| A Dead Live Oak |
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| Written by Addie |
| Wednesday, 29 April 2009 22:43 |
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This Spring Break I went to Biloxi, MS to work with Habitat on houses for the victims of Katrina. My week started off with a bit of a rough start. My mom broke her leg the night before we left and by the time we got to the first rest stop, my sister had called to say she’d been in a car accident on the way to visit my mom in the hospital. (My sister was fine and my mom has now moved to just one crutch, so their state is not the subject of this reflection,) :) I just want to set a mood for you all that I know each of you can relate to: You all know what it’s like to have a bad day. “The case of the Mondays” happens daily in this life. So what does God say about what to do with that feeling? In Ephesians 6:5-7 (The Message) it says, "Servants, respectfully obey your earthly masters but always with an eye to obeying the real master, Christ. Don't just do what you have to do to get by, but work heartily, as Christ's servants doing what God wants you to do. And work with a smile on your face, always keeping in mind that no matter who happens to be giving the orders, you're really serving God." Paul tells the Ephesians to “work heartily” and “work with a smile on your face.” Really? God wants us to work with a smile on our face? Sometimes I think, “ok God, well, I’m helping the least of these, that’s good enough. I did what you wanted me to do, now where’s my gold star?” God expects more from us though. He doesn’t just want us to do the work, but to want to do it, and to do it with joy. One afternoon we took a bus tour of the area. (Characteristic of the people there, our tour guide made sure to point out that she gave “Recovery Tours,” not “Destruction Tours.”) :) We drove through and saw the buildings that had been rebuilt, the Casinos that were now opening, the memorial that had been done, the lighthouse that had measured the water line…all of it was interesting and important, but the most memorable for me was this: along both sides of the highway we were on, were Mississippi’s famous 300 year old Live Oaks. Because of the storm, they had soaked in too much water and had died. Sometimes that’s what my trip, and life in general can feel like: your “Live Oak” has perished. The thing that kept you going isn’t working anymore and you feel like you can’t make it through. Everything you know has been destroyed. But this is also what life is like: the Live Oaks along that recognizable highway that we all know from the news and that the Westminster students were driving along that day, were turned into something more meaningful than one could have thought: The city had hired an artist to carve sculptures of native animals out of the dead trees to turn them into a living symbol for the survival of the city. The trees were now beautiful symbols of recovery and strength. Out of a hardship, the most negative image was turned into something positive and hopeful. At some points in the week it was hard for me to be happy about what I was doing. It’s hard to get out of the rut of “the Mondays,” just as it was hard to know what to do with a dead Live Oak…I noticed though, that when I stopped thinking of my own problems and started thinking of how great it was to be helping these people, it got better. I was happy to help someone avoid a bad day, and that in turn made my work that much easier. You make your day. You decide if you’re going to let the bad things pull you down. You decide if it’s a “destruction” or a “recovery” tour. God doesn’t say that the hard work won’t be necessary, but he does say that you need to do it “with a smile on your face.” Bad things will happen to you. You will fail, you will lose, you won’t get it done, you’ll forget, you’ll get in an argument, and some day, a Live Oak will die…you’re not protected from those things, but you are protected through them. With God’s help you can smile. : ) |
