Thursday, October 3, 2013

Tree Falling in the Woods

Matthew 6:28…32 “And why are you worried... Observe how the lilies of the field grow; they do not toil nor do they spin… for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.”

There is a saying that if a tree falls in the woods and no one is there to hear it, does it make a sound? I say that if you have a problem and no one is there to see it, is there really a problem at all?

It hit me while driving in Houston traffic surrounded by literally hundreds of thousands of cars that I do not know a single problem of another individual driver. In fact, from my point of view, not a single driver has a single issue in their life other than they are in my way. So does it mean that because I can’t see their problem that one does not exists?

Then the other day I was inconvenienced by a funeral processions. I am sure that there were many grieving people in those cars with their headlights on, but I felt no grief at all. To me there was no loss, and therefore was there a loss at all?

When my brother-in-law died unexpectedly a year ago, my sister and our family hurt deeply, but my friends who did not know him felt no pain at all, so was my pain real?

When my business collapsed and there were both friends and family capable of stopping it, but they did nothing at all, was there even a collapse in the first place?

What fear these personal events brought to my mind. What would my sister do? How can I help raise her three kids? What would I do for a living? Would I be homeless? Will my children go hungry? All the worries of the problems… but wait, did they exist?

Mark Twain wrote, “I had a lot of problems, most of which never came to pass.”

My sister, my nephews, and my niece are more than surviving… they are thriving so was there ever really a problem to worry about. I have never been homeless, and based on my waist line never hungry either, so was there ever a problem with my business collapsing? Better yet, did it even collapse, or was God just opening a new chapter?

I have no idea what this thought process says about someone else’s problems, but what it says to me is that my problems truly do not exists outside the imagination of my mind. So many worries of yesterday, and yet today those worries are no more, only replaced by some self-consuming new fabrications.

Will I make my mortgage payment? I laugh realizing a hundred and twenty have already been made. Will I get a vacation? Will I be able to pay for my daughter’s wedding? Is all this worry killing me? Why is life so painful?

I am in the middle of what seems like the most beautiful discover of my life, and of kingdom vision and truth. The pain, the worry, the stress are all lies fabricated in my mind. God is in control.

Look at the cars on the freeway. We perceive no problems in the others because there really are no problems in the others. God is in control. Now imagine you are one of the others and you are looking at yourself. Do you now perceive a problem with yourself? You should not… because the problem does not exist. It does not exists because God is in control… working all things for good for those who love Him.

And then I read this from my friend Jim Spivey as the Holy Spirit confirms what He is doing in me. “There are a lot of very unsatisfied people running around pushing and grabbing at or avoiding each other, frantically searching for more or better circumstances.  They are completely identified with and by their pain, looking for some relief at any cost… “getting” won’t “solve the problem,” because… it’s all “inside us,” both our problem (us) and His Solution (being excavated)…   The Answer in Real Life, is in the relationship between the Father and Son.”

Today, if only for this moment I am pain and problem free. Father grant me the grace to live every moment in this truth in the name of Your Son Jesus.

I believe this is the perception of Christ. I believe this is where He was when He went to the cross. Focused on the joy of the truth, and not the illusion of pain.

Please watch this powerful video of God’s word being proven true again.




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