What God Says About Stewarding the Land

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Transcript

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Happy Tuesday. I've been holding onto this episode for a little while. Wondering when the best time to launch it was going to be. And honestly, if you've been on the internet at all over the past week, you've probably seen a lot of people talking about their faith and wanting to be more bold in sharing what they believe. And like I said on the very first episode of this show, I'm a Christian and it is the main reason why I wanted to start the Global Stewardship Podcast, why I became a natural minded farmer. And so I have a special guest on today's episode that has written some great Christian books that have transformed the way that I view. Farming and stewardship, and I think this is a really interesting episode. Regardless of your faith, Dr. Matthew Sleeth. Went from being an ER doctor to planting forests and helping people reconnect to the land through their faith. He has a powerful way of sharing how caring for the Earth is deeply spiritual. I loved his book Serve God Save the Planet, and he has another one called Reforesting Faith. That is also great, whether you're out in the field tending to animals or just trying to do right by your backyard, I think you'll find this conversation grounding and full of hope. Like I said, whether you're a Christian or not, this episode has a lot of value and I'd recommend listening to it all the way to the end because after our short interview, I'm going to be sharing some things that have, for me been a deeply moral call to individual action. Because God cares deeply about the environment and about farming and about these issues and can heal us through food and through the way we farm. So, uh, this is not something that is menial to God. This is something that really, truly matters to him. So, at the end, I'm just gonna kind of go through some of those things, but I had love for you to send this to your Christian friends who maybe haven't thought of any of these things before, who don't steward the land quite like it was intended to be. This is a very spiritual and divine calling, but so many believers are just consuming all kinds of. One and done plastic junk that is just going into landfills or they're spending their days inside totally missing out on this part of a relationship with the Lord, and I think that many believers could really benefit from hearing some things like this. So thank you so much again for tuning in every Tuesday. I hope you stick with us today and hear what Dr. Sle has to share with us.

Audio Only - All Participants: 2:39

I would love to start out by asking what is the most misunderstood part of the Bible when it comes to creation care? I would say the most misunderstood is, not understanding that God created this earth and he called it good and he called, all the creatures very good, and he called Sabbath holy. It's not a clock maker God. By that I mean God didn't just wind up creation and walk away. He's actively involved. We're told. That we have the kind of God who groans when a single sparrow falls out of the sky. And I think we all go to the next line in those verses how much more do you see? Love us? But Jesus is saying, how can we understand God's love unless we can get our head around a God that groans when a single small bird falls out of the sky? And so I think that's very misunderstood at this time.

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I even think of the song Sparrows and we do read that verse and just jump to the next part about, well, how much more does God love us? And we totally ignore the beginning part about his love for the sparrow. That's so fascinating. I actually just last week also looked into the deeper meaning of the word. Good. So I think it's great that you brought that up. You look at the Hebrew definition and today we add, instead of saying good, we have to say excellent or fantastic, or it was very good, and God said, good, just. The word good, good was beautiful, pleasant, bountiful, agreeable, beneficial. It held so much more weight, and so I thought that that was really cool to learn. Many of our listeners are small scale farmers that are trying to steward the land. Well, and I've read your books, so I know that you've had quite the journey coming to this place in your life. In your Christian worldview, in theology of Stewardship, how do you now believe that farming can be a sacred act?

