Take Climate Action. You never know who it will impact.

It might even be you

Yesterday I was up on Parliament Hill for my weekly climate prayer vigil, every Thursday from Noon - 1 pm. For the first time since I started, I was there alone; a couple of people who usually join me couldn’t attend.

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Maybe it was being alone that did it, but I had the most moving encounters with others yesterday, more so than any time since I started in mid-December.

I had a couple of the conversations I have come to expect, people who come up to ask me what I’m there for (even though it’s obvious) and then to tell me how I’m wrong about the climate crisis. I have learned after a few sessions that I’m not there to argue or convince; I’m there to pray, and so I simply smiled and waited after being told I’m wrong. He wished me well and moved on his way.

But it was the other encounters, the ones that I simply didn’t expect, that touched me and made me realize just why it is important for me to go to the Hill every Thursday at lunchtime and pray for climate action.

There was the young mother with her baby in a stroller, out for a walk downtown. She smiled at me, then as she was leaving, came over and said, “Thank you for what you are doing.” I gave her a broad smile and said that her words meant a lot.

Then, there were the guys in trucks. There is a roadway right in front of the Centennial Flame for authorized vehicles to drive to and from the three blocks of Parliament Hill. With the Centre Block under renovation for the next ten years, a large number of construction and other commercial trucks drove past me. The drivers were all big, work-roughened men (in this case they were all men) wearing reflective vests. Two of the truckers, as well as the passenger in one of the trucks, looked at me, smiled, and gave me a thumbs-up!

Finally, there was the young white man in a suit. He was walking, rushing to get to his job in one of the buildings behind me. He slowed down, looked me in the eye, and placed his hand over his heart.

I couldn’t speak, for emotion had filled up my heart and was right in my throat.

I had no idea what impact my prayer vigil, especially as a solitary figure, could have on others. Or on me.

So, my friends, this is your Friday Nudge: Take climate action. Choose something and do it. You don’t know how it will impact others. How it will give them the encouragement, or the hope, or the sense of meaning in their own lives, to see you acting. Maybe they’ll go home and say, “Honey, you’ll never guess what I saw at work today!” Or maybe they’ll donate to a climate organization. Or maybe they’ll decide to take climate action, too.

Maybe they’ll feel hope for their children; encouraged despite the job they have to do; heartened in their own faith by seeing you live out your faith in this way.

And, you don’t know how it will impact you.

Take climate action, my friends. Something concrete and outside of your normal sphere. Do it today. That is discipleship.

Yours in Earth community, Jessica

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Have you had an experience like this? What happened?