There are trees out there; lots and lots of trees with different leaves and different branches and different stuff growing on the branches and living in them. It is a forest. It is full of trees. Each of which has a meaning and a significance. And you just stand there gawking a one single little scraggly tree as if it is capable of representing and containing all of the beauty and essence and truth of all the other trees, and all the other forest stuff around it and everywhere else. One example in isolation and solitude is not a complete representation of all the rest of the trees. It can never present the whole reality. It can only represent the one tiny little point of view which is shallow and incomplete.
Step back just a bit. It won’t take much. Swivel that neck and wiggle those eyeballs just the tiniest degree. That set of facts, those packages of emotion, the historical markers and opinions that represent that one bit of scruffy timber upon which you have fixed your gaze for so long may be found to be less descriptive than you may have ever imagined possible. It may be found, and clearly demonstrated, that the tree who crowded your favorite tree, which seemed to do nothing useful and everything detrimental to your precious pet twig, was protecting and feeding that little one which he too loves.
Step back and look around. There’s a forest growing all around that little speck of a place which is burned into your vision. There is much going on in this forest right here and a lot of it might have nothing to do with that which you are convinced is the point of all reality.
And, if you still insist on being a one tune mp3 player, or a one subject search engine, at least be sure that your mental singularity gets wrapped around something eternal. Here’s a good laser point question which is both relevant and eternal. Does your obsession over politics, or gun rights, or someone’s life matters, or oils that have odors, or oils that can spill and make great havoc, or human rights, or global warming, or religion, or terrorism, or GMO’s, or life, or sports, or healthcare, or flag waving, or senators, or your sister-in-law who used to be your best friend’s crabby attitude, or ………… – Has any of that helped anyone look beyond their own little overpowered scrub to see the forest and beyond? Has it helped anyone to notice Jesus Christ, and think on things other, and perhaps bigger, than them or you? Would you let some of that breeze blow through your branches for a bit?
If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory.
Therefore put to death your members which are on the earth: fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. Because of these things the wrath of God is coming upon the sons of disobedience, in which you yourselves once walked when you lived in them. But now you yourselves are to put off all these: anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language out of your mouth. Do not lie to one another, since you have put off the old man with his deeds, and have put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him, where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcised nor uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave nor free, but Christ is all and in all. (Colossians 3:1-11 NKJV)
See You SONday,
Dr. SF Gallagher
© 2016 Dr. SF Gallagher