Several weeks ago we had a huge storm, with driving rain, whipping wind and lightning.  There are woods behind us, and our next-door neighbor lost a 60-foot tree that was at the edge of their patio. It was struck by lightning and came crashing down, luckily towards the woods, also taking two more trees of the same size with it. The following day we heard his chain saw going and not long after that, a rented dumpster appeared in his driveway.  Fast forward to yesterday, when two very large tree removal trucks pulled up with heavy equipment.  It took three men six hours to remove the trees. The logs were lifted by huge claws and dumped into the truck, which was heaping full at the end of the job. Yes – our neighbor found that he didn’t have the strength to tackle that humongous job by himself after all. 

Isn’t that just like us? We assess the situation and falsely tell ourselves that we’re good with working it all out on our own, only to find that we’re in a bigger mess than we were before.  The reality is that we need help.   So where do we turn? Do we just give up?  Or do we admit that we need help and seek it?  The metaphor that I used above can be applied to every area of our life. It is not a sign of weakness when we ask for help. We just need to go to the One who directs and guides us in all ways. We don’t need to reach the point of exhaustion before we go to our Lord Jesus Christ.  He is always with us and He is our strength.  

No, we would never be able to remove a tree of that size or proportion, but God hears our prayers and supplies the help we need. Give your load to Jesus!  

{A special word of encouragement from a special person: my mom.}