Trees: Twisted, Tangled, yet Triumphant

The Hermitage is a retreat center, about an hour outside of Grand Rapids.  I have visited this place quite a number of times over the years.  In 2011, a tornado touched down in the area and impacted a lot of the trees on the 62-acre property.  

Michael and I spent a few days there this past weekend on a silent retreat, and it so interesting to walk through the trails and to see the twisted shapes of the trees.  I began to see the trees as metaphors for our lives and even for our relationship with God.  

The tree that especially caught my attention is the first one pictured here. This tree was twisted downward, reaching toward the marsh below, in what seemed to be a painful arch. It has clearly been through something significant.

At the same time, out of several knots or splits in the trunk, new branches were growing.  Amazing.

My spiritual director at the retreat reminded me to reflect the journey that I have been on throughout my life with God at the helm.  The face of Renita has changed over the years.  There have been many seasons of growth and change.  There have been storms that caused twists and turns that were uncomfortable.  Yet there has also been new life and growth after those storms.  Like this tree, which bears the visible evidence of challenge, there is also beauty in the release of potential through the new growth.

The release of potential is not only for me but for every person.  Our journeys, our pains, our celebrations, are different but important.  And the trees reflected this as well.  

Here is another tree that is growing completely out of a dead tree.  It is a good size tree and you can see that there is nothing below the dead tree that indicates roots going into the ground, yet the tree growing out of it is probably forty feet high!  The tenaciousness of growth is not only in trees but in our own capabilities to overcome.  

This is the remarkable thing about the human spirit.  This is the remarkable thing about trees.  This is the remarkable thing about creation.  And this is the remarkable thing about God.  

Below you will see a picture of several trees twisted together, arching all the way over.  It was as if they said, "If we go down, we go down together."  It spoke of love and commitment to me, even until death.

Creation is beautiful and it tells a story if we pay attention.

The Kingdom without the King

Understanding the Kingdom of God is one of the keys to understanding what Christianity is all about.  I read somewhere that Jesus spoke about the Kingdom of God more than 120 times, but of the church only three times.  The ministry of Jesus was done in Kingdom terms.  Andy Crouch says this, "His good news foretold a comprehensive restructuring of social life comparable to that experienced by a people when monarch was succeeded by another.  The Kingdom of God would touch every sphere in every scale of culture.  It would reshape integrity in business and honesty in prayer."

As Christians, we understand that we are part of a tribe that follows a King who has comprehensively restructured life...and it is good!  It is good for creation.  It is good for all people.  And it is good for the King!

The Lord's prayer calls us to pray for "thy kingdom come, they will be done, on earth as it is in heaven."  We are to be about bringing the kingdom of heaven on earth.  We are to long for and work toward the kingdom of heaven on earth, through reconciliation and restoration.  That is our work!  

Paul Stevens, in his book The Kingdom of God in Working Clothes, says that the Kingdom is the missing dimension in most presentations of the gospel and the marketplace.  Yet it is in the coming of the Kingdom of Heaven on earth that we see human flourishing as one of the most wonderful outcomes.  

Every Christian is in fulltime ministry of bringing glory to God.  And every Christian fulfills this fulltime ministry through their unique placement, in those places of work or influence where we spend our time.

Of course, as we look around the world, we see different people, different cultures, different nations in various stages of this work and therefore things can look and feel different.  Some countries are still in a pre-Christian majority, some fully in Christendom, and some in a post-Christian culture.  

In the post-Christian cultures, we hear that "we want the Kingdom without the king."  Almost all people have an innate desire for the flourishing of all people, for righteousness and justice, and for peace.  But in the midst of those good desires, we want to choose what is right and wrong for ourselves.  We don't want someone forcing their views on us.  We want to be able to judge for ourselves.  We begin to worship freedom instead of the King.

This is not new, of course.  This has been since the fall!

But if our call and our joy is in announcing the Kingdom of Heaven on earth, it must come with the announcement of the one true King.  It is from this King that righteousness and justice flows.  It is this King who is the author of peace and love.  And it is this King who has designed this world for the flourishing of all.

The Kingdom with the King.  The way it was meant to be.  I am going on a silent retreat this week for a few days and my prayer will be that God will continue to show me where it is that I resist His Kingship while making it look like I am seeking His Kingdom.  

Restoration and Reconciliation

Thirty-four days on the road during this recent trip to India included twenty-two days of teaching, seventeen flights over the course of eight days, and six partners in five cities.

India continues to amaze me.  It is a country that is one third the size of the United States in terms of geography, but four times the size in population.  I kept trying to imagine how much water is consumed daily in this country...how much trash is produced...how many coconuts are consumed daily...how much grain...etc.  There are governments who struggle to govern 7 or 9 million people and this government seeks to govern 1.4 billion people.  No small task.  There is an immense need for infrastructure, jobs, economic and educational opportunities, and so on.

It is one of 190+ countries in the world that is engaged in this time of restoration and reconciliation, caught between the "now" and the "not yet" that we think through during this time of Easter.  The "now" looks at the amazing potential of eight billion people to work toward the flourishing of all people and all of creation.  The "not yet" acknowledges that we fall very far short of this goal because of our own sin and selfishness.  

Every day we have the opportunity to participate through our work in the restoration of how it should be, from Genesis 1 and 2.  Every day we have to deal with the need for reconciliation between how it is and how it could be.  What an opportunity and calling!

May God continue to grant us the grace needed to embrace this calling daily, to seek to glorify Him in all we do, seeking to do our work as an act of worship.

I leave you with some pictures of businespeople I met while in India:

Four men from a lower caste work two-three days, hand embroidering beads on this material for a sari.

This man and his brother have a great business of making all sorts of different size plastic containers for soaps, foods, fertilizers, etc.  So interesting to watch!

A small start-up beverage business serving a local community.