Stewardship

We are the Trees

by Michael Glass
12/18/16
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                I recently returned to Christ and I wrote this letter recently to a pastor and I wanted to share it with this community.  I still have yet to attend a church formally, but I have been listening to sermons online and I am working towards attending church.  The sermons is not my only way I have connected to God during this time I have fasted, read through the entire bible and prayed continuously, but I continued to be challenged to do more, so I decided to finally give in to what God was calling me to do, give and completely surrender everything to him including my finances.  This scares me a lot or at least it did because I already cannot afford to pay my bills, I am short on a regular basis, but I decided that God was more important to me than anything I have and if this is what he is calling me to do then I should be a faithful and dutiful servant.  I have given several times now and it seems a cycle has appeared in my giving to God.  When I go to give the money to God I am happy I think it is awesome I know that I am supporting missions and the poor and the local church in my community work towards bringing others to God I instantly feel more connected to the church it really is awesome, but then the next day I am struggling to pay my bills and I am so frustrated, stressed and worried.  I flip flop back and forth until finally God does the things he so often does and says, come on Michael, read the bible you know that the God you worship is completely limitless.  He is something I can never fully understand, but there is more to learn here on Earth about him than I could ever have imagined.  I have faith in God!  He is the only reason that I write and I believe that is why sharing this message with you will be beneficial.  Honestly I hope you take this analogy make it yours and share it with anyone in need this is the way God reveals himself to me and I want to share it with others.  It is important to note that it is only after having a really terrible Monday at work that I came home and received the book the Treasure Principle in the mail from your church, I had been thinking about my analogy all day, but it was not until I read it that my analogy finally took form.  I honestly had spent the day thinking about what this idea meant and then I came home and found that God had already given me the answer he was just waiting to see if I would trust him to provide the answer.  God is faithful, but without further ado allow me to please explain why I really feel like God designed us a lot more like trees that exist in a forest than he designed us to be the beings that we think we are; completely individual and only responsible to ourselves, this is just wrong because not even the trees of the forest live a life as an island!  We are all connected the questions you need to ask is how we are connected and is my connection to others growing?

                I believe that since God created the entire universe and his creations are always purposeful that there is a great deal of meaning in nature.  What I mean is when Jesus came he used nature as a metaphor a lot saying that we as Christians should bear fruit of the spirit,  he warned us of the leaven or yeast of the Pharisees and ultimately he described himself as light and water that would fulfill the soul.  I believe that God uses nature to continue to reveal himself to us if we are actually willing to look he will always reveal part of himself to us.  Lately, I have been thinking about trees of the forest and how they all appear to be independent organisms, however in reality they are not separated at all.  If you are wondering how this is possible, it is simply the fungus among us!  Interestingly the mycelial fungal colonies grow underground and tap into just about everything underground and connect it in a network of tiny tubes!  The fungus is unseen when you look at the tree, but so are the roots of the tree, just as you can see me but there is a part of me you cannot know it is the part of me that is mine and you cannot destroy it.  That is the part of the tree that the fungus taps into and takes from and gives to that is the same part that God taps into the part of me that is secret that cannot be known, but that does not mean that you cannot see the effects of God in the person or the tree, because the fungi will make the tree healthier and make it stronger by connecting it to the other trees in the forest to increase the surface area of the root system.  You see the more roots a tree has the more water it is able to absorb because it has a larger surface area, but how does a tree grow deep roots?  The roots grow by chasing the water down into the ground and therefore after I plant my tree in my yard I begin the cycle of long watering’s and then periods of drought forcing the tree to chase the water down and strengthen and grow the roots of the tree.  If I want to be a strong Christian who is rooted in Christ I can expect the same thing I can expect him to be there watering me often as I begin to grow from the seed, but as I grow the length between watering’s has to increase in order for me to grow closer to God.  This is not a painless process the tree needs water and does not want to have to chase water or search for it on its own, but this is how the tree grows and to me when I look at this as a Christian I see a lot of similarities to how God works in our lives.

