Trees of Faith

written by Kyle Gassaway

Before I explain what I’m thinking I want to give full credit to my buddy Graham Monroe for this image he received in his mind.  Graham and I are both very visual people, so we see life and all its complexities through visuals and symbols.  I compare it to the movie, “Inception”, where people’s minds are given thoughts by others that change how they would act.  It’s a fascinating concept and I believe that God does this when He speaks through His Holy Spirit to His people.  I can’t explain fully how it works, but when God gave me His spirit I remember this visual inception becoming a new experience in my life.  I could tell more about my experiences, but now I want to tell about the Tree of Faith.  

So there is this tree growing in the middle of a room.  Water is falling from the ceiling onto the leaves, then the branches and down to the ground.  The tree should be growing with all this water and nutrients it is receiving from above yet it's not.  The reason for this is apparent when one sees the ground it is growing from.  There are these large holes in the dirt all around the base of the tree that are capturing the water that was meant for the roots of the tree.  The tree is beginning to wither, because its nutrients are being drawn away by these pits in the mud.  

Then comes the realization that the tree is the faith and life of the Christian, and the holes that surround it are the lies we believe about ourselves and the parts of ourselves that doubt God.   You see, God has continued to rain down on us blessing after blessing every day, yet these holes are not allowing us to receive in thankfulness and faith what God wants us to receive.  Our souls begin to whither the longer we can’t see the doubts and lies that often times are so subtle and so built into ourselves that they are even subconscious.  So what is a tree like you and I to do, which is being starved of faith and love?  

The solid ground that must be used to cover these holes is the very promises of the Lord, our God.  His truth and His Word is the only weapons we have against the lies that have stolen from us for all our lives.  The lies that have remained under the surface in hidden places that only God can see.  The doubts that persist in deep parts of us can only be healed by faith and truth.  In Mark 9:24, a man whose son needs to be healed by Jesus of an evil Spirit, is told by Jesus that all he needs to do is believe and his son will be healed.  The man in a desperate appeal that resonates in the corridors of my soul exclaims,  “I believe, help my unbelief!”   I feel my soul crying out these very words when I see the holes in my life.  I try to fill them myself, but they always seem to open wide again and drain me.  I have come to the point like many others in the family of faith that can no longer live in futility by covering them by our own means.  

God is the great Healer and Savior of us trees and He has set forth His spirit and His Word to be the applier of the healing.  Let us, as people of faith, cling to the promises that God has made to us in Christ and pray for the unbelief to become like a living spring in our hearts.  This is the final part of the image, that these holes that once stole the water from our roots become springs of water that feed us when the promises of God sink down deep enough to purge our unbelief and fill us from the inside-out.

Half Way

written by Hannah Boning

It's almost impossible to believe how quickly the time has gone, how fast this adventure has flown by. It still feels like October in my head, somehow, and I can't seem to wrap my mind around the fact that no, it's halfway over. Halfway over? How can it be halfway over? We just started.

But here we are, it's January, and people are starting to ask what we're doing next year, we're starting to talk about jobs and school and plans. It's easy sometimes, to get so caught up in tomorrow and the next day and the next month and the next year, the what-comes-next – especially in a program like this one, this short time – that I forget to sit back and look at what's around me.

Because what's around me? It's so beautiful. It's so good. I miss it, sometimes, when I'm trying to figure out how to answer the so what's next and so what do you want to do questions, and also trying to do my church history reading, and memorize all those Bible verses, and make sure I have clean clothes to wear to work tomorrow and feed myself and be on time to morning prayer. I miss how good this is, what a gift this year is. That's really the only way I can describe it: it's a gift.

I'm surrounded by the best people. They love me so well, even when I'm not loving them well. They want the best for me, and they want me to be the best I can, and they love me toward Jesus. They're teaching me and serving me and blessing me. Sarah and Stacey and Graham and Kyle and Sean, this family that we've built - sometimes it's messy, but family always is - but we're trying our best to love well. And Tripp, and Sarah, and my mentor and my host home and my coworkers, and the people that make us dinner and open their homes and let us sleep on their floors, they love us well. So many people give to make this program a possibility – give of their time, and money, and their homes and hearts and love. I look around and I see them, this cloud of witnesses, loving us in a million little ways.

In them all, I see Jesus. I see God providing and protecting and blessing abundantly. I'm reminded that God will always provide and protect and bless. I'm surrounded by a living testament to His love in this church and this community that has completely and totally opened their arms and welcomed the Fellows in. They love us and I see Jesus moving in their midst, saying see, daughter, see? I will never forsake you.

So here we are. Second semester, halfway through. I'm trying to figure it all out, trying to come up with the next steps, but every day I am reminded that I don't need to fear. Every day I feel the tug to slow down, to look around. To see how good it all is, how beautiful.

Tripp asked us recently about the remaining half of this program. What do we feel God calling us to? What do we see Him doing? What do we want to press into, to learn, to experience during second semester? There's so much, so much I want to do and see and experience. I want it all, I want – as is typical of my usual overachieving self – to get everything I possibly can out of this program. I want to be the best Fellow you've ever seen. I want to learn and grow and develop as much as one person can do in nine months. But what I want to hold on to during second semester is just how good it is, how good God is. I want to be still and watch Him work. I want to live in gratitude. I want to delight.

It's halfway over, but that means we still have half left. And I think it's going to be good.