Groundhogs. I hate them. Don’t bother telling me they are cute. I have them at church and in my backyard, and they are destructive beasts. I have witnessed the efforts to rid the church of them, including an undisclosed person in camo staging a surprise raid. They persist.
So there has been some tough talk around ridding both yards of groundhogs. If they all died tomorrow, I would not mourn. Who are their natural predators? I had better never see one face to face. They would be sorry!
So of course, the other day a groundhog ran right out in front of my car when I was going the legal speed limit, making it hard to miss. For a split second the animal’s life hung in the balance. But not because of me. I slammed on the brakes, and amazingly did not hit it.
Immediately I thought, some tough talker you are. And I spent some time realizing the violence that finds its way into my words. I would never kill an animal on purpose, but I talk like it. So I am resolved to change that. To say what I mean, to be careful of the words I use, and not to engage in violent language even when I am angry. I need to be reminded of that regularly.
We use violent language because it makes us feel powerful. It is saturated in our daily lives, in the news we consume and the programs we watch. So much of what we say we don’t even think about or reflect on. As a Christian I want to be more aware and more intentional.
In a broader sense I was thinking how hard it is to live in peace with nature. I want to be a good steward of the environment, and I work hard on that. I keep some of my back yard untended so that wildlife can find a refuge. I am careful about what I consume and how it affects the environment. But I realize I want the wildlife that I want, and not groundhogs, rodents or mosquitos.
It is a discipline to live in peace with God’s creation, and we all need to pray more about that, how we live into that. I will never love groundhogs. Ever. But they are my neighbor, and as long as that lasts I have to be at peace with that.