The Daily: Wednesday September 24, 2025

"No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money." - Luke 16:13

Devotional
When we look at the challenges facing our world today—climate change, species extinction, pollution—we often frame them as purely environmental or political problems. But what if these visible crises are symptoms of something deeper? Jesus understood the connection between our spiritual condition and our outward actions. In Luke's Gospel, he warns, "No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money." (Luke 16:13)

Filipino theologian Ferdinand Anno helps us see that our ecological crises—parched earth, broken rivers, dying species—are not just worldly problems. They are signs of something deeper: spiritual forgetting. We have forgotten that land is kapwa, relational; that we are not separate from the soil, the water, the air, but bound to them. So our tears, when we lament, are more than sorrow—they are recognition. Recognition that what God made good has been wounded. But if recognition happens, then our tears also become a river of justice, flowing with purpose. Our grief becomes fuel for returning to right relationship—with God, with Earth, with one another.

Our ecological crisis reflects a spiritual crisis—a forgetting that we are part of something larger than ourselves. When we worship growth, consumption, and profit above all else, we inevitably damage the web of life that sustains us. Our relationship with creation mirrors our relationship with the Creator. Recognizing this spiritual dimension doesn't minimize the need for practical solutions. Rather, it suggests that lasting change requires both outer and inner transformation. As we grieve environmental destruction, we're invited to examine the values and beliefs that have led us here. Today, consider how your own spiritual life connects to your relationship with the natural world. How might your grief for creation be calling you to a deeper spiritual awakening?


Reflection Question
In what ways might your consumption habits or lifestyle choices reflect spiritual values? How might grief for the planet invite you to reconsider what you truly worship?

Prayer
Creator God, forgive me for the ways I have participated in systems that harm your creation. Help me to see the spiritual roots of our ecological crisis and to examine my own heart. Transform my grief into wisdom as I seek to align my life more fully with your values of care, justice, and sufficiency. Amen.