I was asked to write a devotional for a ladies group–“Growing in 2024.” Here’s what I came up with. (Rather, here’s what I think God helped me write.)
If you know me even a little, or if you’ve read much of my writing, you know I love trees. It’s difficult to pinpoint why I love them so much. I don’t know if it’s because I have a lot of happy memories at my grandparents’ house under their shade trees, or if it’s because trees themselves are just so fascinating to look at. I love the way they mark the seasons, being both changing and predictable at the same time. Their cycle of life and the way in which they grow has much to teach us about life and about God, as they glorify their Creator with their beauty and majesty. Tree imagery is peppered throughout the Bible; I think in part because every human at every time in every place can understand and relate to trees.
I was thinking about the importance of staking a young tree, particularly because I currently have a small tree in my front yard that we have staked. It’s a transplant from my grandparents’ farm, a very young walnut sapling. So I decided to research the importance of staking a tree, thinking I’d find information about the need to keep the trunk straight. What a great lesson, I thought. “Aligning Ourselves with God.” But what I found, however, was that most trees do NOT need to be staked. There are a few exceptions to this, however many experts discussed the need for trees to be free to experience some trunk movement, as that movement encourages growth and actually strengthens the tree. While staked trees may grow faster and taller than unstaked trees, they often have weaker trunks and less developed root systems. This fact can of course lead to the obvious spiritual analogy that facing storms and being pushed around by the winds of life is actually good for us as believers. Facing trials and learning to withstand them grows us in our faith and helps to sanctify us.
Yet one article* about staking trees caught my eye–”Staking can help a tree stand straight that is stubbornly leaning even if it is well rooted in the ground.” Stubbornly leaning even if it is well rooted. I felt a twinge, a stirring in my spirit. Stubbornly leaning. What if I’m stubbornly leaning?
Maybe I shouldn’t, but I do think of myself as well rooted in God’s Word. What I mean by that is I have a pretty good familiarity with the Bible; better than most, I’d say. Afterall, there are still entire people groups who have not heard the gospel and don’t have a Bible in their own language. So I realize this sounds prideful- and perhaps it is–but maybe you can relate. Thanks to my faithful Christian parents, I grew up being exposed to God’s Word from the very beginning of my life. From Sunday school felt boards that told Bible stories to adult in-depth studies with other women, I have spent a good deal of time (though admittedly not enough) in the Word. I can articulate the overarching theme of the Bible and I can recall major events and people from the Old Testament and the New. I know which translation I prefer and I can tell you why I prefer it. I know “churchy” Bible words like Pentateuch and Septuagint. I have Bible verses committed to memory. I mean, come on, I could recite the books of the Bible before I was 8 years old!
This is not meant to be a list of how great my Bible knowledge is, rather it’s an inventory of my Bible literacy, and it’s an invitation for you to take the same inventory. Start thinking about how much you “think” you know about the Bible. Obviously we all have more to learn about God’s Word; I’m sure we all learn something new every time we open it. Afterall, it is living and active. So without allowing yourself to get puffed up with pride, stop and think for a few moments about your life’s experience with God’s Word.
So when I think about all that Bible knowledge I supposedly have, I should be standing straight and tall and in perfect alignment to the Word and will of God, right? But I’m not. I know I’m not. The only conclusion I can draw is that I’m stubbornly leaning! To mix metaphors, I’m leaning away from the plumb line of God’s Word. When I know what God’s Word says about something, and I refuse to change my heart or actions to bend to His Word, I’m stubbornly leaning away from Him.
When my children were young, they had a list of chores to do each morning. My oldest happily obeyed and did his chores, however my youngest often did not do hers. She never looked at me and said, “No, Mom, I won’t do my chores.” She just didn’t do them. I would remind her, and she’d tell me she was going to do her chores, and yet she often did not. It wasn’t a blatant disobedience, but it was disobedience just the same. The outcome was identical either way; the chores didn’t get done.
I don’t think many of us blatantly disobey the Lord. I think maybe it goes something like this: One day we read a passage like 1 John 4:20-21. “If anyone says, ‘I love God,’ yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. And he has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother.” We read that and then immediately God brings to mind someone for whom we’ve been harboring hatred. We feel convicted, decide that we need to reach out and reconcile with the person, and then fail to follow through. We don’t look to the sky, shake our fist at God, and say, “No sir, I’m not going to do that.” But just like with my daughter and her chores, the outcome is the same.
If you Google the word stubborn, the first definition that comes up is this: “having or showing dogged determination not to change one’s attitude or position on something, especially in spite of good arguments or reasons to do so.” Ouch.
More importantly, here are some things God says about stubbornness:
Rebellion is as sinful as witchcraft, and stubbornness as bad as worshiping idols. 1 Samuel 15:23 (NLT)
Whoever remains stiff-necked after many rebukes will suddenly be destroyed—without remedy. Proverbs 29:1 (NIV)
But they did not obey or incline their ear, but walked in their own counsels and the stubbornness of their evil hearts, and went backward and not forward. Jeremiah 7:24 (ESV)
Wow! Those sting. Rebellion is as sinful as witchcraft?! Stubbornness is as bad as worshiping idols?! When you think of it like that, it’s eye-opening, isn’t it? And yet, not hard to understand. I’ve made an idol of myself and my own desires when I refuse to let go of them and bow the knee to God’s Word. I’m a tree that is stubbornly leaning!
This year, let’s resolve to be doers of God’s Word, not merely hearers. Let’s determine to be like a tree that is not stubbornly leaning, a tree that is not only well-rooted, but is straight and aligned with the Word of God.
*The article reference above is found at https://www.seattle.gov/trees/planting-and-care/staking#:~:text=If%20done%20properly%2C%20staking%20can,well%20rooted%20in%20the%20ground.