{"id":9368,"date":"2015-01-20T11:07:20","date_gmt":"2015-01-20T19:07:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/?p=9368"},"modified":"2015-01-20T11:26:00","modified_gmt":"2015-01-20T19:26:00","slug":"for-the-love-of-gods-creation-or-the-salmon-of-love","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/for-the-love-of-gods-creation-or-the-salmon-of-love\/","title":{"rendered":"For the Love of God\u2019s Creation"},"content":{"rendered":"

Science article-inspired haiku<\/a> and watercolor from a series<\/a> by Seattle oceanographer Gregory Johnson.<\/em><\/center><\/p>\n
\n

For the Love of God\u2019s Creation<\/strong>
\nBy the Rev. Jenny Phillips | Illustration by Gregory Johnson<\/em><\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The Rev. Jenny Phillips speaks at The 2014 Pacific Northwest Annual Conference Sessions.<\/figcaption><\/figure>A young woman recently explained to me why she decided not to attend a climate rally despite caring deeply about the environment and knowing that her friends would be there. Her rationale was simple: she didn\u2019t think it would make a difference in stopping climate change.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

This logic embodies a lack of hope that might be considered reasonable. When you really come to understand the magnitude of the climate crisis, it is hard to feel hopeful that the political and economic forces that drive our current patterns of fossil fuel consumption can be transformed at the speed and to the degree necessary to stop the worst effects of climate change. It\u2019s harder still to feel like there is much one can do as an individual that will have any meaningful impact in the problem. When it\u2019s hard to find bite-sized solutions to intractable problems, despair quickly breeds complacency. If you\u2019re not sure whether or not your efforts will make a difference, the reasoning goes, why bother trying?<\/p>\n

This woman went on to share about her work in wetland restoration. She is passionate about the land and how it interacts with the sea and the air. Like many people, she feels God\u2019s presence most vibrantly in the natural world.<\/p>\n

Not long after the rally, she was working in an area where she had expected to see salmon, because at that time of year, the salmon were always there. But that season, they didn\u2019t show up. Her colleagues speculated that perhaps the fish had not returned to spawn because the water hadn\u2019t cooled down enough–a common problem as local and global temperatures continue to rise above what were once considered normal levels. <\/p>\n

This realization caused this young person to feel deep grief and deep sadness. But the despair helped her connect with another, more powerful motivator than hope. It helped her tap into love. The experience helped her realize that she loved these fish and their habitat, and that alone is reason to stand up for them. Love had the power to put the rumblings of prophecy into her feet when hope couldn\u2019t get her off the couch. Love is what helped her recognize the need to stand up and take action.<\/p>\n

Paul writes to the Corinthians that of faith, hope and love, the greatest is love. It is deep love for God\u2019s people and God\u2019s creation that is going to give us not just the will to show up for a march, but also the endurance to walk the long road ahead. <\/p>\n

\"LINK_CreationCareResources\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"LINK_Advocacy101\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

The Rev. Jenny Phillips serves as the minister for Environmental Stewardship and Advocacy for the PNWUMC.<\/em><\/center><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Science article-inspired haiku and watercolor from a series by Seattle oceanographer Gregory Johnson. For the Love of God\u2019s Creation By the Rev. Jenny Phillips | Illustration by Gregory Johnson A young woman recently explained to me why she decided not to attend a climate rally despite caring deeply about the environment and knowing that her friends would […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":9372,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[111,6,321],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-9368","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-channels","8":"category-conversation","9":"category-creation-care"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/IDEAS_CreationCare_salmon.jpg?fit=700%2C357&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2l75j-2r6","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9368","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9368"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9368\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9388,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9368\/revisions\/9388"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9372"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9368"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9368"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9368"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}