Social media is filled with a lot of crazy quizzes. You can take a quiz to reveal almost anything; from what type of Disney Princess are you to what kind of meatball are you. Typically, I ignore these quizzes, but one perked my interest: “What kind of tree are you?” I took this quiz, in hopes that I could confront my wife with the reality of the awesomeness she married, by saying, “Guess what, honey? I’m a Giant Sequoia.” or “Did you know dear, I’m a Tropical Palm.” The quiz revealed, however, I’m a Weeping Willow. How sad is that? It makes me want to cry.
I was confronted by another tree quiz this week in Jeremiah 17. This was a rather pointed quiz with only two options. First, Jeremiah declares that some will be like be like a tree in the wastelands, a tree growing in the parched desert, a tree trying to grow in the salt lands. Basically, this tree is a dead one. Second, Jeremiah says some will be like a tree planted by the water with its roots going out into the stream. This tree is alive and thriving. Tree A…a dead tree or Tree B…a living and thriving tree. Which one are you?
The determining factor in this little quiz boils down to the attachment of our heart. Jeremiah uses the word the word, TRUST, to delineate these two types of trees from one another. The dead tree is marked by a trust “in man,” while the living tree is marked by a trust “in the Lord.” As we navigate our lives we can align our hearts in only one of those two places. Jesus declared in Matthew 6 that we cannot love two things at the same time. He says we will love one and hate the other or we will be devoted to one and despise the other. We must make a choice about where we will plant our lives. When our lives are planted and trusting in the values, priorities, and ways of the world, they simply draw out life from us and leave us wanting more and so soon we will find ourselves like that dying tree. On the other hand, when our lives are planted and trusting in the values, priorities, and ways of God, we will be nourished by God and supplied with all that we need to grow and thrive. Each and every day, as we trust in God and we stretch out our hearts to connect with God in worship, in his word, and in prayer, our lives are filled with His Spirit. God brings to us all the resources we need to navigate and walk through. life. Jesus promised that he came to give life abundantly! Are you like a living and thriving tree today? The answer to this simple, yet life yielding, quiz is to place all of your trust and the attachment of your heart in God.
-Pastor Bob Karel
