4. Complex interdependence
The complexity of even tiny ecosystems is nearly beyond belief. Multiply that by billions of other ecosystems, and you get some idea of the world on earth that God created, let alone that “he made the stars also” (Gen. 1:16)!
But it’s not just complexity; it’s interdependence. Every ecosystem, even the tiniest, is constantly in complex interaction with others—and thus with the whole. In the ecological sense, there is nothing that doesn’t matter.
Physical fact: It is so. Everything you touch, see, use, consume, appreciate, invest, love or ignore is woven into the earth’s complex ecology.
Spiritual fact: The same is true spiritually. We can only imagine the complex ecology of prayer, meditation, good intentions, acts of love and self-giving, worship, prevenient grace, angels and demons, and God’s Spirit. Yet the Bible beautifully images it. “My word … shall not return unto me void” (Isa. 55:11). Do not despise “the day of small things” (Zech. 4:10).
Spiritual-physical fact: Physical and spiritual ecosystems interconnect. They are part of one larger whole, since all comes from the hand and energy of God’s Word and Spirit. Affirming this is still a huge worldview shift for most people. What you do with a soda can affects you spiritually, and affects in a tiny but not insignificant way the whole spiritual-physical ecosystem. What you pray about can have physical effects beyond your knowing. (Now begin multiplying that.)
Yes, spraying chemicals on your lawn does harm the poor in Mali. Probably the prayers of the folks there help us.
5. Feedback loops
Ecological science emphasizes feedback loops. This is a key way of explaining and clarifying the complex interdependence described above. “Feedback loop” refers to the dynamic by which every action cycles back on itself to produce and often amplify further change. Think of feedback in an audio system—if a microphone is too close to the loudspeaker, the sound cycles and reverberates and amplifies into a screech, until it is interrupted.
Physical fact: Every action or change in nature has an effect which bounces back and affects the source. “You can never do just one thing.” But this is complex, not simple, for feedback loops cycle through other feedback loops, multiplying themselves. Such loops can be helpful or devastating. A good example is your physical body. The most pressing broadscale example today is the climate and climate destabilization.
Spiritual fact: Feedback loops are spiritual as well as physical. Think of prayer, worship, and Christian obedience and example. Healthy churches and healthy families flourish through healthy feedback loops.
Spiritual-physical fact: Feedback loops are no respecter of the supposed material-spiritual split. Quite the opposite. Toss that soda can, and it joins complex feedback loops—to your own hurt, and especially to the hurt of the poor and vulnerable. Feedback loops operate complexly in all directions, so naturally they are found in business, economics, the arts, family systems and all the spiritual-physical dimensions of culture.
