Tonight is our forestry class … and since it happens to fall on Halloween, we’re having a class party! How exciting!
Our forestry professor told us several weeks ago that he already had his costume picked out. I can’t wait to see what he comes dressed up as.
At our forestry field trip a few weeks ago, our invasive-weeds teacher was telling us all about the costume she had been working on … she is going to be a Pileated Woodpecker. Clever!
Since our Halloween party is with our forestry class, hubby and I simply must have some sort of forest-related costume. Therefore … Hubby is pretending to be a “root … doing root things.” And I’m pretending to be a tree. I can’t wait to see how many other fellow-classmates have a matching t-shirt like me … pretending to be a tree also.
Everyone knows that I am not a tree. It is clearly obvious that I am not a tree.
I do not absorb water out of the ground through my feet. I do not transport that water up through my body to my hair, where my hair uses sunlight to produce all the food I need to survive.
When October comes, my hair does not all fall out, like a tree’s leaves … and I do not go through a period of winter dormancy like a tree. And in the spring, I do not grow a brand-new head of hair, like a tree.
I am not a tree.
I am not able to stand outside in the elements 24/7, surviving wind and rain and snow and ice. I need shelter or else I will not survive. I clearly am not a tree.
But what if I felt deep down in my heart that I am a tree? What if, deep down, I really truly believe that I am a tree?
The way a tree sways and moves gracefully in the breeze … that’s really truly who I am. I really truly believe that I am a tree.
And so I go stand outside in the forest … because I am a tree!
I stand with my feet buried in the mud and in puddles of water … because I am a tree!
I bend and sway gracefully in the breeze … because I am a tree!
I take chemicals to make my hair fall out … because I am a tree!
What would happen to me?
Common sense and logic tells us all that I would become sick very quickly. God did not make me to be a tree.
Everyone who sees me knows full well that I am not a tree … I am only pretending to be a tree.
But it hurts my feelings if everyone doesn’t affirm my beliefs! I feel singled out if everyone doesn’t agree and affirm my belief that I am a tree! And so everyone affirms me! Everyone tells me I am a beautiful tree! And I am delighted … because deep down I really truly believe that I am a tree!
And bit by bit I become sick. I am not healthy. I am not well at all. Because I am not a tree. God did not make me to be a tree. I am only pretending to be a tree.
The world in which we live tells us that we can be anything we want to be. If deep down we really truly believe we are something else (other than what God made us to be), then we can totally be that.
Society affirms us in whatever we choose to believe that we are. Society agrees and celebrates our decision to be whatever we want to believe that we are.
Society gives us chemicals to help us be whatever it is that we believe we are. Society will help us have surgery to help us achieve whatever it is that we believe we are.
But that is not who God made us to be.
No matter the affirmation … no matter the celebrating of the decision … no matter the chemicals and the surgery … that is not who God made you to be.
If we try to be something other than who God made us to be … we will make ourselves sick. Mentally sick. Emotionally sick. Spiritually sick. Physically sick.
If we try to be something other than who God made us to be … we will be unhealthy. We will not be well at all. Because God did not make us to be that. We are only pretending.
It’s time to stop pretending. And be who God made you to be.
