Tuesday of the First Week of Lent

Former veep Al Gore and many others have shown us just how imperiled our planet is. We are witnessing changes that are at least dramatic and may well be catastrophic for us. The earth, of course, will survive. Life is deeply rooted in earth and sea and air; it will go on with or without us.

It is too late to avert much of the catastrophe; we have already witnessed the extinction of many beautiful life forms. One authority says this present Great Extinction began when North Americans wiped out the mastodon centuries ago.  But the crisis has grown more severe within our lifetime. When I lived in Minnesota in the 1980's, I often saw flickers on the lawn. By 1997, when I came back, they had disappeared. But so long as there are human beings on the earth, it will never be too late to do something.

And so we must.

The faithful turn to the Book to find more helpful guidelines. Today's first reading from Isaiah is written by a man who has contemplated the weather: 

Just as from the heavens
the rain and snow come down
And do not return there
till they have watered the earth,
making it fertile and fruitful,
Giving seed to the one who sows
and bread to the one who eats,
So shall my word be

that goes forth from my mouth… 

In his book, Hot, Flat and Crowded, Tom Friedman reminds us that wasteful is not only poor management, it is also fiercely destructive. Too much food, too many clothes, too many big cars, suburbs that are spread out over thousands of square miles of arable land, poor insulation, wasteful energy habit – all contribute to our own extinction.

But breast beating about wasteful habits won’t change anything until we see Isaiah’s vision. When we finally recognize God’s ownership of the earth and our responsibility as stewards, then:

Mountains and hills shall break out in song before you, and all the trees of the countryside shall clap their hands. In place of the thorn bush, the cypress shall grow, instead of nettles, the myrtle. This shall be to the Lord's renown, an everlasting imperishable sign. (Isaiah 55:12-13)

Isaiah saw God in the rain and myrtle and cypresses; I see God in breathing. I begin each day with a breathing prayer, sitting in silence for thirty minutes and paying attention to my breath. 

In, out, pause;

in, out, pause;

in, out, pause.

It's actually fascinating. 

Later, when I think about my breathing, I realize that the green plants have given me oxygen to breathe, and I have given them carbon dioxide. They thank me and I thank them, and we thank God for each other. This is  the cycle of life. I am here for a while and then I am gone. But life will continue as a near infinity of life forms take hold of the carbon, water, oxygen and other nutrients which were me for a brief while.

And I remember that every molecule in my body was excreted by some other living thing in its time. That was all in preparation for me. I am grateful for it and give it back with my own excretions and eventual extinction. 

It is all good; it is beautiful. 

Add to that, the Lord's promise to remember my name, as He did Lazarus, and to summon me out of the earth once again on that Great Getting Up Morning. It is very good. 

In the meanwhile, I'll want to keep my footprint small, preferably to leave no trace, so that when He calls the wonder will be all the more astonishing and I'll be the most surprised of all.