Tree Planting

There's an old Chinese proverb that says:  "The best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago. The second best time is today."

It's not hard to see the point. To have a tree now, it would have been good if you had planted it a long time ago, giving it time to get rooted and grow into maturity.  But there is no time for regret, if you still want a tree. There's no better time than the present than to start the process of the future you want.

Looking back on the past twenty years, it's easy to see all the trees that could have and should have been planted: we should have spent less and invested more; we should have studied more, watched less TV, perhaps exercised a little more. We should have spent more quality time with our kids, or parents, as the case may be. Surely we should have laughed more, worried less,  appreciated the simple things of life more, and on and on.

It's tempting to dwell on what might have been, imagining the trees we failed to plant twenty years ago, or for that matter, two years ago. We may be well on our way to having a nice tree had we just planted it, and it is certainly easy to think of the good things left undone. God, however, has forgotten them; those sins of omission have been cast into the same sea of forgetfulness as our other sins.It's time to move forward.

We must be about the business of tree planting if we're ever going to get a tree.

So, what are those things God has been prompting you to do, that you haven't done yet, but you've been planning to get around to "one of these days." What a great time to plant that tree today. Is He leading you to get in the Word more, pray more, share your faith more, or give more? Maybe you've thought about one day getting involved in a particular ministry, joining a small group, going on a mission trip, or serving someone behind the scenes whom the Lord has placed in your path. Dig a hole and stick a seed or sapling in it. Plant the tree.

Yesterday will never be any different than it was, but today's page is still blank. You can't change what you did, or didn't do, twenty years ago, but you have a choice what you will do today, for yourself and for the Lord. I can't wait to see the trees that come forth from the decisions you make to walk in obedience today.

Thanks for your prayers for our team from Shelby Crossings this week while we were serving in Puerto Rico, We will be heading home today, and we can't wait to see you on Sunday .

--Pastor Ken