Can We Live More Like an Ecosystem?

In a world that celebrates the individual, how can we choose to live differently? Perhaps there is wisdom in God's creation, in nature's systems, which hold the keys to a more Christlike life.

Jun 18, 2024

Hey friends!

The spotty weather has broken open and the summer sun seems to be prevailing this week. Yesterday I went for a walk past our new apartment and did a few laps around one of my favorite parks. Wandsworth Park hugs the side of the Thames River as it meanders through Putney, so you have greenery and the water all in the same place. There is this tree lined path along the river which is my favorite part of the park - I’ve included it as the picture for this post today.

Whenever I’m immersed in nature, I can’t help but think of the Creator of all things. I think often of the diversity in the natural world and its systems of cooperation and community. For so long, humans have looked at nature as a place of competition and survival, but really it’s a place of community and reciprocity. Research continues to flood in with new realities of the natural systems around us and the evidence is inspiring— everything flows and works together much more in cooperation than competition.

Wouldn’t it be nice if we could live like an ecosystem instead of individual entities seeking our own desires and satisfaction? Wouldn’t it be nice to see ourselves as part of a whole, not a separate piece entirely?

Today I want to talk about biomimicry, and if you’re anything like me, you’ve just read that word and thought, what on God’s green earth is biomimicry? This was a new term for me as well.

So, let’s dig in together…

Biomimicry is a practice that mimics the natural world’s responses— it is a practice that seeks to learn from ecosystems through discovering how organisms function as a vital part of the whole.

The other day, I was listening to an On Being podcast episode titled, “Janine Benyus and Azita Ardakani Walton: On Nature's Wisdom for Humanity.” Like so many On Being episodes, I found myself welling up with tears at various points throughout the discussion as Krista Tippett and her guests discussed a core question – what if we functioned more like an ecosystem instead of collection of individual projects?

As an American raised in a culture which celebrates rugged individualism, this idea sounds like an impossible reality. We are taught from a very young age that with your own hard work and effort, you can be whoever you want to be; We are encouraged to pull ourselves up from our bootstraps and persevere when we face adversity; We are celebrated for our individualism and self-sufficiency. And, none of these things are inherently bad, but they do not speak about reciprocity or reliance on community. They do not speak on the necessity of relying on each other, supporting one another, sharing resources, and coming alongside eachother in seeking a greater good for all.

It seems we’ve been so busy trying to go at it alone that we’ve completely forgotten what it looks like to share, love, and support one another. One of the most interesting aspects of how ecosystems work is concerning the process of healing from trauma. Whenever there has been trauma to the land, like deforestation or volcanic eruption or forest fire, the natural world has systems of response.

Janine Benyus says, “So the way life heals, if it’s healthy, those ecosystems, they heal because they have a memory of what they used to be. And that’s in the seed bank. And those seeds come together and they start to grow and help each other, like I was talking about. And what they’re doing at first is just holding down those nutrients, right? They’re sealing the break…The first group comes out — the first group of seeds that get there — and they start holding it down. Now, they may not be the only ones there for a while — I mean, they may not be the ultimate ones there, but that’s their job, is the healing quickly.”1

Moss is a great example of this. Moss is one of the first plants to grow when there’s been trauma to the land. Moss doesn’t just come in and take over, it grows and spreads with purpose — soaking up nutrients in order to create new ecosystems for plants to grow again and thrive. It gets the soil ready for life. It plays a role in the healing of the land. It is part of the healing system of the natural world.

Or, another great example of cooperation within the natural world is the sharing of resources, like that of trees in a forest. Suzanne Simard talks about the communication and sharing of resources between trees. She says that "seedlings will link into the network of the old trees and benefit from that huge uptake resource capacity. And the old trees would also pass a little bit of carbon and nutrients and water to the little seedlings, at crucial times in their lives, that actually help them survive."2

Trees will share information through the fungi networks beneath the soil. They will share resources, information, water, nutrients, and carbon, and this happens between different species of trees and at varying life stages. It is this incredible web of reciprocity and cooperation which mimics the beauty of God’s design for humanity. He has not created us to live siloed and divided.

What can we learn from nature’s systems of healing and reciprocity?

There is so much wisdom in God’s creation. We can learn to live in cooperation and community, to love people well, to support those in need, and to share our resources for the greater good of humanity as a whole. We can learn to live selflessly, caring for those around us like family. We can learn to love and pray for our enemies and resist the temptation to selfishness.

We can learn to be more like Jesus.

There is no one in history who is a better example of living like an ecosystem than Jesus.

Jesus had every reason to set himself apart from others. He is the Son of God after all. Yet, he continually took the path of downward mobility - putting others before himself. He chose to play a powerful part of an ecosystem that valued, supported, and loved those who society rejected and discarded. His love acted like moss, coating over a person’s trauma, preserving nutrients within so that person could thrive again, so seeds planted long ago could sprout.

When I think of Jesus’ ability to come alongside the downtrodden, I can’t help but think of the story of the Samaritan woman at the well.3 This interaction was not a happenstance encounter — Jesus didn’t just happen to stumble upon her. He chose to travel through Samaria, a route most Jewish people would not take, and he chose to stop at that particular well, at that particular time, knowing a woman, who had been outcast and rejected by society, would be there in need of community and love.

He chose to come alongside her in her weakest state and love her. He chose to sit with her at the peak of heat in the middle of day and share living water with her. He chose to see her when everyone else in society turned away. He played a vital part in healing her so she could thrive again and share the Gospel with others, spreading new seeds across the area she lived in.

