Standing Alone or With the Crowd?

Yesterday, as my husband and I were driving on a back road and the wind was blowing strongly against the car, I had a thought.  It wasn’t an original thought, I’m sure someone has had this thought and I probably heard it sometime in my life… but this time, it was something that has stuck with me.

I watched as the trees that stood alone were swaying in the wind… holding up against the very wind that the trees in the forest area’s wouldn’t be able to stand against.  Their root systems are not as deep as the trees standing alone.

I know there are times in our lives when we feel like no one is around us.  We are forging through all types of weather on our own and there is no one there to help shield us from the things that are coming against us.  But during that time, we are drawing closer to God and He is deepening our roots.  We need to be the type of people that work together with others, supporting, bringing unity, encouraging… but at the same time we need to be a person who can hold strong when everything is coming against us, because our roots are in Christ.

I’ve seen too many people walk away with the crowd because those people in the crowd were their anchors, their roots… when they were pressed against by the winds of life and trials, their roots easily come up and they fall.  I pray people can see they can guard against falling by becoming rooted in Christ and able to stand firm when those trials come.  I want to be that type of person!

Another thing I thought of, was that God has placed different trees in areas they will thrive.  Like the Palm Tree, it wasn’t meant for Michigan weather and wouldn’t survive.  We need to make sure that we stay where God planted us… in the right soil and in the right environment.  I do believe there are times to be uprooted and replanted.  But there are also many that are uprooting themselves before God has spoken into our lives.  We think we can’t handle the trials in the area we are in, so we take it upon ourselves to uproot and replant where we desire and where we think it will be “different.”  The thing is, it might be so different from where you were designed to be that you succumb to pressures you were never meant to face.

I find myself wanting to make sure that I am where God has planted me… I want to be rooted firmly in Him.