When The Call is Your Call

The early chapters of Genesis have taken on a whole new meaning since becoming a full time regenerative farmer — a healer and steward of the land.

And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”
— Genesis 1:28 ESV

Now out of the ground the Lord God had formed every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. And whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name. The man gave names to all livestock and to the birds of the heavens and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper fit for him.
— Genesis 2:19–20 ESV

As long as I can remember, I’ve understood these verses to mean more than “have a bunch of kids and dominate the living world.”

The subduing and the knowing is about caring and creating order, which in doing well is fulfilling our role of His image on Earth. In fact, this is what pains me most about so-called believers who have no problem trashing His creation for short-term “gains”.

In our modern age, there are innumerable ways to this call, many of which were not even imaginable even just 100 years ago.

For the past couple years, as we’ve been keeping a flock of birds of the mid-heavens (chickens can sort of fly), planting gardens and establishing edible forests, I’ve developed a deep gratitude that my calling is quite literally the same as the original humans received. To me, there is nothing more fulfilling than to be an active part of the stream of life.