Some trees, like some people, use the wounds of their past to shape them for sheltering. They grow to have room in their hearts for all and that certain open-armed welcome you just know you will need someday.
Others go on to be more nurturing. They serve and give generously, providing those who come to them with nothing less than plenty. We will look at some of those types of trees, today.
Drink it Down
And, although these trees offer tantalizing refreshments, let us not forget the harm they endured to become what they are:
For Larger Storage
It can be hard to imagine how these trees must have looked when they were going through all this scarring and the needed recovery, but now they look inviting, as if something special might be happening in their lives.
We have a lot of dead trees after last summer’s drought and have been marking them for a sale. Since I was keeping the tally while someone else did all the work, I could spend time looking around. I have seen a LOT of trees.
Some of these poor things are real troopers and remind me of myself and some of my friends. They have been wounded down near their bases by ice storms, insects, buck deer, and other invaders of their quiet domain. I wonder if I am imagining things here, or if others can see themselves in these trees, too.
This first type is the sheltering type:
Tiny Home Down Stairs
This tree will never make fine furniture grade. It is a humble, struggling entity, but has a spot to share with any other humble, struggling entity. Can’t you imagine a wee mouse family finding comfort here?
Tunnel Down to Safety
Here is another. Don’t you love the way this tree, though obviously dealt a heavy blow in early life, has risen to the occasion by developing an upward-reaching lifestyle in non-standard ways? It ‘s almost like a life motto: Always reach up!
And because of their flaws, they will never be part of a paladian palace. They may not even possess health enough to live as long as other trees.
But they do make a grand shelter from a snowy wind.
Down Spout
This one is similar, but look: Perhaps it was a bit older when it’s down days came, or the damage was heavier, but this one is able not only to help a bit larger creature, but also to provide guaranteed dryness during storms. Who couldn’t use a friend like that!
But here is my favorite:
Drama Queen
I knew I remembered this one and looked a long time to find it for you. I named it “Drama Queen” because of that look of surprise all over it. I imagine a friend I normally would not hang with a lot, because she is loud and pushy. Yet, I know I am safe with her and if I needed anything, big or small, she would be so glad to help me, to draw me in with what might seem like five or six arms, and would have a large base of resources to draw from.
Wounded? Yes, they all are.
Fine, straight, high dollar? Nope.
Just invaluable to someone and absolutely necessary in this ol’ life.
Looking into this clear stream and viewing the pebbles on the sand so surprised me. I seldom think on how much is hiding below the water, below the surface.
How easy to notice the reflection of glorious cloud billows and soaring trees, shimmering on the surface! How delightful the sparkles that wink into view and then dance away!
How common to love the outward appearance of the stream.
But to look down, to concentrate on what’s beyond the first impression, to stare deeply at what makes the stream a stream–that is like God.
When, upon looking, we find courser things such as mud, sand, dead leaves, gravel, what then?
Why! Then, elevating! Elevating grit and pebbles to positions of great importance!
For without them lying still, working their quiet work, the dancing sparkles become quagmire.
Each of us will at one time or another fail the LORD, and when we do, usually it will be because we have taken our eyes off Jesus. What a perfect time for Satan to tell us that we are finished and our future is destroyed!
That is not God’s message to us.
One of our greatest goals is never to fall. Our greatest glory, however, is not in never falling, but in our Savior Who never fails, Who holds us up, and Who lifts us each time we fall.
We may not be able to reclaim the loss, undo the damage, or reverse the consequences. However, our beautiful Savior restores us, and we can make a new start. We can be wiser, more sensitive, renewed by the Holy Spirit, and more determined to do right.
The best part is Peter’s story does not end in Luke 22:62.
Peter did not have to live the rest of his life with a heavy burden of sorrow and regret.
Instead, after he grieved, Peter ministered to the others grieving over their failures.
Later, Jesus asked Peter to become a leader of the church.
“So when they had eaten breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, ‘Simon, son of Jonah, do you love* Me more than these?’
“He said to Him, ‘Yes, Lord; You know that I love** You.’
“He said to him, ‘Feed My lambs.’ He said to him again a second time, ‘Simon, son of Jonah, do you love* Me?’
“He said to Him, ‘Yes, Lord; You know that I love** You.’
“He said to him, ‘Tend My sheep.’ He said to him the third time, ‘Simon, son of Jonah, do you love** Me?’
“Peter was grieved because He said to him the third time, ‘Do you love** Me?’ And he said to Him, ‘Lord, You know all things; You know that I love** You.’
“Jesus said to him, ‘Feed My sheep. Most assuredly, I say to you, when you were younger, you girded yourself and walked where you wished; but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will gird you and carry you where you do not wish.’” John 21:15-18
Jesus had a plan and purpose for Peter. He has a plan and purpose for each of us in spite of our failure.
