{"id":19239,"date":"2020-08-26T09:09:53","date_gmt":"2020-08-26T13:09:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=19239"},"modified":"2020-08-26T10:00:47","modified_gmt":"2020-08-26T14:00:47","slug":"gods-dream-for-creation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=19239","title":{"rendered":"God&#8217;s Dream for Creation"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Order, Disorder, Reorder:<br>\nPart Three<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>God&#8217;s\nDream for Creation<\/strong><br>\nWednesday, \u202fAugust 26, 2020<\/p>\n\n\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/p-T6aaRV9HY\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen=\"\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n\n\n<p><em>In\ntimes of Disorder and deconstruction, we long for Reorder on a personal\nlevel\u2014to be made new and whole again. But the Scriptures tell us that\nrestoration will also happen on a communal, planetary, and even universal\nlevel! Jim Antal, a climate justice leader with the United Church of Christ,\nreminds us of our ability and responsibility to participate with God in the\nrenewal and reordering of the earth.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cHow\ncan you know all these facts [about climate change] and still have hope?\u201d For\nme, faith and hope are rooted in the conviction that, regardless of how bad\nthings may be, a new story is waiting to take hold\u2014something we have not yet\nseen or felt or experienced. . . . God is calling us\u2014as individuals and\ncongregations\u2014to work with God and others to champion that new story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For\nthe vast majority in our society, that new story remains unseen. Wresting our\nfuture from the grip of fossil fuel seems impossible\u2014our addiction is too\nstrong, affordable options are too few, and the powers that defend the status\nquo are mighty, indeed. . . . We cannot be freed by chipping away at this\nmillstone. We must begin to live into a new story by changing the human\nprospect [of destruction] and restoring creation\u2019s viability.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That\u2019s\nwhat the Water Protectors of Standing Rock have done. Their courageous,\nunflinching discipline inspired thousands to join them and millions to imagine\nwith them the new world that is waiting to be born. They prepared themselves\nthrough prayer and ritual to face down sheriffs, paramilitary contractors,\nattack dogs, rubber bullets, pepper spray, and high-pressure water cannons in\nsubzero temperatures. They were fueled by hope, hope for a revolution rooted in\nlove\u2014love for God\u2019s great gift of creation. . . .<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We\ncan\u2019t accept God\u2019s invitation to help create a new story unless we are willing\nto take action. We become partners with God when we act in unfamiliar, untested\nways. Those new actions will be guided by a preferred future that embraces:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>resilience in place of\ngrowth<\/li><li>collaboration in place of\nconsumption<\/li><li>wisdom in place of progress<\/li><li>balance in place of\naddiction<\/li><li>moderation in place of\nexcess<\/li><li>vision in place of\nconvenience<\/li><li>accountability in place of\ndisregard<\/li><li>self-giving love in place of\nself-centered fear . . .<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>As broken-hearted as God must be over what we have done to the gift of creation, God still has a dream. . . . God dreams that humans seek spiritual rather than material progress. God\u2019s dream envisions a just world at peace because gratitude has dissolved anxiety and generosity has eclipsed greed. God dreams of a time when love and mutual respect will bind humanity together, and the profound beauty of creation will be treasured. Let us embrace God\u2019s dream as our own. Suddenly, the horizon of our hope comes nearer. As we live into God\u2019s dream, we will rediscover who we truly are and all of creation will be singing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"500\" height=\"282\" src=\"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Screen-Shot-2020-08-26-at-10.00.14-AM-500x282.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-19242\" srcset=\"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Screen-Shot-2020-08-26-at-10.00.14-AM-500x282.png 500w, http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Screen-Shot-2020-08-26-at-10.00.14-AM-300x169.png 300w, http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Screen-Shot-2020-08-26-at-10.00.14-AM-768x434.png 768w, http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Screen-Shot-2020-08-26-at-10.00.14-AM.png 1984w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Order, Disorder, Reorder: Part Three God&#8217;s Dream for Creation Wednesday, \u202fAugust 26, 2020 In times of Disorder and deconstruction, we long for Reorder on a personal level\u2014to be made new and whole again. But the Scriptures tell us that restoration will also happen on a communal, planetary, and even universal level! Jim Antal, a climate [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19239"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19239"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19239\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19243,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19239\/revisions\/19243"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19239"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19239"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19239"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}