Wake Up, Look Up

hello everyone thanks for listening to

wake up lookup a podcast where we

connect events happening in real time to

the Gospel of Jesus Christ I'm Zach

wrock and in today's episode we're

asking the question who burned down La

now this question is prompted by the

wildfire that has been in the news

lately happening in Southern California

devastating and I say Wildfire I should

really say wildfires because it's been

plural the Santa Ana winds driving it

around thousands of people out of their

homes Millions if not billions of

dollars in damage and even people dying

but I read an article this week in the

Atlantic about how well-intentioned

policies may have contributed to this uh

the argument goes like this and uh

California passed uh years ago something

called proposition 10 three which

limited uh reduced insurance premiums so

that people would move into fir prone

areas so in other words it kind of

capped what insurance companies could

charge you uh for fire insurance and as

a consequence people began to move with

with rap rapidity move into areas that

we knew were at danger for fire in fact

some insurance companies in response to

proposition 103 simply stopped offering

homeowners insurance or fire insurance

for property in these areas State Farm

is one example that just said we won't

do it because these areas are at

incredibly high risk for fires and

you're building a property there that we

don't think will stand the test of time

as a result California passed the the

fair plan which basically said if you

can't find Insurance under the cap the

state itself will Ure you so of course

people are moving into these areas and

building homes and building businesses

even though the whole time we know

there's a high risk for fire uh zoning

laws have played a fact played a factor

too because what is happening is in safe

areas to build homes zoning laws are

restricting the number of dwellings

zoning some areas commercial so that if

you want to build a home eventually the

only land you can buy is in a fir prone

area so that when something like this

happens even though it's catastrophic

and horrific and in some ways once in a

generation it's a little bit like

building a house on the beach in Florida

hurricanes happen in these areas because

of the dryness because of the wind

because of a lot of things you are going

to see fires and when they come they're

going to spread so you have a lot of

people now saying we shouldn't be

surprised and in fact some other people

saying we never should have built houses

there at all now why is this a Biblical

theological question well before I

answer that let me just say this

overwhelmingly the Christian response to

the wildfires in Southern California

should be one of compassion and grief

and empathy people are losing their

homes losing their family members losing

their lives that should break our hearts

and when we have ability we should be

generous to the people there seeking to

help alleviate whatever burden we can it

is awful and should break our hearts but

the reason this is a relevant question

for wake up lookup is because when

something like this happens the

immediate question tends to be where is

God Is God causing the fire it could God

have stopped the fire why didn't he stop

the fire and those are fine questions

but but they presuppose something that

maybe we shouldn't presuppose and that

is that God is the primary actor in the

fires that God is burning down La when

in fact we are the ones doing that so

the Bible tells us that there's a human

responsibility to to shape and mold the

planet when God put Adam and Eve in the

garden in Genesis 2 he tells them to be

fruitful and multiply to spread all over

the world to have dominion over it but

to be responsible for something is to

make strategic intentional responsible

choices the truth is what's been driving

our culture for a long time time is

self-fulfillment not stewardship we

treat this planet as though it's ours

not God's and as a consequence we ignore

all that science is telling us things

like you shouldn't build a home there

things like that area is prone to Fire

and shouldn't be a place where we're

building businesses and homes and

investing our lives when we ignore that

it's because we're thinking human

domination will conqu nature and it

doesn't work that way we weren't ma we

weren't designed to rule over nature we

were designed to Steward the Earth in

participation with it so we have to

acknowledge that when we build a home in

a high-risk environment we should know

what we're doing there are consequences

to human decisions Hosea 4 says that a

lack of knowledge leads to people

perishing uh what we have to do is pay

attention to what science is saying pay

attention to what Engineers are saying

pay attention to what good stewardship

of Earthly resources look like and

understand I'm not saying that if your

home burned down in the fires of La it's

your fault people buy homes that exist

part of the role of things like zoning

laws should be to be clear as to where

is safe and where isn't what is wise and

what isn't there is a natural order to

the world and when we fly in the face of

that we Face consequences and when that

happens the appropriate question at

least the appropriate first question

isn't where is God God gave us the Earth

God calls us to wisdom God calls us to

stewardship the question should be what

did we get wrong what did we miss and

how can we avoid this in the future the

truth is we make decisions every day on

an individual scale and on a societal

scale and those decisions those ideas

have consequences and when the

consequences are devastating often times

it's true we can trace them back to

ideas that we should have rejected in

the first place hey thanks so much for

watching this episode of wake up lookup

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