Jesus continually brought people together from all walks of life – take one look at his disciples and you’ll see how most of them would never come in contact with one another in an ordinary setting — fishermen, tax collectors, Zealots — and yet, he brought them together. Each of them played an important part in his ministry. Each of them had to give up their own individual, self-serving needs to play a part in changing the course of history. Each of them were invited into the journey of downward mobility, emptying themselves so they could be filled with the Holy Spirit.

Are we not like them?

Has Jesus not called us to play a part in history?

To step out in boldness and love those who society has rejected. To learn how to love our enemies. To stand up to systems of oppression and bring God’s healing hand in communities across the globe. To embrace the poor, the outcast, the marginalized, and the lost.

When I sit and reflect on my life presently, I find myself wondering if I am truly living like Jesus in all the ways God calls me to. Or, am I still giving into the fear of man instead of the fear of God? Am I still focused on selfish ambition and upward mobility instead of Jesus? Am I playing my part in the larger ecosystem of God’s world — loving people well, supporting others, speaking out against oppression, or am I living siloed, focusing on my own desires and needs?

It’s a good reality check to enter into.

God calls us His children — the whole human race He calls His children. This means we are in kinship with one another, and yet we constantly seek division and struggle to be good siblings. We’ve learned how to argue really well, but we’ve often struggled to love one another. And, in doing so, we struggle to fulfill Jesus’ greatest calling — to love God with all our hearts and to love one another as we love ourselves.

Jesus tells us, “You have heard that it was said, Love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven. For he causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. For if you love those who love you, what reward will you have? Don’t even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers and sisters, what are you doing out of the ordinary? Don’t even the Gentiles do the same?”4

Is there a person or a group of people you are struggling to love?

We are in the midst of another heavily contested election season and it seems division is widespread not just on a national scale, but a global one. We see churches breaking apart as Christians argue incessantly over nuance in Scripture. We see our streets full of darkness and we ourselves have become desensitized to the violence.

As followers of Jesus, we must seek to respond in the way he would. What would it look like to approach this season trying to live like an ecosystem instead of an individual entity? What would it look like to put the needs of others before our own? How can we incorporate changes in our own lives that help us love our enemies and our friends better?

You are not an island.

You play a vital role in bringing God’s kingdom to earth.

Your voice matters — the way you speak about people, to people, and for people matters.

You can be part of a system that continues to degrade others, or you can come alongside people in your community and create a new ecosystem which is grounded in God’s love for the world.

You can continue along the pathway of upward mobility — seeking your own gratification and fulfillment of your own needs and desires — or, you can take the path of Jesus, of downward mobility. It’s not an easy road — in fact, Jesus continually tells us the gate is small and the road is narrow5. But it is the greatest calling we are invited into. And, the only one that leads to true life.

My encouragement to you is to look at your own life closely. Are there areas you need to invite God into healing? Are there areas of your life where you are struggling to love others well? Are there shadowy spaces within you where you are tempted to give into the lure of upward mobility and self-service?

Bring it all before your loving Father. He will speak life over you and remind you what you are called to do. Ask Him to help you along the way of Christ. Ask Him to align your heart with His for all people. Ask Him to give you new eyes to see the world around you.

I promise you, He will always meet you exactly where you are.

The Poetry Nook

The following poem was inspired by the beautifully complex natural systems of communication and resource sharing between trees and the wisdom they carry for humanity. All of God’s creation is connected within this system of love, and we too, as part of creation, are rooted in love.

Living Roots

They say an X-ray of human lungs held upside down resembles the roots of a tree almost exactly.

What an image that is —

the organ that brings breath into our being,

life into our bodies,

rooted in the earth,

grounded to all living things.

Even now as I breath,

I can feel it.

There’s a Book on That

The Selfless Way of Christ: Downward Mobility and the Spiritual Life is one of the best books out there on the radical claim of the Gospel to follow Jesus and his teachings without compromise. Henri Nouwen is one of the most incredible thinkers and writers on spirituality and the inner journey. His writing has been hugely influential to my spiritual formation.

As always, here is a taster:

“The world, however, is the place where the Evil one roams. It is the home of the tempter who wants to snatch us away from God and return us to the road of upward mobility. We must face and deal with this tempter eye to eye. As Jesus was sent by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted, so are we. It may be that the true quality of the spiritual life can only be recognized in the face of our temptations. Three temptations by which we are confronted again and again are the temptation to be relevant, the temptation to be spectacular, and the temptation to be powerful. All three are temptations to return to the ways of the world of upward mobility and divert us from our mission to reveal Christ to the world.”6

Just in case you missed these recent posts:

Remembering as a Spiritual Discipline: A reflection on the role of memory in our faith journey. Sometimes we have to look back in order to have faith for what is yet to come
The Illusion of Control: We like to think we have control, but really we have far less than we think. What would it look like to loosen our grip? How can prayer and exhortation give us courage to trust God to make a way?
Living a Transformed Life: The direct result of apprenticing under Jesus is the transformation of your mind and heart, but walking out your faith can be a complex experience. How can you stay aligned with God along the way?
Community: Whether you are sitting in a vibrant community or searching for one, this post is for you. Why do we need community? How can we build authentic community well by modeling after Jesus?

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A Pocket-Sized Desert with Jamie Phear

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