A contrast of trees

Tell me if any of these phrases sound familiar:

If you want it done right, do it yourself.
Always better to go it alone.
Take matters into your own hands.
Get your act together.

There are many ways we express our self-sufficiency.  We act and think (or at least project to others) like we are self-made men and women.  We flex our strengths in our possessions, our words, and our online profiles.  In last week’s post, we found out what God says happens to us when we puff ourselves up with self-reliance:

Jeremiah 17:5-6
This is what the Lord says:
Cursed is the person who trusts in mankind.
He makes human flesh his strength and his heart turns from the Lord.

He will be like a juniper in the Arabah;
he cannot see when good comes
but dwells in the parched places in the wilderness,
in a salt land where no one lives.

Jeremiah’s audience understood that the juniper in the Arabah was an isolated tree, living a depressing life in a barren, scorched-desert wasteland.  God says that is where we end up when we find our strength in our own efforts and abilities.

Thankfully, God also offers a contrasting option.  And His example is in the life of another tree:

Jeremiah 17:7-8
The person who trusts in the Lord,
whose confidence indeed is the Lord, is blessed.
He will be like a tree planted by water:
it sends its roots out toward a stream,
it doesn’t fear when heat comes,
and its foliage remains green.
It will not worry in a year of drought
or cease producing fruit.

A juniper in the Arabah sends its roots out in a wide, shallow radius in the hopes of collecting whatever moisture it can.  In contrast, the tree planted by water knows exactly where its life-source is and taps into the flowing waters with confidence.  This tree doesn’t fear when the day’s weather changes and heat comes, nor does it worry in a year of drought, when difficult circumstances linger long-term.

The comparison begs the question: Which tree do you want to be?

Trusting in your own strength, like a juniper in the Arabah?
OR
Placing your confidence in the Lord, like the tree planted by water?

Choose wisely.

Keep Pressing,
Ken

My dog hates to wait. So do I.

How’s your summer treating you?  Our temps in North Carolina have ramped up significantly in the last week – so much so that I’ve had to make a major adjustment to our family’s schedule.

I work from home, and although my days are filled with online meetings, I can typically step out for a short mid-morning walk with the dog.  This timing has benefits for both of us: he can do his morning business, and I can get a moment to clear my head away from talking to people on a computer screen.  If the morning is crazy-hectic, he may have to wait until lunchtime (but that’s a rarity).  He also normally gets walked after I log off for the day at 5:00pm.

Our pup loves this schedule, and if we deviate from it, he is certain to let me know.  First, he’ll come bump my leg with his nose.  If that doesn’t get me up and moving, he’ll try whining a little bit.  Then, he’ll escalate to just flat-out staring at me…off the side of my desk, with his eyes just barely above the edge, not blinking.  Just eye pressure.  Willing me to pay attention and take him outside.  His requests for the 5:00pm walk can start as early as 3:30pm, but they certainly intensify if we haven’t left by a little after our usual 5:00pm schedule.

However…the recent heat has forced us to change our schedule.  Now, we get a walk in before I start working and before the sun bears down on us – and of course, he doesn’t mind at all going out early.  But the after work walk?  That’s been pushed well into the evening, waiting until the sun is nearly gone for the day.  It’s just too hot for him otherwise.  The scorching pavement on his paws and the thick, humid air while walking around the neighborhood has him panting and overheated in no time.  So, we wait.

But like I said, he doesn’t like to wait.  In fact, he’s whining a bit right now as I type this out (it’s 5:47pm).  Not because he needs to do his business, but because he just wants to go and sniff and explore.   He doesn’t understand thermometer readings and heat indexes and the fact that extreme heat causes the most weather-related deaths in the US each year.  He just wants what he wants, and he expects me to provide it for him.

You’ve probably already drawn the same parallel and conclusion that I have.  When it comes to how I want God to intervene in my life…I can be a lot like my dog.  I don’t like to wait.  I’m certain my schedule is the best schedule.  I tend to whine if I don’t get what I want, when I think I should get it.  Never mind that God understands the real temperature of the situation and my ability to handle it at the moment…

Our ability to wait on God’s timing isn’t so much a lack of patience on our part.  Rather, it’s a lack of trust in God doing His part on His timing.  That stings a little bit, doesn’t it?  Yeah, me too.

King Solomon pointed this out in his collection of wisdom sayings:

Proverbs 19:2 (NIV)
Desire without knowledge is not good – how much more will hasty feet miss the way!

If my dog has hasty feet and tries to run outside when the door opens, he’s going to be met with a humid wall of heat that could cause him problems.  If we get hasty feet and run ahead of what God intends for us, we will miss the way He had planned for us to walk.  For me, running ahead of God has always led to more heartache than I anticipated.  While recovery and redemption are available, God always prefers that we make the wise choice and avoid the broken paths. 

And sometimes, the wise choice is to wait.

Keep Pressing,
Ken