Audio Only - All Participants: 4:44

Well, I think the scripture says that anything that we do, that we do with excellence to the glory of God is a sacred act, if you will. Um, but you know, I, I was, uh, before you and I got on, I am was reading through Mark and I came, to that section where Jesus raises a little 12-year-old girl from the dead and the next thing he does is say, give her something to eat. And, that. Symbol of nourishment, if you will, from the Lord, um, is the, the, the, the way that the Lord nourishes us spiritually, the analog is in actually eating. Um, uh, we are so separated from God that the spiritual aspect of ourselves even we don't understand. And so God has to give us physical things that are analogs, if you will. And, and so, it's not by accident that, really one of the longest, monologues, uh, and scenes in scripture is in the book of John and Jesus is teaching over the dinner table for five chapters there. So that, right. It isn't the food per se, it's the, if you will, eating that food and the goodness and understanding that that. Every, everybody comes from the Lord. Mm-hmm. And when we're aware of the goodness that comes through to us through food, um, then, then I think we have a better relationship with God, frankly. Right. Absolutely. I was actually kind of wondering about your belief about food and nature. I know there's a pretty fine line for a lot of people between idolizing nature and honoring it as God's creation. Like how do we stay grounded in that distinction as believers? Well, people, by the way, were built to worship. Whether somebody believes in God or not, they worship something. Um. And, uh, you, you know, we can get there, there are people who love Barbie dolls or, or matchbook cars or, you know, as adults even, you know, they, and, and yet we have to eat every day. Not eating isn't an option, uh, for us. And, and the Lord knows that. And, we certainly can become obsessed with food. Or we can have an attitude of gratitude, if you will, right. For what, what we have, um, I think of a scene in the Bible that sort of sorts this out. It's where Gideon is in a wine press. He's trying to hide his agriculture, if you will, because. The land was being invaded and occupied by, folks who were just stealing all the food, right? And so Gideon is trying to hide what he's doing, and it's a time of worship, of nature. Even Gideon's father has an alter to Baal, which is, is kind of the generic for this agricultural God, et cetera. But even in that setting, the angel of the Lord comes to Gideon by sitting on an oak tree and talking to him. And even when Gideon is asked to, to go and spy on the enemy camp, and he's afraid to do it, uh, the Lord says, take Barack along, which is the word for branch. Take the branch, which is another word for Christ along with you. Yeah. And, and so. Even in that setting of, of, of worship, of trees and Gideon, by the way, cut down his father's sacred grove of trees. Nonetheless, the Lord comes and sits on a tree and the branch goes with him. And so it is a fine line. And I have certainly in my, uh, 20 some years of ministry, seen people that go too far in one direction. But I would challenge people that it's, it's not a service of worshiping trees that will empty out a church. It's a, it's a ball game. Oh yeah, definitely that will, will do that. And the reality is we can worship anything other than God. And so we have to be aware of that. We can worship our families, uh, our children, our jobs, our standing, our education, that sort of thing. And so this is something that happens in every area, um, to make an argument that feeding a hungry child is this slippery slope to gluttony and obesity. It's ridiculous. Yeah, I love that. So definitely. That was a fantastic answer. Do you see a moral or biblical difference between regenerative or, really natural minded, small scale farming or larger industrial scale agriculture? You know, I, I thought about this. There's, uh, a painting. I wish I could show everyone that's listening it's in the Morris Museum in Florida. It's just outside of Orlando. And the whole museum is, uh, Lewis Comfort Tiffany's work, and it's a spectacular museum recommended to everyone. It's dirt cheap to get in, but there's a painting there I love. It's a painting of just a bucolic scene. And it's a family out for, uh, just a picnic. And they've got the 1-year-old up on top of a cow, a dairy cow, and the the child is riding that cow out into the field. And I told my wife, I, I grew up and was so fortunate that, uh, we were just discussing this the other day. If you know cows, dairy cattle, they're way smarter than dogs, frankly. And I said to her, you know, I used to go round up, uh, about a dozen, of these dairy cattle. Not all of'em were milking, you know, some of'em were too young. Um, but there was kind of the lead cow, if you will, and she would protect me no matter what, right. Then, uh, just, just the other day I saw something about a farm where they were mistreating dairy cattle and beating them and pulling, unborn calves out with chains. And just a horror to, to think about. Mm-hmm. A wise