I recently read a news article about how climate change is impacting children. I had expected the article to talk about asthma or days missed from school due to extreme weather, but the article was actually about mental health outcomes. More children, particularly teenagers, report feeling depressed or anxious because adults do not seem to take climate change seriously.
This surprised me. Climate change seems like such an enormous problem with such dire consequences that my friends often say that I am unnecessarily fatalistic about the topic. As an adult, I know that I find climate change very anxiety-provoking and depressing. I had no idea that children felt this way, too.
There are religious people with great faith who believe God will intervene on our behalf to save our planet, so we needn't worry. I just hope that we haven’t ignored the prophetic warnings of the climate scientists God sent to us to our own peril. The changes to our earth scare me and make me afraid for the future my children may have
“Pie in the sky in the sweet by-and-by” theology sometimes excuses human inaction. This is the kind of theology that says we should not worry because God will take care of everything. Although it is true that worry in itself does nothing to add to our lifespans, worry that spurs us to act with urgency to correct a mistake can be advantageous, even lifesaving.
The trick is to allow ourselves to worry about the right things. Why worry about what you will wear or what you will eat unless these are things to which you have no access? There are some worries we can untie ourselves from because the worry itself causes more harm than the thing we are worrying about.
Some time ago, I decided that I cannot afford the physical or mental time to be upset about things that do not require my urgent attention and action. I permit myself to worry about things like poverty, climate change, and racial injustice because these things impact my community and I want to be part of change for the better and my concern for these issues propels me to action. I believe God delights in our partnership with God to work for justice. This means I will have to let go of my worry about the little things that sometimes clutter my brain space and trust that God really does have my back.
