Unstable Trees

I took this picture not intending it to be anything more than a picture. But it made me think. It made me think this one simple thing: sometimes when things look tall and strong, they are so weak and unstable on the base they fall over or fracture in the seemingly most secure place.

These trees stood so tall at one point, and it only took a strong wind to bring them tumbling down.

It also made me think how the biggest people have the shallowest roots. Even when they stood taller than anything around them, they fell. They fell because they had nothing to keep them grounded. We don’t pay attention to the forest because we are surrounded by these seemingly strong and powerful trees. I simply walk past fallen trees, never thinking of them again. But these trees on this beach made me wonder… How many shallow things do I walk past every day? How many shallow people do I walk past every day?

These questions are ones seldom answered. We never know the character of those around us.

Maybe we do. But like the trees, sometimes their true identities are hidden behind a powerful façade. The identity of strength can contain great fear of being caught. Being found out. Don’t we all do that? In some ways, I argue “yes.” Don’t we all want to be known as strong, beautiful, powerful, fearless, stable or tough? Of course. We want to — at least — look invincible. But sometimes the toughest people are the first to fall. They are the first to show true weakness.

It’s the small trees. Those little trees that grow strong with the stronger base are the everlasting trees. Those little people with the largest bases grow the be the strongest and most powerful individuals. I try to give my stories a meaningful “point.”

So what’s the “point?”

Surround yourself with the strongest bases. Surround yourself with people that give you strength. Those who bring out your vigor. Those who erase your weaknesses and magnify your substantial toughness. Those are the people that grow your roots. They grow your base.

The trees with the biggest roots are the ones that last. The ones that stand strong for hundreds of years. Stand strong and stay away from those who bring out your weaknesses, and you won’t fall when the wind comes.

Matthew 7:24–27: “Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.”