person knows the needs of their animal. That's straight out of the mouth of the lawyers. It's in, in the Bible. So. I think that when we, we work at a scale where we can know the animals and the land that we're working with, then that's a scale where we can connect with God. Um, definitely. I understand that industrial agriculture has fed a lot of people. But it hasn't fed their souls. Yeah. And man does not live by bread alone. Um, and, and so I would, I would really encourage those who are farming at, at, uh, a, a smaller scale to, to really relish the relationship with the animals that they are, are caring for and the land that they're caring for. Yeah, we've, that was so beautiful. We've had guests on the podcast lately who have been kind of sharing those experiences and, how disconnected one felt from the seat of a tractor and how on just such, such large scale. Farm plots. He felt like there was just something so much deeper and on a soul level, something wasn't sitting right. So I think that people resonate with what you just said. Something that I have really appreciated in your writings is your thoughts on the Sabbath day. You've spoken a lot about Sabbath as rest for the land. What would it look like to truly give the earth a Sabbath rest? let me jot that down'cause I'm gonna come at it from 180, 80 degrees. Um, and, uh, I wanna explain something about the Sabbath and do it in terms of agriculture. Yeah. Thank you. Uh, until modern times, meaning you could go down to a store and buy seed and that sort of thing. Mm-hmm. When someone planted a crop, and, and I'll use as an example, corn, because I don't think there's anybody alive in America that hasn't seen a corn plant. There's just so many of them. Yeah, seriously. Yeah. So let's use corn. Um, and corn has been around for quite some time. So whenever you would plant corn or any other crop, you, you would watch it. And if you, you're always gonna have a section or a few plants that come up earlier. Those you're gonna watch because they tend to, finish sooner and be more disease and drought resistant. And so anything that finishes sooner is more efficient at turning sunshine into ultimately fruit because that's what we eat from plants in general. Um, the seed, et cetera. And, in any other time other than. The last 75 years, you would've watched that and you wouldn't have eaten that. You would've put it aside as your seed, crop and you would do that year after year. And, and because of that, you're always selecting for a better crop. The same is true in animal husbandry. If you have a calf that's born and it. Puts on weight faster than any other calf around it. At the end of the year, you're not going to eat that calf and you're not gonna geld it if, if it's a, if it's a male, that's gonna be your breeding stock. Mm-hmm. And the reason I set this up is, because, that, breeding stock and that seed crop have a different name. In the Old Testament, they're called the first fruits and the fatted calf, and I don't think most people realize that what God was asking the Hebrew people to do was craziness. Um, agriculturally speaking, it, it would be the same as I live here in Kentucky. The big animals that are, uh, farmed, if you will, are horses, race horses. And it would be like somebody at the end of a YA year of secretariat's life. And I think everybody knows about Secretariat. Yeah. Saying, oh, let's put Secretariat down. As a, um. Memorial to the Lord. Mm-hmm. And they still won the derby with the next one. What God was saying to the people is, it's not your cleverness, it's me that's responsible. For your prosperity. And by the way, let's double down on that every seven years and let the land go fallow. And let's double double down on that in the jubilee year and we won't plant either. And what it set up was relationship of trust, between God and his people. Right? And I think today when you have the industrial agricultural system. It's very tempting'cause it's the surest way to make money. And if you don't make money, you are given money anyways by, by the government for trying that. And so I think, it's gonna require trust and hard work, uh, for people to farm at a smaller level. But it's the same thing applies to the Sabbath. For somebody to say once a week, I am not going to chase the dollar. Um, chase commercialism, uh, let the world influence me. I'm gonna let God do that one day outta the week is an act of supreme trust these days. Yeah, definitely. Um, and, and so, uh, whether it's giving the land rest or giving ourselves rest, I think first we ought give ourselves a rest. Mm-hmm. Uh, I've come to really believe in this. Understanding the land through, because so many of the laws around the land in scripture come under what is called the heading of the sabbatical laws. The whole point behind Sabbath is not that we do everything we can do, but we, we have a restraint. We don't harvest to the edge of the field. We don't beat the tree twice, et cetera. Mm-hmm. We build an inefficiency into the system so that we have margin in our lives and our souls. Um, so to, to me, the tie between Sabbath and agriculture is just