Fight Climate Change: Educate Yourself

The pork shoulder on the grill was completely engulfed in flames. I rushed into my brother’s kitchen to get baking soda to put the fire out. But I was ignorant of this kitchen. I opened cabinet after cabinet, but could not find any baking soda. Desperate, I grabbed the closest thing to baking soda I […]

The Care of Creation

On Christmas Eve, 1776, my great-great-great-great-great-great-grandfather, Joshua Davis, purchased some land south of Aycock Swamp in what is now Wayne County, NC. The American revolution had begun, and there was no way of knowing when or how it would end. In 1781, General Cornwallis marched his troops from Wilmington into Virginia, towards what would be […]

The Use of Creation

I don’t think Pa Davis would have cared too much about the last post I published, where I suggested we all pause in our work, go outside, and stare at the sky. Pa, my great-grandfather, was a farmer his whole life, and as much as he loved being outside in the fields and forests, he […]

The Enjoyment of Creation

One of my earliest memories is being at the family farm, at my grandparents’ house, and Dad taking me into the front yard to show me the Big Dipper. I was maybe five years old. He pointed it out to me and explained the constellations as pictures the stars shape out, and how we can […]

Happy Earth Day

“The earth is the Lord’s and everything in it, the world and its inhabitants too. Because God is the one who established it on the seas; God set it firmly on the waters.” -Psalm 24: 1-2 (CEB) Happy Earth Day! The first Earth Day was the brainchild of […]

Saving Souls or Saving Bees?

I have often said that you cannot write a job description for a pastor. In the seven years now that I have been in pastoral ministry, I have been with families as their loved ones passed from this world into the next, I have played games and made crafts with kids, I have stirred stew […]

God Created a Job

My wife realized early on in our relationship, with a degree of horror, that I am ignorant about art. When we have gone to the local art museum, she has raved about the techniques and the periods and the passion of artists, while I have looked on these same works and thought, “That sure is […]

Christians Should Care About Creation

I was a quiet and well-behaved kid, for the most part. I kept to myself, read a lot of books, and always tried to follow the rules. It was out of character for me, then, and quite audacious, when I told my second-grade teacher, “You’re wrong about that.” It was in a science lesson […]