Climate change. 

Two words that inspire a menagerie of emotion and political opinion, passion and poo-pooing. 

It is a fact that our planet's climate is changing. It seems like much of the argument is about who’s at fault. 

Some point to the earth herself. There’s a melt off that’s been happening for the past 10,000 years. Greenhouse gas is caused by things like volcanos and cows and naturally occurring forest fires. Big ice melts faster than small ice. Nature will correct herself. 

Some lay the blame at the feet of humans. Fossil fuels and capitalism, the food industry and our oil-hungry economy. 

Here’s the thing. I’ve spent the past week in Alaska. And while climate change is evident everywhere (increasingly stupid-hot summers and stronger, more frequent hurricanes), I’m not sure I’ve ever been anyplace where climate change is more evident.  

The glaciers are melting. 

And they will not come back until we are thrust into another ice age. 

We were on a glacier cruise this week, getting within a couple of football fields from an actively calving glacier. It was an awesome moment. Glaciers are both incredibly beautiful and scary as hell. It’s a massive, ancient, moving river of ice. This glacier is one of the most elemental things I’ve ever witnessed. It is up there with a full solar eclipse as one of the most astounding things I’ve seen in nature. As we were watching massive chunks of ice fall into the water and listening to the ominous popping and cracking glaciers make as they creep to the sea, I was talking with one of the crew members.  

She said this very glacier we were looking at had shrunk by about a half-mile.  

In this season.  

The captain on the other boat was on his first trip to this particular glacier and radioed our crew with a lament. 

“What happened to her?”

Climate change is something people in Alaska see every day. They don’t just read about it in Wall Street Journal articles. There are glaciers visible today that will not be here for the next generation. 

Christians need a better theology of ecology. 

Our first job was to be stewards of the ground.

We need to do better.  

Climate change is an issue. It’s a problem leaders around the world will confront. 

Jesus-followers should be involved with this conversation, rather than blame-shifting.

It’s true. We can’t do anything about naturally occurring fires and hurricanes and erupting volcanos.  

But there are certain things we do have control over. You can love Jesus and the environment. In fact, if you love Jesus you should.  

Take control.  

Think about the environment in terms of the Scripture and not your political disposition. 

You may find that the Scriptures give you more pause about the earth, sky, and sea than you think.