absolute. At least scripturally speaking. Yeah. Beautiful. Definitely. I'll mention something that I do and maybe hear your thoughts about it. Sure. We have been planning since we started this farm. To take the seventh year off and put all of our fields into like a clover cover crop that gives back nutrients into the soil. Mm-hmm. Nitrogen fixers. Yeah. Right. It's not that we really have felt a deep conviction to do so, it's just we thought, well, if the land needs rest, the land needs rest. I guess it was just kind of an idea we had and we just had keep planning on it. You know, I can't think actually of much harder work than farming. Um, it's, it's hard work. It's not guaranteed.'cause you have to deal with things like weather. Yeah. And that sort of thing. And, and what I would be interested to know from that experiment, if you will mm-hmm. Isn't so much about the land, but about you and your family. Yeah. Because we need rest. And if you've got, uh, crop to be brought in, you've got a crop to be brought in. And, and so, um, I think anytime you try one of those experiments, a as it will, um. Say, Lord, we're gonna try to follow your plan and see how it works out. In my experience, it's always worked out. Mm-hmm. Um, it may not work out immediately, but it, it does, uh, in my experience in the long haul and I know eternally, it absolutely does. Mm-hmm. So, for people listening, what is one thing that you wish every person would do differently today in how they treat the earth? To see it. I'll give an example of this. Because of the work I've been called to over the last couple of decades, um, I have to do a lot of things I would tell people not to do. I have to travel constantly. Yeah. Um, I want to give people the Sabbath and the time to teach them about that is on the Lord's Day on Sunday, so I have to move it for myself, et cetera. Um, but a lot of that travel I've had to do by air. I, I am almost positive that I have not traveled for any personal reasons for well over a decade. Um, so all of my travel is around work and preaching and teaching and that sort of, um, sort of thing. And I'm up in the air and I've, I've been taking photographs of scenes. Above the clouds that are so beautiful over the last 20 years. I can't tell you the sunrises and sunsets I've seen to seal just the earth laid out underneath me. There have been times where I've just shocked at how beautiful it is and thought that. Julius Caesar would've given you gall just, just to go for a ride in this Pharaoh would've given you the lower kingdom just to get up in a plane. No kidding. And people have the shades down and they're looking at a little screen four inches across. And here is the beauty of creation from Heaven's view. You can't see it. It's the same thing on the ground. I see sometimes, you know, moms pushing kids in carriages and they're looking at this little screen and there's just, wow, that's a shame, magnificence around them. So I would say the first thing is to, to pray, to have the eyes to see, um, as I mentioned at the beginning of this, of Jesus was telling his listeners to imagine the most glorious. Uh, setting in human eyes, which would be Solomon at the, at the height of his kingdom. You know, he's got a thousand wives and concubines, 10,000 chariots going on hundreds of gold shields, and I can't imagine what he looked like decked out for a state event. And Jesus said that is nothing compared to a flower. Wow. And so I would say that the thing is to do to, and I, I, and I don't believe it comes naturally. I think you have to pray and say, Lord, give me eyes to see if somebody that's listening is not farming and they're living in the city, that can be a daisy popping up out of the sidewalk. I remember one of the most amazing things I've ever seen was under a bridge in San Francisco's a terrible place and everything, and there was a plant coming up. Through a sidewalk, through the pavement, how beautiful it was. And so the one thing I wish people would do is to see and consider the glorious of God. You talking about the plane was really fascinating. I travel a little bit for work, not nearly as much as you. Um, and I actually. Was just flying this weekend and looked out the window and saw some things were that were actually super disheartening. Like certainly when you fly you do see these amazing views, but then you also sometimes see things that are like really disappointing when you're coming from this perspective. I saw just what looked like hundreds and hundreds of acres just covered in massive buildings and. I'm like, not gonna lie. It was, it was pretty disappointing. Could you kind of give us some insight, if you could speak to a young farmer or environmentalist who's listening right now, who feels discouraged, what would you say to them? I would say that one of the lovely things about being old, I'm, I'm certainly not, uh, young anymore, but is that you begin to have all this experience and you've seen history unfold before you. Mm-hmm. I remember, the ca uh, Kaga, I believe I'm pronouncing that river in, uh, in Ohio. Caught on fire. Now, the, that river had burned a dozen times in the