There is a tremendous lesson for me in the
palm tree. I have ministered on the palm for many years, using it as lesson for
we who have reached the "mature" years of our lives.
For one, the palm tree fruit, once it has
ripened, falls to the ground and turns to sugar!
What a
tremendous lesson that is for this elder generation! We need to become
sweeter as the years go by, not bitter.
Yet, as I sat
beneath my willow tree, the Holy Spirit preached the passage to me in a very
new way for the purpose of this article.
He reminded me
that there is but one thing that is a sure killer of the palm tree.
Mind you, the palm can withstand intense
drought, hurricane force winds, sloppy pruning, etc. It will simply bend
and stay strong at the root and withstand it all.
But, the palm tree cannot
withstand the cold. The cold will bring certain
death.
The same holds true with us as Christian men and
women. If we become haughty, then what follows is that we become cold. We
look down our collective noses at those who do not believe as we do or those who
seemingly do not know what we "know".
Immediately -
oftimes in a single word or look - we lose our testimony. We abolish
forever our good report. What integrity might have been ours is
suddenly, most often irreversibly, lost to the very person we desired to
touch.
To become cold is to die. To allow
our love, our faith, our compassion, praise, worship or witness to get cold and
unfeeling...we die.
Am I advocating that we not be a
witness of our faith?
Absolutely not. I am
advocating simply that our witness be a loving, sharing, kind exchange of
thought. I am advocating the type of witnessing which leaves both sides
feeling that they want to know more and anxious to be together again for such an
exchange.
Somehow, with God alive in our hearts, I believe
it can be done. After all, His word assures us that we "shall
flourish like the palm tree." (Psalm 92:12-15)
