This past weekend, I spent the weekend at a youth conference as one of the chaperones for the youth group of another parish in my Diocese. I have known the youth minister at this parish for several years, and when they were in need of another male chaperone, I agreed. I went into the weekend not knowing a single one of the 29 kids who were going on the trip, which was a very different experience than volunteering with the youth group at my own parish.
Throughout the weekend, we heard from several different speakers, all coming from very different backgrounds and life experiences. The theme of the weekend was being “rooted in Christ”. Of all of talks we heard, two Scripture passages really stuck out for me, one from the Old Testament and one from the New Testament. Over the weekend, the kids, other chaperones and I reflected on this theme, and I think it is so important in each of our daily lives.
“Thus says the LORD: Cursed is the man who trusts in human beings, who seeks his strength in flesh, whose heart turns away from the LORD. He is like a barren bush in the desert that enjoys no change of season, but stands in a lava waste, a salt and empty earth. Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, whose hope is the LORD. He is like a tree planted beside the waters that stretches out its roots to the stream: It fears not the heat when it comes, its leaves stay green; in the year of drought it shows no distress, but still bears fruit.” Jeremiah 17:5-8
For me, the greatest part in going on a weekend retreat is being refreshed and encouraged in my faith. We all know that it is hard to live the life we are called by God to live, especially with all of the distractions our society throws in front of us. So often, we put our trust only in ourselves and the things of the world. We are built up by society to believe that we have all power within us to do anything we want, and that we should do whatever we want to be happy and enjoy our lives. And that way usually works for a while. We are blessed to live in a great country, to have so much readily at our fingertips.
But, eventually the heat and the drought comes – we lose our job, suffer an illness or injury, lose a loved one – and our entire world crumbles around us. We wither in the face of these hardships, and we don’t have any way to deal with them. But our God tells us exactly what we need to do to avoid going down this path. If we live our life like the tree Jeremiah is talking about, then we will be able to handle the suffering that comes our way. Because the tree stayed close to its source of life, the stream, even when the weather around it turned nasty, it was able to survive because it was tapped into the source of water that would never dry up.
Sure, we are always going to face suffering, Christ never promised that we wouldn’t. But, like Jeremiah’s tree, we have a great source of water that we can continually tap into. Through the power of the Most Holy Trinity, Christ is our source of Living Water. If we dig deep and plant ourselves with Him, then we will never wither and die in the face of heat and drought – those things can never conquer us if we are firmly rooted in Christ and live our lives the way He has showed us.
Christ tells us these things Himself, in a different way, when He was teaching the crowds during the Sermon on the Mount:
"Everyone who listens to these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on rock. The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and buffeted the house. But it did not collapse; it had been set solidly on rock. And everyone who listens to these words of mine but does not act on them will be like a fool who built his house on sand. The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and buffeted the house. And it collapsed and was completely ruined." Matthew 7:24-27
Think about the difference between rock and sand for a minute. I love going to the beach and laying on the sand, soaking up the sun. It’s comfortable. Laying on a rock, on the other hand, is hard and sometimes uncomfortable. When we reach down, we can pick up a handful of warm sand, but then it slips right through our fingertips – just like all of the illusory promises the world offers. But when we reach down and find rock, it is solid, immovable, and impenetrable.
It is certainly not always comfortable to live as a faithful Christian – the world looks at that and laughs – telling us over and over that we shouldn’t limit ourselves and that we should frolic on the beach with everyone else. But when the floods and winds come trying to drown us out and blow us over, the rock will remain secure, and if we build our live upon the Rock of Christ and His Church then we will remain secure also.
Pray that I and you and all of the kids I spent the weekend with remain firmly set upon the rock and rooted in Christ, and that none of us ever find ourselves stranded in the lava waste.
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