past, but, it caught on fire in, uh, 1969, I believe it was. And there were deaths and that sort of thing. When I was, younger, there were ponds and rivers that you couldn't eat anything, any fish out of it. Uh, you know, by the way, um, water on fire is described in scripture and it's not a good place to be. That's what hell looks like. Right. Okay. Wow. And, and we have a description of the water in heaven. It's, uh, in, in Revelation 22, the water that proceeds from the throne of God is if, if you read the Greek, it's, it's clear, clear water. It's repeated twice. It's so clean. That's what scripture does when it's like really, really good. It repeat the words twice. And so we know that in heaven, the water's crystal clear. And here on earth we had water that was literally catching on fire. Mm-hmm. And fish that couldn't be eaten for any reason. Yeah, when I was a child, I never saw an eagle. The symbol of our country wasn't there. Well, because of good stewardship. Um, we, we don't have rivers that catch on fire anymore. Um, we, we have bald eagles all over the place. Just saw one couple days ago, uh, they're almost pests in some places, and what a, what a magnificent thing that is, you know? Mm-hmm. And so I would say that the work of stewardship of the Earth is never done. Yeah. You just have to accept it as good work and it per se, not think about the end point. If you think of the analogy of a third grade teacher, you know, they have all these little illiterate children came in. If they said, I'm going to end the literacy. Um, they would get discouraged'cause there's always a new crop of illiterate children coming along. And there's always going to be work that's done and pressing as far as, uh, creation in the environment go. And so think instead, I've been given good work, not I'm gonna fix this whole problem. And go at it that way would be my advice to somebody rather than, you know, sufficient unto the day are the worries of today, as Jesus said, or the evils thereof, is to quote the King James. Yeah. What you said about the bald eagles is super fascinating because. They're an example of a species that we have really cared for and brought back. And in a lot of our conversations in farming right now, people are worried about the pollinator crisis and I always think about how plentiful the earth is and how God has perfectly made it to recover itself very quickly. And, it's almost like when we have these perspectives like doomsday, the soil can never replenish itself. It doesn't really align with scripture and God's divine creation. It actually, it. I mean, the land has divine power so even in the ways that we fail, for example, we've seen. Many times when I travel to farms, there will be countless stories of fields that were quote unquote ecologically dead, because of over over farming, and it'll be turned back to life within a couple seasons. And so when I think about stories like that, I think wow, how much that shows how much, just one little action or little step in the right direction can really change things. You know, you bring up, so here in Kentucky, one of the major crops, uh, over the last century or so was tobacco. And in order to, get what's called bright. Tobacco, the, you nitrogen deplete the soil, uh, the tobacco plant grows better in nitrogen depleted soil. Mm-hmm. Um, which is contrary to every other, you know, useful. And, um, and tobacco isn't a useful plant in a way. And some of those fields were just, you know, nothing much would grow in them other than weeds after but then you'd see somebody, you know, plant a clover or a nitrogen fixer and just see them come back. So absolutely, God designed this place to bounce back. If we just give it a little bit of a chance and a little help, it'll do it. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah. That's amazing. It, it's really incredible. this, this advice is for everyone, but I think, uh, especially for those who, who work the land. Mm-hmm. Um, I have been a Christian for roughly 25 years. Little less, little less. And I have had a privilege of traveling and speaking to more different kinds of people than most folks are allowed to. I thought I met a lot of people in the emergency department, but, um. Uh, it's been amazing and as I travel around and I'm, I am constantly amazed that people who are Christians who maybe go to church every single week and read their Bible, have never read the Bible with their profession in mind. In the last couple of years I've really worked with a lot of healthcare people and physicians and that sort of thing, and I hadn't done that for a number of years. Yeah. And I'm stunned that the number of people don't understand. The biggest chunk of the New Testament was written by a physician. Right. Luke Luke's word, eye witness is the Greek is autopsy there. And, and so when we are Christians and we haven't looked to the Bible, uh, and read through it. Asking it about our profession. Mm-hmm. There's two really bad things that happen. One is you shortchange your profession. Two is you shortchange your faith. And so I would say to people just, you know, start somewhere in, in