Strong At The Broken Places
There is a place in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, where people stop by the hundreds to watch her.
She has stood there, elegant and quiet, for 80 years.
She had never been famous or even been acknowledged for her presence.
No one knew her name.
She had never celebrated her birthday.
She had never been photographed.
A simple elm tree.
The infamous Timothy McVeigh parked his death-laden truck a short distance from her.
His demonic-driven spirit drove him to bomb the Alfred P.
Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, on April 19, 1995, killing 168 innocent people and wounding 850 more.
The rubble of destruction buried this 80-year-old innocent bystander.
No one knew about her for a long time.
As people grieved the loss of their loved ones and looked at the surrounding area asking God the tough questions of life, no one, absolutely no one, knew of the miracle that was emerging under the rubble.
An 80-year-old broken tree, stripped of its branches and covered by rubble, kept its roots firmly in the ground, surviving the tragedy! She suddenly began to bud, grow and get stronger.
Sprouts pressed through damaged bark; green leaves pushed away gray soot.
Life was emerging in the midst of tragedy and evil.
The workers cleaning up the mess from the bombing were the first to notice her.
The broken tree began to model the resilience of the victims of this horrible crime, inspiring the city's name for her: "The Survivor Tree.
" Visited by men and women from across America and around the world, she is now on the cover of post cards and letterheads.
Trees around her grew larger, fuller and even greener.
But today, no one is as cherished as she, a memorial of something much greater than that infamous bombing.
The Timothy McVeigh's still rock our private worlds every single day!!! They bomb our dreams.
They hurt us.
They humiliate us.
They scar us.
They wound us beyond reason.
They damage our reputation without a second thought.
They give us nothing but grief.
They strategize our destruction.
They hate us.
They bring us intense pain and no pleasure.
The Timothy McVeigh's are usually suffering incredible hurt themselves, but somehow their hurt turns into deep resentment and then grows into anger, malice, vengeance, and a need to destroy at any cost.
Unresolved resentfulness always turns into anger and eventually into blame and a need to bomb someone.
"The Survivor Tree" is a symbol of what can happen to us if we are broken by a personal and we end up covered by the rubble of an unpredictable catastrophe; be it a painful marriage, a divorce, a personal attack, an intolerable work condition, a financial collapse, a child on drugs, memories of childhood abuse, betrayal, a physical impairment or the loss of the product of our whole life's investment.
How do we offer grace and forgiveness to those who cause us grief and hurt us? Some people seem to have a predisposition to forgiveness.
They actually secrete forgiveness, never harboring grudges or reciting their hurts.
But most of us, including me, find it hard to forgive our McVeigh's! We are willing to forgive the one-time offenders.
We let go of resentment for the guy that pulls into the parking spot we had been waiting for.
We forgive the lady that cuts into line at the grocery store.
We forgive the date-breakers.
We forgive "accidents" in our relationships.
We even forgive the wallet snatcher.
We forgive easily the misdemeanors of life, but the felonies? How do we forgive the McVeigh's that have been harboring our destruction for years? Here is what happens when we are not able to forgive.
"Resentment kills a fool, and envy slays the simple.
" (The Bible, Job 5) Resentment and vengeance fix our attention on the past and destruction.
Score settling always hurts the offender more than the victim.
That's a principle of life.
Conversely, forgiveness is not foolishness.
Sometimes to forgive simply means "to move on.
" You don't excuse the person who hurt you, you don't endorse him and you don't embrace him.
There are bad people in this world.
There are McVeigh's in this world.
There always will be.
There are those in both your personal and professional relationships who, no matter how hard you try to work and communicate with them in an atmosphere of teamwork, will always be on the defensive and ready to attack.
We need to acknowledge that.
But, to allow them to trap us in the rubble of emotions and confusion that end up killing our life purpose is even a worst tragedy! Instead, we forgive.
We move on.
We see our enemy as God's child and release that person to Him.
We understand that revenge, punishment and vindication are God's job.
We keep giving grace and offering forgiveness because we have been given grace and forgiveness.
We survive the McVeigh's because we are like "The Survivor Tree.
"We keep our roots growing deep into the soil of God's love and grace and receive nurture every day!We tap into water, living water.
Moisture and nutrients are under the bomb zone, deeper than the explosions of life.
No one sees that! When we don't get what we want, we don't go around bombing people, destroying a marriage or someone's reputation; we just go deeper into the ground.
When we get attacked, we just grow deeper into the heart of God.
We keep going deeper and deeper into the ground of God's grace until His peace takes over.
We survive the bombing and then we bloom! Don't let anyone ever tell you, "You deserve the bombing.
" That is "B.
S.
" of the greatest magnitude! That's the enemy of God, attempting to uproot you and make you believe you are a part of the rubble.
Even when the bombing may be partially the result of your own doing, you can still survive by growing your roots deep into the ground.
I have heard words like these many times.
"Too little.
" "Not good enough.
" "Too much.
