In order to trust God, we must view our circumstances through eyes of faith, not of sense.
"Those who know your name will trust in you, for you, Lord, have never forsaken those who seek you."
-- Psalm 9:10
Back in the day when I was in private business, I had the opportunity to visit one of my company's branches in north Texas. The town was Perryton, population about 6,000, (4,000 were cows.) There was one hotel, three restaurants and several huge grain elevators.
The one thing it didn't have was trees.
Or mountains.
Or for that matter, grass.
It was quite a shock for a young man from the Ozarks.
One day as I was sitting at the back of the shop with some of the workers, we watched a few tumbleweeds as big as a car blow past.
"How do you guys even get enough oxygen to breathe here?" I sarcastically asked.
They responded with a bunch of grunts and guffaws. A couple of them made comments like, "This is God's country, son!" or "This is the land of milk and honey!"
I laughed and said, "Does dust count as oxygen, because that's all I seem to be able to get in my lungs."
At this point a couple of them were getting quite agitated. Then one of them said in a quite serious tone, "We take our trees serious here. Not like you hillbillies who take them for granted."
I told him I didn't understand what he meant and he asked me to load up in his truck and he'd show me. So I did and we drove through side-streets and one lane dirt pathways. We took left turns and right turns and I know we drove past the same cow five times. I was actually starting to get a little concerned because he kept talking about the importance of trees to them and how I just don't appreciate a good tree.
Then finally after what seemed like hours, we pulled up in front of an entrance to a subdivision. There was an archway over the entrance and it had an island of grass separating the entrance and exit roads. The archway read, "The Bent Tree Subdivision." And in the middle of the island of grass was a little bitty, hunched over pitiful twig that I guess you could technically call a tree. It was maybe six feet tall and was permanently bent so much the top of the tree almost touched the ground.
"You see!" my friend exclaimed. "We can't grow trees here because of the wind! But when we do, we build houses around it!"
Many times in life we are like the Prodigal son. The one who had everything and then squandered it. We have the greatest gift of all in God's grace and yet we seldom celebrate that gift. We take it for granted and we judge when we shouldn't. Because God's grace is so abundant, when we find ourselves in the north Texas deserts of life, we look around and yearn for what we don't have anymore. But what we should do is build our own personal temples around God's grace. We should be proud to be called a child of God and we should let the whole world know that even when it looks like we don't have much, we really have all we need.
Let us pray.
Our God of grace. We stand amazed in your presence. We too often take you for granted. We seldom celebrate your love for us and we have fallen short of your grace. And yet you still love us. You still come to us seeking our love. Because of your amazing grace let our eyes be opened to the abundant life you have given us through your son Jesus Christ. Amen.
PASTOR TROY CONRAD IS MINISTER OF THE FARMINGTON UNITED METHODIST CHURCH.
Religion on 08/26/2015