scripture and say, God, teach me about what I'm doing, whether that's parenting or farming, or whatever. And, and, and see what scripture has to say because so often. We may even have the right answer, but unless we know where that answer comes from that answer is easily taken away from us. And so I, I would encourage people to, to go to scripture and, and to learn from its wisdom. I think it's really easy as farmers to read the Bible with our occupation in mind. The, uh, we have a, a verse. For our farm, it's on all of our logos and it's the parable of the sower. And I just think that as farmers we have an extra unique opportunity because so much of the Bible is about the land and about, um, just plants. And so it's really fun reading the Bible myself with people who don't garden or have no idea these concepts and being able to explain it to them and open up their eyes to a deeper meaning behind. Everything that these verses are saying. And so I, I do think that a lot, that I feel really grateful that I have that extra background and that personal experience with the land and plants to be able to read it with it almost brings it to life way more color And, it's really cool to read it from your different perspectives and apply it too. Your career in life. Yeah. And, and I, you, you, you, uh, hit the nail on the head there because of all the professions. Uh, the one most represented in scripture is farming. And just so many of, of the Lord's illustrations when you walk the earth. His language is so full of soil and seeds and fruit and vines and, manure dressing trees. The only thing Jesus ever harms is a tree, and the only thing that can harm him is a tree. That's because this is his symbol. Mm-hmm. Tree of Life. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Or even reading about pastures and how he's the good shepherd, that all comes to life when you spend time walking your own sheep through the pasture and it's, it's really beautiful. So I feel super fortunate and grateful for that opportunity to read it with a unique lens for sure. Yeah, absolutely. You know, there's even that, I think only people who've worked with animals can get some of the analogies. Um, when livestock knows you, they follow you. Mm-hmm. If they don't know you at all, you have to drive them from behind. Yeah. You know, and so he's our shepherd. Any leads us, he doesn't drive us from behind. He leads us to still water and quiet pastures. Yeah. Yeah. That's awesome. It's super beautiful. Well, thank you so, so much for your time. I would love to just close with, just asking you what are your next steps? I would love for listeners to kind of be able to follow what you're up to can you give listeners an idea of what you're doing in your life right now and where they could find you and how they can keep learning from you. They can, uh if you go online, I, I'm not a big social media person, but the thing I'm very excited about is through a series of events I never could have imagined we're actually building a home. On a piece of land right near the city here. Um, we only have eight acres, but we're surrounded by, uh, 4,000 acre farm. And, um, and, and we're just building that house from the footings up for hospitality, sustainability, all those types of things. And so it's a dream coming. True. I never would have thought. It's not easy, but yeah. Um, and so that's very exciting. And for. Your listeners, I think the book that I would encourage them to read, and by the way, all, all, uh, this is, I don't have a dog in this race. In a way. All, all the proceeds from my books go to charity. Um, but, so I'm not trying to hawk a book per se, but the Reforesting Faith book, uh, that I wrote seems to have just helped so many people. Particularly those who are believers in Christ and yet they find themselves in a culture that's saying the opposite of the Bible. That book has been so helpful for those people that I'd encourage, uh, folks to read it. Thank you. I've really appreciated all of your writings and so I am so grateful that you came on the podcast today, and I know that this conversation is really going to open up people's eyes and minds to all of this. So thank you so much. You're welcome. Can I close this in prayer? Yeah, please. Okay, I'm, I'm going to, um, uh, read a, a prayer first and then I'll ad lib after that. Uh, Lord, make us instruments of your peace where there's hatred. Let so love sow it as in plant the seed where there's injury. Pardon? Where there is discord union where there's doubt faith, where there's darkness, light, and where there is sadness, joy. Grant that we may not so much seek to be consoled as to console, to be understood as to understand, to be loved as to love, whereas in giving that we receive. And it is imparting that we are pardoned and it is in dying. That we are born to eternal life and heaven. Father, I ask a blessing on Hannah and the work that she and her family are doing and everyone listening here that they would be blessed, uh, with your peace. And that they, sow the seeds of peace and shalom in the work that they do. And I ask this in the name of Christ. Amen. Amen.