" I have dealt with the McVeigh's and so have you! Don't allow them to make you believe it's over for you! I met a man who showed me the physical scars of a 38-year encounter with his McVeigh.
Literally!I watched the tears streaming down his cheeks, heart-broken by the memories of all those years.
Rubble all around.
Years of bombing.
He was a prosperous businessman, but the pain of his life was unbearable! Somehow, in the midst of the conversation, I saw some dusty branches and detected life.
I dug into the rubble of his heart and found tiny little roots growing down into the soil.
"There is hope," I said to myself.
"There is hope.
"Many times during our conversation he said to me, "Look, Harold, there is nothing left of myself inside of me.
" His fingers pointed to his wounded heart.
He didn't know that I had already found the roots.
I let him talk.
You would never know what this man had endured by looking at the family pictures around his office.
Then I explained to him that the bombing had made him a better person and everyone around him knew it.
He looked at me like saying, "You are kidding me, right?" I said to him, "Look, suppose I gather 200 people you know into one room.
They are from all the clubs you belong to, all the committees you have been chairman of, all the business acquaintances you have related to through the years; all your kids and grandkids, your kids' husbands and wives, all your relatives; all your sport buddies.
They all know YOU and your McVEIGH.
They don't know the reason for the invitation.
As they arrive, I hand them a blank piece of paper and ask them to write down (by secret ballot) who has influenced their life the most, YOU or your MCVEIGH.
What name do you think 180 people in that room would write down?" He knew it!!! His eyes lit up! A tiny smile turned up the corners of his mouth, his eyes displaying a glimmer of hope.
Then, silence.
He simply looked at me with teary eyes.
He had survived the bombing and his self had bloomed in the midst of all those years of pain.
He saw it! I said to him, "Every single time you got attacked and humiliated, you got better.
And everyone you know, starting with your kids, knows it!" Two hours later as I wispered a prayer with him, he was willing to accept his new image.
He saw himself as a "Surviving Tree," and he was ready to let go of the McVeigh in his life.
That's life! You either let the McVeigh's destroy you with their toxicity, anger and unresolved, deep spiritual mess, or you choose to stay rooted and keep growing up, pointing to the sky.
You either stay under the rubble of confusion, or you let the "life" of God nurture you from within as you face the bombings of life.
It's your choice! "We are all broken and wounded in this world.
Some choose to grow strong at the broken places.
"(http://thinkexist.
com/quotation/we-are-all-broken-and-wounded-in-this-world-some/1463798.
html) Grow strong at your broken place.
Stay rooted in the soil of God's grace, and finally break through the rubble to bless the world around you!
She has stood there, elegant and quiet, for 80 years.
She had never been famous or even been acknowledged for her presence.
No one knew her name.
She had never celebrated her birthday.
She had never been photographed.
A simple elm tree.
The infamous Timothy McVeigh parked his death-laden truck a short distance from her.
His demonic-driven spirit drove him to bomb the Alfred P.
Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, on April 19, 1995, killing 168 innocent people and wounding 850 more.
The rubble of destruction buried this 80-year-old innocent bystander.
No one knew about her for a long time.
As people grieved the loss of their loved ones and looked at the surrounding area asking God the tough questions of life, no one, absolutely no one, knew of the miracle that was emerging under the rubble.
An 80-year-old broken tree, stripped of its branches and covered by rubble, kept its roots firmly in the ground, surviving the tragedy! She suddenly began to bud, grow and get stronger.
Sprouts pressed through damaged bark; green leaves pushed away gray soot.
Life was emerging in the midst of tragedy and evil.
The workers cleaning up the mess from the bombing were the first to notice her.
The broken tree began to model the resilience of the victims of this horrible crime, inspiring the city's name for her: "The Survivor Tree.
" Visited by men and women from across America and around the world, she is now on the cover of post cards and letterheads.
Trees around her grew larger, fuller and even greener.
But today, no one is as cherished as she, a memorial of something much greater than that infamous bombing.
The Timothy McVeigh's still rock our private worlds every single day!!! They bomb our dreams.
They hurt us.
They humiliate us.
They scar us.
They wound us beyond reason.
They damage our reputation without a second thought.
They give us nothing but grief.
They strategize our destruction.
They hate us.
They bring us intense pain and no pleasure.
The Timothy McVeigh's are usually suffering incredible hurt themselves, but somehow their hurt turns into deep resentment and then grows into anger, malice, vengeance, and a need to destroy at any cost.
Unresolved resentfulness always turns into anger and eventually into blame and a need to bomb someone.
"The Survivor Tree" is a symbol of what can happen to us if we are broken by a personal and we end up covered by the rubble of an unpredictable catastrophe; be it a painful marriage, a divorce, a personal attack, an intolerable work condition, a financial collapse, a child on drugs, memories of childhood abuse, betrayal, a physical impairment or the loss of the product of our whole life's investment.
How do we offer grace and forgiveness to those who cause us grief and hurt us? Some people seem to have a predisposition to forgiveness.
They actually secrete forgiveness, never harboring grudges or reciting their hurts.