                God is the potter and I am the clay at least in my opinion it appears to me that God is trying to shape me into something that I did not know I could be.  Jesus, however was not a sculptor or a potter he was a carpenter he built things and later in his life he connected himself to others.  I look at this fungus that works alongside the trees to help them communicate and share with each other and I immediately see Jesus connecting us all and allowing us all to communicate with each other, but more importantly than that is that Jesus connects us to the father.  You see trees need minerals to grow, but minerals are tough for the tree to get from the roots alone but the fungus that connects to the roots can actually drill tiny holes into rocks sending the minerals off to the tree, you see Jesus connects us to the rock the foundation God himself.  I was made to have God as my anchor, but long before any of us were ever born that anchor was cut and I was allowed to drift off in the ocean free to perceive that it is me who is in control of my life.  With no way to find my way back to where my original anchor was dropped I need someone to connect me to that anchor, hence God sent his only son Jesus to the world to connect us back with the anchor if we so choose.  I can now have a relationship with God on earth because of what Jesus did for all of us on the cross he literally saved me and like the bible says, “I was bought at a price.”  So how does one ask Jesus to connect them to God and how do they remain connected?

                There literally is only one answer that I have for you, Give.  Jesus asks all of us who follow him to pick up our cross daily, you see Jesus wants us to give him our lives.  This is a central point in Christianity that is non-negotiable if you want to be reconciled with God you ask Jesus to forgive you and you ask Jesus to take the wheel so to speak, of your life, God asks us to offer ourselves up to him on the altar and Paul reminds us that we are the temple and that Jesus lives in us because we have given our lives over to him.  I know this sounds difficult and that is because it is not easy, but before you know it God has changed you and these difficult principles become easy and new difficult principles arise the beauty of growing in a limitless God is that you can never learn enough or know enough he will always challenge and satisfy simultaneously.  Interestingly enough the relationship between the fungus and the tree works the same way the tree gives water to the fungus and that is what prompts the fungus to grow and get minerals and resources for the tree from trees with excess and with the vast network that the fungus has built in the soil like a master carpenter.  The more the tree gives to the fungus the better the tree does and in a twisted form of altruism as soon as the tree feels like it is dying it sends all of its resources out into the fungal network to be received by other trees before the tree dies or the resources are tainted.  God wants us to do exactly the same thing he wants us to give him everything that we have all of our resources so that he can do what we need all he wants to do is provide for us, but just like the fungus he is limited by what we will give him to work with, we all know that God is a jealous God so let me ask you, will you truly lay down everything for him?  And if you would lay down everything for him is there anything that you are keeping for yourself and preventing God from transforming?  I know for me it took me a while to hand over my finances to God, by giving financially because this is an extremely limited resource of mine I have trouble paying my bills and buying food occasionally, but if I truly believe that my God is the God that I described above what do I have to worry about.  God knows my needs and if I give to him I am opening the channel for me to receive, I will tell you what, it has been a little over a month since I decided to start giving and it has been extremely difficult, but at the same time I have felt myself grow in my relationship with God in ways I did not know possible.  If the difficulty I am going through now is what allows me to move closer to God in my relationship than just like Paul I will praise God for the troubles that arise in my life.  For every problem that arises in my life is an opportunity for God to teach me something new and wonderful even if I cannot see what he is trying to teach me when the troubles begin.  Always remember God will out give you period, if you have needs he will meet them and he will use you and your resources to help others just as he has helped you.  If you are wondering what I am talking about and are confused by how giving can open the door for God to give you so much more than you have that is ok.  This concept seemed like garbage to me for a long time, but one day I realized I wanted God to do great things with my life I wanted to be his good and faithful servant.  Along with this realization came the fact that I cannot do that on my own and need God to be in control of my life for that to happen, but the only way he can change me is if I give myself to you.  Then I thought of something that changed everything, what good is a carpenter without supplies?  Jesus needs you to give to him because he is the carpenter we don’t know what he is building, but he needs our resources in order to build in our lives and in the lives of others so giving benefits both you and non-believers grow closer to God.

                I took the time this week to look at my life and see what I was keeping from God and now more than ever I want to daily pick up my cross and follow Jesus.  I want to be done living a life for myself I want to begin living a life for God.  I want to live a life for others and I know how to do that thanks to the wonderful and beautiful Earth that God created and placed us on.  I wanted to share this with you Faith Writes simply because I thought it might be beneficial.  I write about topics like this a lot simply because it helps me work through my relationship with God, but if you feel this would be beneficial to others please share it with them.