35:17

Thank you again Dr. Sle for joining us on the show today. I know you as well as myself feel so deeply called to be one of a growing number of people. The Lord is calling to share about God's love for the natural world, and am just honored that you joined us today. you know, like we touched on during this episode today, our God is the kind of God who loves the trees and the birds and the flowers. That saying when a tree falls, does anyone hear it? Well, the Bible tells us that it matters to God that that tree is there to glorify God all throughout the Bible. We are encouraged by his love for us. Through the way that he speaks about creation and his love for creation. So it's very clear the more you read it, there's just no denying that God wants us to put care for the soil beneath our feet, much higher than we may have it now. It's not about caring about the earth more than humans. It's about care for what we are given and caring for God's creation for example, if a friend loaned you their car, your friend would expect you to keep it in good condition. If they gave you dominion over it, they gave you dominion over it for that period of time while you were borrowing their car. Like of course you would go try to go above and beyond to drive even more careful than normal and to steward that opportunity well, well, surely we should care for the earth at least as good as we would alone car. But unfortunately, so many of us and believers especially, and that's why I wanted to do this episode, hoping that you guys will share this with Christian friends who maybe are not as like-minded as normal. Weekly listeners to the Global Stewardship Podcast are but so many Christians who are walking with the Lord have yet to discover this deep work of how transformative it can be for our relationship with God when we put more intention into our relationship with creation as well, God holds us accountable for creation care and when we figure that out, the result will be. A flourishing as a people and planet beyond what we could have ever dreamed. We can absolutely achieve positive changes on an unprecedented scale and like we were chatting about today, thankfully, we don't have to stay in this feeling of hopelessness because it can be really overwhelming when you're looking at all of the environmental problems around the world. But it's also not an excuse to not take action. James four 17 tells us that it's a sin to know what you need to do and to not do it. So I'm wondering, where in your life do you know that you could be stewarding the land better or stewarding your possessions better, or maybe consuming differently? Do you have consumption habits, purchasing choices that you know are harming the environment, harming the Lord's beautiful creation that you could be implementing? Changes in. Anyways, that's just food for thought and I'm excited to open up this conversation. I am going to be sharing a special Thursday episode this week. It was actually supposed to be the episode posted today, but then this one got bumped forward, so on Thursday, in two days, i'm gonna be posting a bit of a life update, but would love for you to listen because it is the whole rundown of how I went from working 60 plus overtime hour weeks on the farm, feeling a little overwhelmed and miserable to now having that. Feeling of romanticism back on the farm, having woofers volunteers here from all over the world,, running a cooperative farm where I'm not the only farm business, but have several others. And so it's a great conversation and especially if you're a farmer or an aspiring farmer, this actually might be a model that could work well on your farm. Bits and pieces of it, whatever fits in your specific situation. So don't forget to tune in again Thursday and check out the podcast description link of this show. If you wanna check out Dr. Sleets books, and I'm also going to be including a link to my favorite book right now, all about Psalm 23, that it's actually a book that'll teach you a lot about farming, a lot about shepherding. But if you like me, have had kind of a crazy week, couple of weeks and are feeling just. Overwhelmed by all of the sadness on social media and in the world. This book is only$7 and 40 something cents it's a great read, and I highly, highly, highly recommend it. I'm going to be rereading it multiple times a year, hopefully for the rest of my life. Top favorite, highly recommend. Thanks again for tuning in all the way to the end. Let me know what you think about this episode. I know it's different than normal, but I appreciate every single one of you who made it all the way this far, and hope to catch you again on Thursday.