Prophetic Patience in a Changing Climate

Prophetic Patience in a Changing Climate

Be patient, therefore, beloved, until the coming of the Lord. The farmer waits for the precious crop from the earth, being patient with it until it receives the early and the late rains. You also must be patient. Strengthen your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is near. Beloved, do not grumble against one another, so that you may not be judged. See, the Judge is standing at the doors! As an example of suffering and patience, beloved, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord.

James 5:7-10

I am a lawyer and researcher, studying laws about climate change, biodiversity loss and disasters...a challenging trifecta! But like many in our Common Grace movement, I hold tight to the ancient practice of lament, and I’m grateful for the explosive creativity of the grieving and raging Psalms.

Today’s verse is about waiting. James invites us to wait like a farmer waits for rain. But here’s the thing. I recently read the National Climate Risk Assessment, and I know that the rains don’t come like they used to. Over coming decades, they might not come at all – for years at a time in some places – and then they’ll come but they’ll be brutal, thundering, flooding.

But James then points to the prophets as an example of suffering and patience. That example resonates with me. The patience of the prophets is different to waiting on seasonal rainfall. The prophets were charged with reflecting on the brokenness of the world, speaking difficult truths to God’s people, and with no guarantee of a good ending. They might not have seen God’s people return to flourishing in their lifetime and may have felt like their lonely lives were in vain.

Prophetic patience is an expression of obedience as much as it is of hope.

Last summer, lightning strikes started bushfires in the drought-ravaged northwest of lutruwita/Tasmania – my home state. They burned into Takayna, a forest that is home to a stand of huon pines, including one that is more than 3,000 years old. At first, we heard that the pines had been destroyed and, oh! How we grieved! We later found out that the fires missed the huon pines by just metres, and I grieved again. They survived this time but we have changed the climate and those trees don’t belong here anymore. It’s too warm, too dry, and too frequently burning.

I watch this kind of loss repeated over and over and I am struggling. What good thing can my patience carry me towards? The Bible speaks a promise of a new Earth, but I love this one with all of my heart! I long for the kelp forests to flourish and the reefs to survive. What does justice even mean for that huon pine and its kin?

But I find comfort in James’ call to be patient like the prophets. My Creator is not afraid of my heartbreak nor my fury. My feelings are not too much for Him. He doesn’t dismiss them or give me a pep talk. He grieves with me. He knows this grief; it’s a sensible response to loss and brokenness. 

God's love meets us in our grief and lament - the same love that broke through in the birth of Jesus continues to break through our despair and fear today. He calls us into the holy work of living out his reconciling and restoring love in this world. So, tomorrow, we’ll get up together and keep doing the work. That’s my obedience and my hope.

Creator of all ancient fungi, dew on spiderwebs, and thunderous waterfalls. Please sit with me and help me to be brave enough to know my feelings without running away or pushing them down. Help me to know, more deeply than I have ever known before, the ferocious love that you felt when you broke through to redeem the world, not just its people but its huon pines and river flows and its songs and stories. Creator, please give me the courage to be prophetically patient.

Dr Phillipa McCormack is a Research Fellow in Law, based in the Environment Institute and Adelaide Law School at The University of Adelaide. Her work focuses on environmental and climate laws and she is particularly interested in the ways that law can help us to adapt as the climate changes. She has recently been working on projects about bushfire preparation and recovery, nature restoration, and legal tools for promoting intergenerational justice. She has the rich privilege of living on the foothills of beautiful kunanyi in nipaloona/Hobart, with her husband, daughter and a Brittany spaniel called Albert.

This devotional is the eleventh in a series of daily email devotionals for Advent 2025 reflecting on the realities of our broken world along with the unshakable hope that love still breaks through. It explores how God’s love disrupts, heals, and transforms - breaking through darkness, despair, and injustice to bring light, joy, and renewal.

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Common Grace is a diverse movement of individuals, churches and communities passionate about Jesus and justice. We have come together as those from different Christian traditions who stand in the continuity of the historic Christian faith, centred on the life, death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ as witnessed to in holy scripture. This series highlights the diversity of followers of Jesus across these lands. These voices may not agree with one another (or with you), but they are each an expression of longing for the God whose love we see break through in Jesus.

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