health Care, (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1983), pp. 33, 34.

by Kaleb Eisele

“The universe is made of stories, not atoms.” —Muriel Rukeyser If you’ve been paying attention to the rising trends in youth culture, you’ve likely noticed some patterns in the things they care about. Maybe you’ve seen photos of young people holding protest signs or seen videos of them speak- ing out on subjects like environmentalism, social justice, or income inequality. The inundation of content from the 24- hour news cycle can be overwhelming, but a closer look at the values carried by the youth might give us some clarity as to why these things matter so much to today’s young people. In my work I’ve interviewed over 300 people, with the majority being Seventh-day Adventists under 40 years old. As I’ve spent time with them, I’ve noticed a gospel truth that seems to guide many of the trends we see in their voices— concern for their neighbors. Behind social justice is care for the marginalized neighbor; behind environmentalism is care for both humanity and life beyond us. Now more than ever before, young people are entering the world with access to the stories of suffering from a wide array of people groups. Seeing from this perspective, however, can be difficult unless we take the time to intentionally seek to diversify stories we are exposing ourselves to. Stories can encourage many of the meaningful conversations that we desperately need to be having in our church—conversations on how to relate to each other in the healthiest ways.

Human beings are far more complex than we often give them credit for. When we talk to each other, we learn external facts—what kind of work someone does or what kinds of activities someone enjoys. We rarely even scratch the surface of the deep, personal experiences that other people carry around with them every day. We often don’t take time to understand how the things people have lived through are affecting them.

As a professional storyteller, you would be surprised at how often I get messages like this one: “I’ve known this young man for years and still hadn’t heard all that.” How well do we know each other? How well do we want to?

When you get into a rhythm of interviewing lots of people, you start learning that some questions work better than others. Here’s a question that’s become my absolute favorite over the years, I frame it like this: “What’s one event in your life that changed you?”

I love this question for several reasons. First, it’s perfect for story. There’s a beginning, a middle, and an end built into the question itself. What were you like before? What happened? What changed?

I also like this question because, while it asks for something specific–the event that changed the person–it covers a massive amount of territory. It can be positive or negative, it can just as easily lead to a conversion story as to a story of the death of a loved one or a career change.

Understanding each other takes time. It rarely happens naturally. The challenge for each of us if we want to deepen our relationships and grow as a community comes down to intentionality. We actually have to seek out stories. We have to listen without needing to push our own story in that moment. We have to be curious about each other. I think part of the problem is that we haven’t handled this idea of authentic storytelling well. There’s pressure to condense our stories, to not take up too much of another person’s time.

I challenge you to take some time to think about the stories that make up your life. Reflect on all of the countless experiences that have built and formed you. And after that, recognize that the same is true for every person you will ever meet. No person is a single thing. No story is a single story.

It isn’t that our intentions are bad. Deep down, most people I’ve met seem to have a longing for deeper connection to other human beings. I think we just haven’t learned that in order to know each other well, we need to create space for listening. Imagine you’re outside and you’re tired of walking. If there’s no bench near you, do you sit down? Probably not. Most of us will keep on walking until we find something that’s meant for us to sit on. We use the spaces that have been created for us to do things. It’s the same for stories. That’s why long car rides and camping trips and late nights in someone else’s home are the places we end up having deep conversations with each other. It’s why, when I share a deep story about someone on our Facebook page, that person’s friends will often say they’ve never heard it before. Because we haven’t intentionally created the spaces to share our stories.

Have you ever asked yourself the question, “Why am I here?” Maybe you’re one of those existential people that look at life from a bird’s-eye view and ask it. Maybe you’re asking it about the place you live or the place you work. But have you ever asked it about church? Religion? Why are we here? Why all the meetings and institutional structure? If salvation comes from believing in God, why do we need church at all?

I think we need to hear each other. And I don’t mean I think it’s just a good idea, I mean I think it crucial to our wellbeing. I mean that living life together, deepening our connections to each other is a spiritual thing.

Ecclesiastes 4:9-12 says, “Two are better than one because they have a good reward for their efforts. For if either falls, his companion can lift him up; but pity the one who falls without another to lift him up. Also, if two lie down together, they can keep warm; but how can one person alone keep warm? And if someone overpowers one person, two can resist him. A cord of three strands is not easily broken.”

