Shaken not Stirred

I've always been a firm believer that faith must be pushed around a bit, questioned, challenged, sometimes beaten to a pulp in order to prove itself, and I've finally thought of a good nature analogy: trees!

A few years back, my dearest and I watched a special on an enormous ecodome out in the desert somewhere that held an amazing rainforest within. It was quite remarkable what modern technology can create, and the show walked us through the specs of the dome. One thing that stuck out to me were the massive fans they installed after they saw a number of trees die from shallow roots. See, a tree is designed to be pushed and shaken by the weather so that its roots grow deeper in the ground and hold firmly. Without that force testing its strength in its early years, the tree will grow beautiful in appearance but with the first major storm will topple because of what it lacks beneath. In the ecodome, the trees initally had no wind forcing them to grow deep and so died from nutrient deprivation as the canopy filled.

So the next time you're facing some serious challenges to your life, your faith, your being, look outside and remember that the more forceful the winds, the deeper your roots become.