Whether An Oak Or A Tumbleweed, Always Be Rooted In Jesus
Word-Of-The-Day: ‘(1) Now Ahab told Jezebel everything Elijah had done and how he had killed all the <Baal> prophets with the sword. (2) So Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah to say, “May the gods deal with me, be it ever so severely, if by this time tomorrow I do not make your life like that of one of them.” (3a) Elijah was afraid and ran for his life.’ (1 Kings 19:1-3a)
Some days, we are rooted down like the majestic oak, immovable and unshakable even in the eye of a hurricane. Other days we may be tossed about, blown for miles on end even in the slightest breeze like the tumbleweed. We are not blessed with the tumbleweed here as they are out in the west, where they roam from Bartow, CA through El Paso, TX, and up into Carson City, NV (areas that my spouse and I have visited or driven through). Tumbleweeds are as they were in the Road Runner/Wiley E. Coyote cartoons; spherical, about two to three feet in diameter, and roll down the road or in fields of desert at the speed of the wind.
Driving across the country in 1986, after leaving Hawaii and the Army while on terminal leave and driving home to Pennsylvania, we were outside of Bartow, California when a herd of tumbleweed were rolling across the highway. One could not help but hit them, and each time – POOF! – the tumbleweeds exploded into little dry pieces of woody debris and dust. Those that made it across the gauntlet of cars going east and west rolled out onto the desert on their way to the Mexican border…
Each week, as I hear prayer requests and praise reports, I often think of the oak vs. tumbleweed comparison; the thought is along the same lines of being steadfast versus floundering. It is not always the direst of circumstances that are ‘tumbleweed’ experiences nor are the lightest of needs a demonstration of the ‘oak’, in fact it is usually the opposite.
For example, I go back to 1998, after my dad passed away and I moved my mother into the home they built down the street from me, from my childhood home in Pennsylvania. I thought my mother would not survive very long after my dad’s passing, as she was very much dependent on my dad taking care of her, and she was never in the best of health.
But after a week in her new home, she told me quietly but firmly, while we were sitting at her kitchen table, that she would be OK and that she was ready to move forward – one of the rare times I saw an incredible amount of honest, true strength and conviction coming from her that was not out of stubbornness but of principle and Faith.
She lived another 20 years, as a widow (and a stubborn one at that) to 2018. Although she had ‘tumbleweed’ moments (and she had many), this and her other memorable ‘oak’ moment, one where I had to tell her she was not leaving hospice as her body functions were shutting down. She held her fists up, shook them one at a time, saying ‘thunder and lightning’, and told me and my kids she would be OK. She held on to see and talk to her grandchildren and great-grandchild to give them one final word before she passed. These were the two moments I truly saw how strong my mother was in God and Spirit.
In the Bible, a great example of a ‘tumbleweed’ moment came when Elijah, at perhaps the peak of his spiritual connection with God after winning the ‘altar challenge’ with the Baal prophets (the Baals failed to have their false god light up their altar, Elijah successfully called upon God to not only completely consume his water-drenched alter and offerings on fire, but had the people who gathered to witness the ‘battle of the prophets’ capture and kill the Baal prophets as commanded by God through Elijah (1 Kings 18:16-46). He was being an oak.After this, Jezebel (the queen of Israel, wife of King Ahab), who had installed Baal worship as the ‘official’ religion in Israel, commanded that Elijah would be killed in revenge of the ‘one-upsmanship’ and killing of the Baal prophets.
Elijah had every reason to be an ‘oak’, to stand steadfast having seen the power of God work and having such an intimate relationship with God to answer his prayers in such a matter. But instead of being steadfast, Elijah ran off, or better, ‘rolled off’ like a tumbleweed, becoming weak in the fear that gripped him. Elijah wasn’t the only one who had a tumbleweed moment. I think of Peter twice having tumbleweed moments, first when he starting sinking in the Sea of Galilee after taking his eyes of Jesus (Matthew 14:28-30) and when he denied Christ three times (Matthew 26:69-75). But Peter had his ‘oak’ moments, such as leading the Apostles to select a replacement for Judas (Acts 1:13-22) and later on the morning of Pentecost when Peter spoke to the crowd and provided the Gospel to 3,000 who were saved that day (Acts 2:14-41).
We also have our embarrassing ‘tumbleweed’ moments like Elijah and Peter, sometimes right after we have that ‘oak’ moment where we stand tall despite the odds being against us. We must remember that our Lord is with us always, for in the times we are oaks He is the one holding us up, and when we are tumbleweeds, being tossed about, He is the one who will catch us and hold us firm without shattering us into tiny bits!