Even Jesus himself modeled this for us with his life. He didn’t just come to earth and head straight to the cross. He spent time building relationships with people. He spent time listening to them and giving them his attention. He spoke to the specifics of their lives. In fact, it was because Jesus spent time with particular people—people his religious leaders told everyone to stay away from—that some people hated Jesus in the first place.

Take a look at Mark 2:15. “While Jesus was having dinner at Levi’s house, many tax collectors and sinners were eating with him and his disciples, for there were many who followed him. When the teachers of the law who were Pharisees saw him eating with the sinners and tax collectors, they asked his disciples: “Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?”

Do you see the pattern here? Each time people said, “Why are you listening to them? They have nothing important to say. Their words are not valuable.” And each time, Jesus intentionally created a new space between himself and other human beings. Even though Jesus was God, over and over he took the time to stop. To ask. To listen. Over and over again he countered the societal system. He went against the will of his society—pushed back against the prejudices of the world around him. He sat with tax collectors and sinners, with Samaritans and women and children; he touched lepers and the demon possessed, and even healed the Roman Centurion’s servant.

I want to suggest that our capacity to love is increased by our capacity to listen. If we only listen to respond, if we don’t actively look for the voices that are being silenced, if we’re so focused on our own lives and day-to-day burdens that we don’t have time for anyone else, I believe we hinder our ability to love like Jesus did.

Stories matter because they shape our reality. And today and every day, I want my reality to include a deeper, more meaningful connection to the people around me. Because the most important things in this life aren’t about money. They aren’t about titles or power or a good job. They’re about relationships. They’re about recreating that spark of hope that Jesus brought to the downtrodden people around him every single day.

–Kaleb Eisele is editor of Humans of Adventism, a twice-weekly online storytelling platform that features true-life experiences of Seventh-day Adventists. Since launching in 2017, Humans of Adventism has released over 250 stories. The platform aims to present the diversity of people and perspectives living under the Seventh-day Adventist denominational umbrella, to spark conversations, help build bridges, and to tear down relational walls within the church. Email him at: [email protected]

By Daniel Birai

In his book Who Moved My Pulpit, Thom Rainer shares a story I can identify with. It is about a well-meaning pastor who is eager to reach the community. This pastor, although with years of experience under his belt, makes an unwise decision to switch pulpits without leading the congregation through the change, resulting in drama that halts their progress for two years. As a Christian, a member of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, and as a pastor, the challenges that I see are deeply concerning and are slowing down the spreading the message of Christ’s soon return.

As a Christian, reaching our community in the 21st century is a daunting task. More research is showing that our communities are becoming less and less inclined to be involved in organized religion, with the percentage of individuals who claim to be on religious rising quickly. Leonardo Blair, in an article in The Christian Post (October 13) reported “as younger Americans shift away from organized religion, the studies also suggest that Christians are declining not just in a share of the US adult population, but also in absolute numbers.”

As a pastor, the challenges of leading a congregation can be overwhelming. As the religious landscape changes, it requires leaders to change with it. I can recall growing up and attending Sabbath activities all day. These days, some churches are happy to be done church before noon and spend the rest of the day at home or among friends. This isn’t wrong, per se. It’s just different. From my perspective as a worker in the church, this statistic is felt on the front lines each day. Speaking at the 2019 Annual Council of the General Conference, David Trim, director of Office of Adventist Archives, Statistics, and Research (ASTR), shared some data based on the research done by his office. Trim said that worldwide, the number of Adventist pastors has increased 85 percent in the past 30 years but the number of administrators has increased 300 percent. Meanwhile, the number of yearly accessions (people who become members of the Adventist Church) seems to be plateauing at around 1.4 million a year.

“If the increase of member accessions would keep up with the increase in administrators, we wouldn’t have a problem,” Trim said. It is a question, Trim advised, that every region should do very well to reflect on and discuss. “Examining the balance between administrators and pastoral/evangelistic workers might help us to see greater growth in the number of accessions,” he said.

Another hat I wear is the pastor of a phenomenal private Christian school. We serve children from preschool to 8th grade. We provide excellent Christ-centered education. As I have the privilege to sit on the Rocky Mountain Executive Committee, I am proud that our conference is committed to Christian education.

