Because cows will save the world. Apparently.

The only real way to start this is to talk about how much I dislike Kansas. I mean, I am sure the people there are lovely. I just happen to pathologically avoid driving through Kansas. It’s just so… flat. And I think I can count all of the trees on one hand. I road tripped through one too many times as a kid and realized that corn and wheat were just not enough scenic variety for this mountain and canyon girl.

Which is why there is some cosmic irony in the fact that I will be attending a graduate program through Kansas State University next year. (The online program, I still couldn’t bring myself to move there.) Better yet, I am pursuing a certificate in grasslands management. (Possibly as a function of protest against losing more wild spaces to wheat and corn, but I digress.)

So, why exactly does an Idaho girl from the mountains currently living in Nairobi working for a non-profit, with a degree in ministry, want to go back to school to learn about grass in the Great Plains?

Basically, because I dislike crowds and I think that cows can save the world.

Yep, not what I would have guessed either.

The thing is, as Western Christians, we have lost the plot in terms of the things God calls good. We have such a small, sad view of what true goodness consists of. When God created, he called the world and all the things in it good. He called people very good. And that – that whole substance of goodness – was what was lost in the brokenness of sin. I have come to consider more and more just how little I know of the magnitude of the goodness of God in what he created and by extension the real tragedy of the loss of that goodness in mankind’s evil.

In light of that, I have really started wondering if perhaps we as Christians, and me as someone who’s whole job is ministry, shouldn’t be trying a lot harder to care for and preserve the goodness of the world, and use that as a means to minister to the souls of people. (Which brings us back around to the cows and their apparent superpowers.) Christianity and the gospel are about redemption and renewal, and that means all the parts of peoples’ lives - the jobs they do, the places they live, the cultures they’re from, as well as their eternities.

Furthermore, no matter which science you pick, or whether or not you want to call it climate change, humans are not exactly the best at caring for natural resources, and it’s not getting a whole lot better. Not so coincidentally, the people making the biggest difference in caring for creation are in a very small minority globally and tend to have the least access to resources of all kinds. AND those people are doing it using well-managed grazing animals – like cows or other domestic animals and ruminant wildlife. (Nope, it’s not the kind of straws you use, promise.)

Let’s say we put all those facts and ponderings together, and I would like to think that some of you might come to the same conclusion that I have. That one of the best ways to care for people and the planet holistically is by taking an interest in small groups of people we might otherwise never know existed and learning about the ways they are reflecting the image of God in how they steward creation. Somewhere in such a pursuit I think there’s a vibrant ministry waiting, and I’m taking the time I have now to find out what it might look like.

And I guess the grass in Kansas is the place to start.