Life Giving

I had lunch today with one one of the greatest dudes I have ever met in my life, who not only one of my major influences in my life and mentor, but also a good friend whom I love like family. We strive to have lunch together as much as possible to catch up and talk about our lives and about God. We went to Ghengis Grill(amazing btw) and we talked about some things but then he said something truly profound. Life and God are all about wilderness. Think about this for a moment, Moses was lead for 40 years into the desert before God called him to lead his people out of Egypt. Jesus was lead by the spirit into the desert for 40 days to prepare for what the Father had called Him to do. the apostle Paul spent 7 years in the wilds of Damascus to prep for his mission. It's all about the desert. What that means for us is, when we are at our lowest point, when we come to the place of complete surrender, to where we feel like nothing else could get worse, that is where we hear and see God the most. You don't find God at the mall, or at Ray Ray's house, you find Him in a place of total seclusion, away from prying eyes and vibrating cell phones and Facebook.

In Israel, there is a tree known as the Acacia tree. It is truly a remarkable tree because it is literally in the middle of a dry and hot desert with no water in sight, but somehow manages to produce green foliage on its branches. To the shepards and people of the Old Testament, this tree was life. It gave shade during the day, it was food for the sheep and animals, it was wood for the fires. This tree was literally a life giving tree. One of the most beautiful pictures the bible paints can be found in psalm 1 or Jeremiah 17 where it basically says the same thing: "

Blessed is the one 
    who does not walk in step with the wicked 
or stand in the way that sinners take 
    or sit in the company of mockers, 
² but whose delight is in the law of the Lord, 
    and who meditates on his law day and night.
³ That person is like a tree planted by streams of water, 
    which yields its fruit in season
and whose leaf does not wither—
    whatever they do prospers.

Now, the tree this passage talks about was the Acacia tree. You might be thinking "but it says it's planted by streams of water, but there are no streams in the desert?" That is because the roots of the Acacia tree are deeply rooted in the soil, so deep, that it finds water deep underground and that is how it bears fruit all year long. The same goes for us, when we are deeply rooted in God's word, no matter the storms or deserts we may go through, we can be life giving to those who are also in a desert. We can give shade to those who need it. This life that God has called us to is not always easy, but when we are rooted in truth, there is nothing that God cannot equip us to do. It is better to live a life fulfilled, then a life full of regret. I've gone through a lot of storms in my life, but I know that my God is greater, and I am called to something that I can't even begin to fathom.