However, recent trends in our country are showing that more and more schools, from grade schools to academies and universities, are struggling to keep their doors open. We simply aren’t reaching enough students to make the finances work. The same could be said for our publishing presses and Adventist Book Centers, as evidenced by the church’s local Adventist Book Center in Denver closing down at the end of 2019. As faithful as our team has been, these realities are here, and they need to be addressed.

The challenges we face are immense. Thankfully, we serve a God who is leading and guiding. The “impossible” is what He specializes in. That means that we ought not be discouraged in the face of these challenges.

That being said, we need to rethink methods of how to serve and reach our community. And with rethinking comes the necessity of change. And that is where, as humans, we tend to struggle. In my experience, churches traditionally change slowly, if at all.

Thom Rainer writes about five groups of people that make change difficult and sometimes impossible, unless God moves on their hearts, or simply moves them all together. Deniers refuse to admit that there are any problems. They might discredit research, refute statistics, and flat out refuse to acknowledge the previous stated issues exist. The Entitled view their financial offerings as dues to get perks and privileges. They figure as long as they are giving certain amounts of money, things need to go their way. The Blamers point to other people/reasons why problems occur. The Critics, like the Blamers, point to others, but additionally drain church leaders with their criticism. They are quick to come up to leaders and tell them “people are saying that. . .” There may or may not be “people” saying these things. The Confused are often well meaning members that give highest priority to things that are not highest priorities. They may bewail a change in the order of service or gripe about the lack of a certain “ministry” running or not running, focusing on how things “used to be”.

Rainer proposes an eight-step solution. I want to highlight three of these steps. The first step is to stop and pray. I have struggled over the course of serving in ministry to have consistent corporate prayer with the churches I have served. They all believe in prayer, and are all committed to praying, but struggle to carve out time consistently to pray together. I believe as long as we neglect to make prayer, especially corporate prayer a priority, we will continue to struggle.

Secondly, he shares, confront and communicate a sense of urgency. We have to be willing to admit that the way things have always worked isn’t going to work anymore. We have to admit that we either need to adapt, or our schools and churches will die.

Thirdly, we must move from an inward focus to an outward focus. I am disturbed at the amount of time and energy we are spending on us. Whether its school, church, members, etc., at the end of the day, the question remains: if our churches and schools were to close today, would anyone notice?

We serve a God who is able to do anything. However, I don’t believe that His kingdom will move forward as long as we are stuck on our own methods, preferences, and comfort. We all, starting with myself, need to take a long, hard look at what we face, spend time corporately in prayer, and start being honest about what needs to change. We will make mistakes, we will fail in some areas, but ultimately, as long as we move forward, with our eyes on Jesus, He will give us the victory, for the work is His work. He guarantees its success.

–Daniel Birai is lead pastor in Fort Collins. Email him at: [email protected]

By Michelle Morrison

“Therefore I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand. And in them the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled, which says: ‘Hearing you will hear and shall not understand, and seeing you will see and not perceive; for the hearts of this people have grown dull. Their ears are hard of hearing, and their eyes they have closed, lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, lest they should understand with their hearts and turn, so that I should heal them’” (Matthew 13:13-15 NKJV).

I didn’t even hear! We, none of us, heard.

At our church, we have a monthly social of sorts, nothing hard or elaborate. We don’t even call it a catchy name. The church secretary picks a restaurant somewhere relatively close, the date is set as the last Tuesday of the month at 6:00 p.m., and whoever wants to go, goes. A reservation is made for 20, just in case, and whoever shows, shows. Sometimes more, sometimes less. Created for social connection, it’s worked! There are the regulars, the core. Then the curious, the intermittent, the one-timers. Any and all are welcome.

Last night, someone had neglected to call in the final count and the whole front of the restaurant, elevated and semi-private, was reserved for us. Only seven of us came—core, for sure, but only seven. And here’s the rub: Fairly early, before the last couple came, the attentive waitress revealed that she had seen the group reservation and specifically scheduled herself to work that evening, asking to wait on us. That was surprising information, and we were apologetic that we hadn’t called our final count in. We were so few.

