Trees

Last evening I took a walk outside as the sun was setting on my Uncles ranch in the Hill Country of Texas. There were small frolicking bats that would dip down and get a drink from the pool. The last few slanted rays from the sun were shooting through the branches of these gigantic oaks that were lending there branches to shade the pool. It was so beautiful, I just had to stop and talk to God. Sometimes when I am struck by beauty or a thought that comes to me from God I respond out loud to God and have a little conversation. So God began to talk to me through this Giant and majestic trees which wind their limbs here and there and arch them in such beautiful arcs that meet with the next tree to form a sort of canopy of green leaves.

Trees are such an interesting part of creation. There is a reason why they are used to represent the family unit. There is the saying that No Man is an Island, and I believe this is missing the bigger picture. In my opinion, no man is a lone tree. This is not a perfect analogy because I love those lone trees that sit on the top of grassy hills. They remind me of the giving tree. In some way lone trees that sit on the top of the hill are like grandfather or grandmother tree who are old and are only visited on special occasions but are wise, humble and extremely cherished.

  But instead, imagine trees as they are normally found: in a forest. I love forests.

The forests of Norway are some of the most fantastic in the world. I spent a weekend in the woods east of Skien Norway on a solo backpacking trip and I was overcome with the beauty and the medieval age of these dark forests. It reminded me of Mirkwood forest from the Hobbit. To be honest this was one of my favorite memories from my time in Norway. The adventure and the solitude, the cool of oncoming winter, and the warmth of a fire, it was a picturesque weekend.

But still, the trees which I speak of here in Texas are still different and unique in a beautiful way. Live Oaks are family trees.

They do not overcrowd their relatives in a thick and dark forest and they don’t stand on their own on top of grassy hills. They are special because they are able to branch out and become all they are meant to be without feeling any pressure or hindrance from others trying to keep them down. Yet at the same time they branch out and eventually touch branches with their neighbors in a graceful and beautiful way. I can honestly say that they are the freest tree I’ve ever seen and that is why I love them so much. But not free in a sense of independent, but free in the sense that they are able to grow into the fullest potential and oh man do they look beautiful when they stand together and intertwine their branches.

In a sense… this is what I pray my life will look like. I want to be a Live oak that grows strong and tall and lifts others up to all that God has for them and for me. We are all family. Let’s lift each other up and grow into all that God has for us. Let your rain fall down God! I’ll pull my branches out of the dirt and reach them out in praise.

“I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten, the hopper, the destroyer, and the cutter, my great army, which I sent among you.” Joel 2:25 God is restoring our branches.

Dust in the Air

When I lay idle in this body for so long my soul becomes scummed over like a stagnant pond in the muggy summer.  There is a reason why Proverbs speaks so much of work and poverty, and the more and more I live I realize that Proverbs speaks against poverty of the soul, and not of mere wealth. It is good for a young man to work and earn his living by the sweat of his brow.

Yesterday I was working very hard in my front yard and sweat was pouring off of my face into giant drips that stained the hot concrete of my driveway. I was getting frustrated with a piece of lawn equipment that was constantly dying on me. It was beginning to drive me crazy. My brother had already called for me to stop and come into eat dinner, but I was determined to finish what I started. And so… I continued my assault on the yard having to stop every 15 seconds to restart my equipment. I didn’t swear… I almost did several times. Finally I had this break down where I decided to talk to God about my predicament… I had read Philippians the other day with a friend from my University and we were talking about how Philippians is about not complaining, but being grateful in all situations. So book of scripture has been haunting me and my Spirit has been going to town working inside my heart.

As I remembered this book, I looked up and realized that getting angry and frustrated was not good, but that finishing the job was good. So I calmed down and finished the little section I had left in peace and gratitude without the machine stopping once!:) It was a nice victory indeed!

In Christ alone, my hope is found.

I've been daring lately and I have let God's spirit go roaming through my heart. It seems that I haven't let Him in for a while. Rather than lying in the dirt and clutching my hurt leg, I have been walking! This lame old body has been walking and dancing to the glory of God! There are rocks that I nearly twist my ankle on, but I am walking and laughing all the same!

I recently read my DTS journal while I was traveling in Colorado. It was a brilliant time of memory and God reminding me what He has done and what He will do within me and through me. I was made for joy, and joy abundantly to give to those around me.

There's not a day that I don't remember my Abba Father, my saviour, my deliverer, and I have to open my heart and pour out the Joy He has given me.

So as I pick up my weak and lame body, I walk onwards in joy to work, to walk and to dance into His Kindgom! I'm walking in the footsteps of Christ and the dust is still in the air.



Give up yourself, and you will find your real self

I found this as I was roaming about through C.S. Lewis quotes. It is exactly what I am trying to understand in my life at the moment. I do hope you all will enjoy :)

"But there must be a real giving up of the self. You must throw it away ‘blindly’ so to speak. Christ will indeed give you a real personality: but you must not go to Him for the sake of that. As long as your own personality is what you are bothering about you are not going to Him at all. The very first step is to try to forget about the self altogether. Your real, new self (which is Christ’s and also yours, and yours just because it is His) will not come as long as you are looking for it. It will come when you are looking for Him. Does that sound strange? The same principle holds, you know, for more everyday matters. Even in social life, you will never make a good impression on other people until you stop thinking about what sort of impression you are making. Even in literature and art, no man who bothers about originality will ever be original: whereas if you simply try to tell the truth (without caring twopence how often it has been told before) you will, nine times out of ten, become original without ever having noticed it. The principle runs through all life from top to bottom. Give up yourself, and you will find your real self. Lose your life and you will save it. 

    Submit to death, death of your ambitions and favourite wishes every day and death of your whole body in the end: submit with every fibre of your being, and you will find eternal life. Keep back nothing. Nothing that you have not given away will be really yours. Nothing in you that has not died will ever be raised from the dead. Look for yourself, and you will find in the long run only hatred, loneliness, despair, rage, ruin, and decay. But look for Christ and you will find Him, and with Him everything else thrown in."

C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity (1952; Harper Collins: 2001) 223-225.