Poor silvery minnow
. . .what did it do to deserve extinction? Just
living out its brief life in the shrinking Rio
Grande—farmers and ranchers, villages and cities,
assuredly reducing its watery environs to
untenable levels. Then, here
comes the judge, demanding that water saved for a
non-rainy day be released to save the minnow!
Controversy erupts:
environmentalists rejoice on behalf of the
unwitting, bug-eyed, little fish; farmers and city
mayors cry “Foul!” A tough
issue it is:
no one really wants to see the fish (which
most of us have never seen) go away, yet most of
us appreciate what farmers do to feed us and we
contend that drinking, flushing, and watering the
suburbs are not bad things.
The growing drought
in the Southwest (thought by some experts, mostly
students of tree rings, to be a natural cycle
which could last decades) will undoubtedly present
us with challenges and headaches. Add to the
drought unrelenting fires and bark-beetle
pestilence and all of a sudden, we have climatic
and environmental disasters of biblical
proportions, over which we seem to have no control
whatsoever!
What an interesting
and exciting time in which to live! The
doomsayers will forecast the end of the world, and
cast blame all around. The
rational among us will simply dismiss it as
“nature’s way—these cycles have been happening for
millennia.”
Scientists will feed all the data into very
fast computers and produce amazing models of what
might have been or what could be. Many of us
may also live with a tacit, ill-defined sense of
foreboding, and face with disdain the increase of
landscape rocks and low-flow showers. (I must
admit, in the showdown between the minnows and the
Farmer’s Market, I tend to side with the people
who use the water to grow food . . . )
The minnow doesn’t
have much say in the matter. We, on the
other hand, have the capacity for both reflection
and action.
Seems to me that this space in history
presents us with the chance to think boldly, to
look beyond the exigencies of the moment to the
far horizon of eternal things. We should
entertain some fundamental questions in these
days:
What exactly is our
role on this earth? Our lives
are short, our efforts are temporal. Yet, we do
leave our imprint on the march of history. We do
influence how succeeding generations view what is
important.
Are we keeping trees and weather in
perspective, and pointing people to those things
which connect them to God?
What sort of
stewards of this world ought we to be? Scripture
teaches that a creative, sovereign God bequeathed
to us responsibility for proper use of and care
for the earth. Do we
exercise this responsibility in such a way that
our actions and motives bring pleasure to Him and
accomplish His purposes among mankind?
Such questions
challenge us to be positive and proactive. We can be
for something instead of against
something—a refreshing attestation to the true
nature of Christianity for a contemptuous world
that often characterizes believers as negative,
antagonistic, and cantankerously
oppositional. What if
Christians were known by their neighbors for
living simple lives, demanding less and wasting
little, recycling and conserving energy—and
finding joy in the doing? Now
that would be something to behold!
Perhaps the most
exciting prospect of all about the drought is
this:
it is a perfect setting to broach the
subject of God. Drought
and pestilence have a way of turning the hearts of
people to a search for meaning in life and for
some measure of hope. Can you
and I effectively, confidently present to seekers
and skeptics a purposeful, creative God who
lovingly comes to us in all circumstances of life,
a God who reveals to us true knowledge and
authentic existence in both good and bad
times?
Do we give testimony to the God who is both
the author of nature and who is above (super-)
nature, and Who, subsequently, is the One that
walks with us through the difficulties we
encounter here while assuring us of His saving,
life-giving presence for eternity?
Let’s be prepared in
these days to demonstrate, by our actions and
words and attitude, an unfailing faith in the
Living Water which never runs dry!
Generally swimming
upstream, I am gratefully
Yours,
Pastor
Chuck
