As we enter the last month of summer, I thought I’d share 5 of my favorite fun summer reads, so you can slip them into your beach bag before summer ends! Last August I shared a post with “5 Social Justice Books for Your Summer Reading List”. It was full of books that eloquently balance […]

That was fast. The world has suddenly shifted, and we don’t yet know what the outlook will be in our lives…As we’ve watched this global health crisis unfold, we’ve seen a temporary shift in vulnerability to encompass the whole world. Suddenly, we’ve all become vulnerable (or is it that our vulnerability has become exposed?), and it’s been heart-wrenching to watch the number of ways an invisible enemy like a virus can affect all of humanity.

We’re seeing families here at home move from being financially stable to filing for unemployment basically overnight. Businesses are applying for loans to stay afloat, restaurants are closing, our elderly family members are suddenly at-risk, and so much more…It brings me to tears just thinking about the magnitude of it all. And as I watch our own country and other developed nations struggle, I can’t help but turn my gaze, for a moment, toward all the different at-risk populations, people, and countries with vulnerabilities that pre-existed what we’re battling now.

If we, who are relatively healthy and well cared for, struggle to help ourselves amidst all of this, how can nations or populations already living in the margins survive such a crisis? It’s a question I can’t get out of my head, because the answer could be devastating.

Awhile back, I came across NASA astronaut, Mark Kelly’s, remarks about how he’s seen the earth visibly change from his view in outer space. After describing what he’s seen, such as the vastly visible deforestation of the Amazon Rainforest, he concluded, “As an astronaut, I’m often asked about the climate, our environment and how we are destroying the Earth. My response often surprises people. ‘Don’t worry about the planet, the Earth will be just fine’, I tell them. ‘What you need to worry about is us – all of us.’”

It wasn’t until I read this, that I started to think about our environment and the “global warming” controversy in a different light. Maybe it was his choice of words that really struck me – making me really think about how damaging our actions can be to the earth, and then how that directly affects humanity. Of course, I care about our world, but the environment wasn’t always top of mind for me like social issues were, until… he connected it back to people. As I dig into it, I’m learning more about how our world is interconnected, and how our actions, really do come back to affect us…good or bad. Call it karma, fate, science, God’s design, the truth is, our environmental actions are affecting all of us, and not only is it affecting the poor first, it’s affecting them worst.