All around our house are pine trees. Many of them are very tall, and some look like they are sturdy. However, there are several that look like they are rotten. Either bugs have destroyed the life in them, or lightning has struck them. We are not sure which is the case with most of them. However, we know that they are dead.
As I write this, the rains spawned by a tropical storm are falling in our area. My wife called me a while ago and said, “Well, another tree has fallen.” I asked where it had fallen, and she said right where our oldest son parks his car when he visits. As a matter of fact, if it had waited about 25 minutes, his car probably would have been there. I’m pretty sure that one day one of those trees is going to fall and land on the house, or on one of our vehicles. I think it is a matter of when – not if, but I digress. I just could not help but think of some applications from the fallen tree:
a. It is sad when a tree that was once strong and solid loses the life within its branches. However, that is not anywhere near as sad as when a good person, a tree planted by the waters (Psalms 1) dies from the inside out, and comes to a fall.
b. Just like some of those dead trees in our yard have been destroyed internally by bugs, so many who once were spiritually strong are destroyed internally when the “bugs” of doubt, worldliness, human philosophies, etc. invade them and eat away at their spiritual life until it is gone.
c. Some of the trees have suffered the blow of lightening that has eventually killed them, even though they are still standing. Sometimes “lightening” strikes us in our lives: pain, disappointment, the loss of one we love and untold other things. If we allow those blows to keep us from nourishment, and do not allow our wounds to be healed by the power of the Word of God, and by the comfort of our fellow Christians, we may be like those trees, apparently standing, but dead within.
d. We must stand firmly (Ephesians 6:10-17). We must have our roots so deeply in God and His Word, through His Son, that we are able to overcome all of the attacks that will attempt to overcome us, both from the outside and from the inside.
e. When one dies spiritually, the fall is not without consequences both for the individual, and for those around him or her. So far, in the last few months, we have had two trees fall in the yard. Neither has hit anything to destroy it. However, there is the loss of the tree. It can only be cut up and burned now. Someone has to go to that extra effort. Sadly, however, when there is spiritual death in a life, it almost never only affects the one that suffers it. Usually, there are many others who are hurt by it, or who may even be influenced by it, much like the pine beetles from one tree that dies spread to others and bring about their destruction, too.
May we truly be like the “tree planted by the water.” May we drink deeply of the spiritual feast found in God’s Word. May we be resistant to the “bugs” that would come in and destroy us. Further, may we look to God to overcome the “bolts of lightning” that will occasionally strike us in this life. One day, if we have stood firmly and strongly, we will leave this life, but we will leave behind a legacy of a life fully lived, and will never have been “the walking dead” – spiritually speaking.
