dec 13 Friday focus

The end of 2018 witnessed the largest fire in the history of the state of California. Hundreds were missing and scores died as a result of the so-called Camp Fire. 

Millions, if not billions, of dollars in property were lost, and the landscape of what had been considered by many to be one of the most desirable places in the nation to live has been altered for generations to come.

 In general when we look at something like this, we consider it to be a tragedy by all accounts. Everywhere we look is loss and destruction. But while the destruction certainly is heart-breaking, there’s also life and hope hidden at the heart of it all if we look closely.

 There are some families of trees that produce cones or fruit in which the seeds for new saplings are entirely sealed within a casing of tree resin. This means that the trees can’t reproduce unless they are subjected to extreme conditions—like a fire—that will melt the resin, releasing the seeds into the soil. 

So for those trees, their long-term survival depends on occasional fires to sweep through and free their full potential to propagate. Sometimes prophets like Isaiah and Jeremiah have messages that are hard for people to hear. 

Even Paul and Jesus hit people between the eyes sometimes with their prophetic teaching. They call for a cutting back or a clearing out of the old ways and values we have gotten used to clinging to. Letting go of those things can feel like a small death, if not at least an unbearable loss. 

But it can take a hard truth to help us release our grip on old ways that have kept us in death-spirals so that we can embrace something new that allows for an entirely different kind of living we couldn’t even see from our old perspective. 

Like the gospel according to the Rolling Stones says, you can’t always get what you want, but if you try, sometimes you might find you get what you need.