For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now. Romans 8:22

Over two decades ago I summited Mount Baker in the northern Cascade Mountains in Washington State. At 10,781 ft. in elevation, Mt. Baker is the second most glaciated peak in Washington, only behind the much taller and comparatively more challenging Mt. Rainier.

My climbing group and I camped at about 9 thousand feet on one of the glaciers. While eating our evening meal before we summited the next morning, we heard a loud rumble. It reminded me of thunder, but there were cloudless skies. We all looked at each other and someone said, “The mountain is groaning tonight.” We determined that it was the movement of the glacier we were camped on that was causing the deep rumble.

We live in a world that is groaning for new birth, new creation, and new wholeness. The wars in Ukraine and Israel. The earthquakes in Afghanistan.

There are more people in slavery today than at any time in human history. The best estimate, according to the U.S. State Department, is 27 million, and that does not include bonded labor.

There is an estimated 75 to 199 million tons of plastic waste currently in our oceans, with a further 33 billion pounds of plastic entering the marine environment every single year.

In the year 2023, there have been 643 mass shootings. According to Mass Shooting Tracker, they define a mass shooting is an incident of violence in which 4 or more people are shot. Of course, the latest high-profile shooting is the mass shooting in Lewiston, Maine. Where a single gunman killed 18 people and injured another 13.

The objectification of women and the exploitation of children. The sexual abuse coverups in institutions like the Boy Scouts of America, the Roman Catholic Church, and the Southern Baptist Convention. And on and on and on it goes.

God loves this world. And God wants to save it, redeem it, and heal it.

I remember hearing a preacher say, “We don’t need to worry about the spotted owl, because after the rapture God is going to burn it all away. Besides, why should we leave anything of any beauty and value for the Anti-Christ?”

Here’s my problem: What if that particular interpretation of the second coming is wrong? We will be mismanaging God’s world because of questionable theology.

What do we do with the covenant that God has established with the earth?

In Genesis 9:16 we read,

Whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and all living creatures of every kind on the earth.”

So God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant I have established between me and all life on the earth.”

God established a covenant with Noah and this good earth. Do you know what is included in “all life on the earth”? Spotted owls.

People are always criticizing the theology in today’s modern praise songs. But I have a problem with the theology in some of the old hymns. Here’s an example.

Turn your eyes upon Jesus
Look full in his wonderful face
And the things of earth will grow strangely dim
In the light of his glory and grace

I think Paul would say, that when you turn your eyes upon Jesus, the things of this earth will become crystal clear. Christ is the light of the world. Christ lights up this world so that I can see it more clearly than ever before. I can see its beauty and I can see its heartbreaking brutality. I become much more sensitive to it.

God loves this world. In fact, the most popular and often quoted verse in all of the word of God reminds us of this great love:

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

That’s why Jesus came into this world. And that’s why we need to listen to the groans. Because God is looking for people like you and me to make God’s dream real for this world.

What is groaning in this world right now that has grabbed your heart? What is groaning in this world that God is nudging you towards so that you can do something about it?

Are young families that need mentoring? Are senior adults lonely? Are there people of color in our communities that need to be invited into our homes. Is there anyone struggling with mental health issues that needs an advocate? Are there after-school programs that need volunteers?

And the list could go on and on.

Can we hear those groans? Or am I just caught up in my own world?

What will change the world? I believe it will change incrementally when we look away from the fearmongers on the left and the right and start looking to Jesus the author and finisher of our faith. And while we are looking to Jesus, listen for the groans of this world.

One way to discern a groan God might be calling you to is to ask yourself, “What issue makes me weep or pound the table?”

I believe with all my heart that every single follower of Jesus has been given a unique calling. I love the way the late Frederick Buechner put this:

“The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.”

What is the groan that gets hold of your heart and your life?

We find our ministry and we find our vocation — we find our role in God’s dream in this world—when we are able to hear the groans of the world.

The world is waiting to be born.