But most of us, including me, find it hard to forgive our McVeigh's! We are willing to forgive the one-time offenders.
We let go of resentment for the guy that pulls into the parking spot we had been waiting for.
We forgive the lady that cuts into line at the grocery store.
We forgive the date-breakers.
We forgive "accidents" in our relationships.
We even forgive the wallet snatcher.
We forgive easily the misdemeanors of life, but the felonies? How do we forgive the McVeigh's that have been harboring our destruction for years? Here is what happens when we are not able to forgive.
"Resentment kills a fool, and envy slays the simple.
" (The Bible, Job 5) Resentment and vengeance fix our attention on the past and destruction.
Score settling always hurts the offender more than the victim.
That's a principle of life.
Conversely, forgiveness is not foolishness.
Sometimes to forgive simply means "to move on.
" You don't excuse the person who hurt you, you don't endorse him and you don't embrace him.
There are bad people in this world.
There are McVeigh's in this world.
There always will be.
There are those in both your personal and professional relationships who, no matter how hard you try to work and communicate with them in an atmosphere of teamwork, will always be on the defensive and ready to attack.
We need to acknowledge that.
But, to allow them to trap us in the rubble of emotions and confusion that end up killing our life purpose is even a worst tragedy! Instead, we forgive.
We move on.
We see our enemy as God's child and release that person to Him.
We understand that revenge, punishment and vindication are God's job.
We keep giving grace and offering forgiveness because we have been given grace and forgiveness.
We survive the McVeigh's because we are like "The Survivor Tree.
"We keep our roots growing deep into the soil of God's love and grace and receive nurture every day!We tap into water, living water.
Moisture and nutrients are under the bomb zone, deeper than the explosions of life.
No one sees that! When we don't get what we want, we don't go around bombing people, destroying a marriage or someone's reputation; we just go deeper into the ground.
When we get attacked, we just grow deeper into the heart of God.
We keep going deeper and deeper into the ground of God's grace until His peace takes over.
We survive the bombing and then we bloom! Don't let anyone ever tell you, "You deserve the bombing.
" That is "B.
S.
" of the greatest magnitude! That's the enemy of God, attempting to uproot you and make you believe you are a part of the rubble.
Even when the bombing may be partially the result of your own doing, you can still survive by growing your roots deep into the ground.
I have heard words like these many times.
"Too little.
" "Not good enough.
" "Too much.
" I have dealt with the McVeigh's and so have you! Don't allow them to make you believe it's over for you! I met a man who showed me the physical scars of a 38-year encounter with his McVeigh.
Literally!I watched the tears streaming down his cheeks, heart-broken by the memories of all those years.
Rubble all around.
Years of bombing.
He was a prosperous businessman, but the pain of his life was unbearable! Somehow, in the midst of the conversation, I saw some dusty branches and detected life.
I dug into the rubble of his heart and found tiny little roots growing down into the soil.
"There is hope," I said to myself.
"There is hope.
"Many times during our conversation he said to me, "Look, Harold, there is nothing left of myself inside of me.
" His fingers pointed to his wounded heart.
He didn't know that I had already found the roots.
I let him talk.
You would never know what this man had endured by looking at the family pictures around his office.
Then I explained to him that the bombing had made him a better person and everyone around him knew it.
He looked at me like saying, "You are kidding me, right?" I said to him, "Look, suppose I gather 200 people you know into one room.
They are from all the clubs you belong to, all the committees you have been chairman of, all the business acquaintances you have related to through the years; all your kids and grandkids, your kids' husbands and wives, all your relatives; all your sport buddies.
They all know YOU and your McVEIGH.
They don't know the reason for the invitation.
As they arrive, I hand them a blank piece of paper and ask them to write down (by secret ballot) who has influenced their life the most, YOU or your MCVEIGH.
What name do you think 180 people in that room would write down?" He knew it!!! His eyes lit up! A tiny smile turned up the corners of his mouth, his eyes displaying a glimmer of hope.
Then, silence.
He simply looked at me with teary eyes.
He had survived the bombing and his self had bloomed in the midst of all those years of pain.
He saw it! I said to him, "Every single time you got attacked and humiliated, you got better.
And everyone you know, starting with your kids, knows it!" Two hours later as I wispered a prayer with him, he was willing to accept his new image.
He saw himself as a "Surviving Tree," and he was ready to let go of the McVeigh in his life.
That's life! You either let the McVeigh's destroy you with their toxicity, anger and unresolved, deep spiritual mess, or you choose to stay rooted and keep growing up, pointing to the sky.
You either stay under the rubble of confusion, or you let the "life" of God nurture you from within as you face the bombings of life.
It's your choice! "We are all broken and wounded in this world.
Some choose to grow strong at the broken places.
"(http://thinkexist.
com/quotation/we-are-all-broken-and-wounded-in-this-world-some/1463798.
html) Grow strong at your broken place.
Stay rooted in the soil of God's grace, and finally break through the rubble to bless the world around you!