Failure is not fatal if:
We recognize that everyone fails,
We remember that God’s love and forgiveness are not dependent upon our success,
We learn and grow from our failures, and
We put our failures behind us and go on.
We already know that we need to give our sin to God, but we can do more than that.
When we sin and fail the Lord, we should not give up. We should repent, get back up, and try again. He still has a plan to use us.
Rebuke Satan when he condemns you as a failure.
He is a liar.
Take your eyes off yourself and look at Jesus, saying, “I’m going rise up and keep trying. With God’s grace and the power of the Holy Spirit, I’m going to let God change me from one degree of glory unto another into the image of Christ. I will keep my eyes on Jesus, the Author and Finisher of my faith, the One Who is able to keep me from falling.”
If you have fallen, won’t you look unto the Lord Jesus, reach up to Him, and let Him put you back on the Way again? Confess and repent of that sin that made you stumble. Ask God forgive you and renew you with His Holy Spirit so that you will have power to be His witness again.
____________________
*agape love, God-like love, as in 1 Corinthians 13
**phileo love, brotherly love
Peter was upset, here, because of the dwindling degrees of love that Jesus was asking him about. Remember His huge vows of loyalty, loyalty greater than all the others, now squelched by his realization of his humanity, of reality, of how much Jesus knew and how little he knew, how quickly and predictably he failed. May we all recognize our frailty, stop living in denial, and learn to cling to Him ___________________
Failure Is Not Fatal IF… We learn and grow from our failures.
Take advantage of your failure!
Don’t waste it; learn all you can from it.
Every bitter experience can teach us something.
How did you learn to ride a bike? You got on and you fell off, over and over.
Falling was painful but you learned a little with each try. Finally, you got on it and stayed on it for five seconds, then ten seconds. Eventually, you succeeded because you kept trying. However, if something unexpected caused you to fall again, you got on again.
Failure is the refusal to get back on that bike.
“For though a righteous man falls seven times, he rises again.” Proverbs 24:16 Even the righteous stumble. Those who are earnestly trying to live a godly life, fall. They mess up and they sin. They don’t quit; they get back up and continue.
One trademark of those who serve God is that they learn, repent, and get up after falling. Some people think their mistakes are unforgivable, but the Bible says, “Surely the arm of the LORD is not too short to save, nor his ear too dull to hear.” Isaiah 59:1
When you fall, reach up, and slip your hand back into the hand of the One able to keep you! (Jude 24-25)
Failure is not the time to give up. When we fall, we reach up to the Father, and let Him pull us back into active life, back into wholeness, completeness, and healing.
Some of us have failed to do that. Oh, we are saved, but we still have haunting memories like a black cloud. We failed. We know it, and we know others remember it. We need to take our eyes off ourselves and our failure and look up at Jesus.
Everyone has failed. The greatest failure is failure to learn and grow from the experience. People who serve God simply accept God’s grace and forgiveness. They understand and accept that God has promised to forgive, and forgiveness becomes reality for them.
You are never a failure until you give up.
Sorrow is not necessarily fatal; it can mean a new beginning. It can be part of repenting, learning, and getting back up. Peter’s weeping was a healthy response to sin and failure. (Luke 22:62)
“Yet now I am happy, not because you were made sorry, but because your sorrow led you to repentance. For you became sorrowful as God intended and so were not harmed in any way by us. Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death.” 2 Corinthians 7:9-10
I mentioned taking a look at another person this week: Judas. Judas responded to his failure, betraying Jesus, with worldly sorrow instead of godly sorrow.
“When Judas, who had betrayed him, saw that Jesus was condemned, he was seized with remorse and returned the thirty silver coins to the chief priests and the elders. ‘I have sinned,’ he said, ‘for I have betrayed innocent blood.’”
“‘What is that to us?’ they replied. ‘That’s your responsibility.’ So Judas threw the money into the temple and left. Then he went away and hanged himself.” Matthew 27:3-5
Judas made a huge mistake and miscalculation by betraying Jesus.
His reputation and name was ruined.
He quit trying.
He failed to reach up to God.
He failed to look at Jesus for forgiveness.
He failed to repent and get up again.
He failed to learn and grow from his failure.
Judas is an example of how not to respond to failure. He never gave Jesus a chance. He could have had a wonderful testimony of Christ’s forgiveness as did Saul, who had persecuted Christ, then repented, was saved, born again of the Spirit, and became Paul, the writer of most of the New Testament.
Failure Is NOT Fatal IF… We Learn and Grow From our Failures
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