Are You a Tree or a Shrub?

Jeremiah 17:5-10 NKJV
Thus says the Lord:

“Cursed is the man who trusts in man
And makes flesh his strength,
Whose heart departs from the Lord.
 For he shall be like a shrub in the desert,
And shall not see when good comes,
But shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness,
In a salt land which is not inhabited.

 “Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord,
And whose hope is the Lord.
 For he shall be like a tree planted by the waters,
Which spreads out its roots by the river,
And will not fear when heat comes;
But its leaf will be green,
And will not be anxious in the year of drought,
Nor will cease from yielding fruit.

“The heart is deceitful above all things,
And desperately wicked;
Who can know it?
 I, the Lord, search the heart,
I test the mind,
Even to give every man according to his ways,
According to the fruit of his doings.

Dear Lord,

Your prophet, Jeremiah, challenges me to be a blessed man and not a cursed one. He tells me that a cursed man is self-reliant and forgets You. His personal growth is stunted, limited, and dwarfed. His narrative is self-centered and narrow in its scope. The cursed one lacks an overarching story of the meaning of life, rather has lived life with a sensual lust, moving from one taste, sound, and feeling to another in an elusive quest for satisfaction, never discerning what is truly good.

On the other hand, a blessed man trusts and hopes in You. The blessed man grows roots like a tree on a river bank. I imagine a river bottom lined with the gleaming white bark of sycamores, their leaves as large as dinner plates--aging bark telling a tale of many floods, droughts, and storms. 

I have seen both the cursed and blessed. The cursed are packaged in prosperity as well as poverty. The contrast seems stark initially, until ones looks deeper. Then I see it. The cursed have pursued material existence. Sight, sound, touch, taste, and smells have dominated their concerns. Spiritual pursuits have been neglected. The cry of the eternal has been ignored until its whisper can no longer be heard by the self-imposed hearing impairment of the cursed. 

The blessed are the ones who have listened to the bidding of the eternal. They have judged their own values, worship, relationships, and decisions on the basis of what endures after death. They have lived for more than the sensual. Along the way, the blessed have experienced great pleasure, but not because they sought it for its own sake. They sought You first. You have added earthly pleasure to their spiritual peace. The blessed live life with one overarching passion, to hear You proclaim "Well done" over their lives. They live for the eternal. These well-lived lives are not charmed. No, they have the same suffering, sickness, and sorrow that is common to our shared earthly existence. But their response is different. Their response ever reaches upward, hopeful... to know You.

I want to live among the blessed. Search me. Test me. Transform me. Know me. Make me a tree, not a shrub.

In the Name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,
Amen.

Trees

by Joyce Kilmer

I think that I shall never see 

A poem lovely as a tree. 

A tree whose hungry mouth is prest 

Against the earth’s sweet flowing breast; 

A tree that looks at God all day, 

And lifts her leafy arms to pray; 

A tree that may in Summer wear 

A nest of robins in her hair; 

Upon whose bosom snow has lain; 

Who intimately lives with rain. 

Poems are made by fools like me, 

But only God can make a tree.