Near the end of the meal, as we were finishing up the last of our entrees, we started to interact and talk with her as she had been expressing how grateful she was for such a kind group of people to serve. I asked her why she would want to work for a large group, so much so that she chose to work that night and because of our group. She then replied, “Until recently I was working two jobs, this one they schedule a day at a time so it’s easy to pick up shifts, and the other was a bank job. I’ve worked here ten years, and there three and a half, and I was fired recently at the bank. . .” Then she shared how this past Thanksgiving, her husband had gotten off his work shift at 3:00 a.m. and got hit by a bus, hurt seriously, and was now in physical therapy, still recovering.

We all murmured our empathy, somewhat surprised again for her transparent sharing, when she added that she was glad for the work, and then spoke curiously that the restaurant was almost empty at only 7:00 p.m., she only had us and the other waitress only had one other table.

And we missed it. I missed it! I didn’t hear! Really hear!

I don’t know if you’ve heard of the “One Word” spiritual movement—I’d noticed it in my own life years before, how the Holy Spirit will impress a particular word on your mind, usually near the beginning of a New Year, that focuses your attention. The word usually points to an area of growth He wants to do in and for you. For more than one year my “word” was vision, given to me months before I actually struggled with my actual vision, requiring eventually five surgeries, four of the five emergent. While the word grew to mean more than actual vision, this year, before Christmas, I lost almost all my hearing in one ear, with other accompanying symptoms that kept me down for over a month, straddling the New Year. Somewhere in all that, I noticed the word “hear” was popping up in my times with Jesus. “Hear, O Israel—the Lord is One God!” (Deut. 6:4). The seven churches of Revelation 2 and 3 and each of their warnings all end with, “He who has ears to hear, let him listen to what the Spirit says to the churches!” (Rev. 2:7, 11, 17, 29; 3:6, 13, 22). “Whoever hears these sayings of Mine and does them, I will liken to a wise man . . .” (Matt. 7:24). It was everywhere!

My kids would notice too, and send me verses or tell me stories, or about sermons, and then absently “aha!” that it had “hearing” as the point. I started paying attention. Okay, Lord? What do you want me to hear? Know? Learn? And yeah, I’d really like to get my real hearing back too, if You would!

Previous to my illness, I’d been listening to the sermons of a couple of guys my son recommended during my long commute. For over six months, I’d been filling my mind with the gospel, preached in a way I’d not heard before. The beauty of Jesus, His love for me and how to live it out, had me listening almost every day, wanting this message to be mine. I wanted it to flow out of me as it so obviously did them through the stories they told, many with strangers, chance encounters, random people as they would live their lives – stories of lives changed, prayers prayed, bodies healed. They “looked” for opportunities, saw them, acted on them, and shared how much Jesus loved them and how Jesus showed up. Over and over the Holy Spirit led them, and He got the credit. This Holy Spirit, promised and given by Jesus, would help us see with new eyes, hear with His ears. The desire grew within me to really see, and really hear.

“For the hearts of this people have grown dull. Their ears are hard of hearing, And their eyes they have closed, Lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, Lest they should understand with their hearts and turn, So that I should heal them.” Jesus spoke these words, referencing Isaiah 6:9-10.

The restaurant was nearly empty. We were in a semi- private room, only us seven, a church group of similar believers of a Truth we have. A waitress who had shared her pain, her need.

We missed it.

I missed it!

I didn’t realize it was a Jesus-story like those I’d listened to for six months. I responded like any person of the world, as if I had nothing to offer but sympathy. I was deaf! I was blind! I heard nothing. No prompt. No thought to offer to even pray for her situation, let alone share Jesus with her!

But as I write this, the promise is there—spoken by Jesus himself: “lest you should see with your eyes and hear with your ears, and understand with your heart and turn, so that I can heal you.”

Lord, forgive me. Thank you for the grace of your healing love! For opening my eyes, my ears, my heart. Give me another chance—with healed eyes and ears and heart wide open.

Give me another chance. Thank you for the healing power of your love that can reach through my deafness,
my blindness, my hard heart, and do the miracle of spiritual sight restored, spiritual deafness healed, and a hard heart replaced with a new fleshy heart, soft and pulsating with love for You.

Father, Jesus, Holy Spirit—give me another chance to love and give You to those in need! I want to hear!

–Michelle Morrison is a member of Brighton Seventh-day Adventist Church and is married to its pastor, Wayne. Email her at: [email protected].