A New Day

By: Pastor Johnie Akers   

1 Thessalonians 5:5, “Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day; we are not of the night, nor of darkness.”  I was walking through the woods recently and noticed a small tree that had germinated between two mighty red oaks.  The little tree obviously had no control over where the seed had fallen that gave it birth.  What amazed me was that as dense as the forest canopy was, the little tree had meandered its way upward, twisting and turning, making its way toward a small window of lightoverhead.  The tree’s shape, unsightly and gnarled, was a result of attempting to abandon the darkness and seek for the light.  Its environment had shaped it, but its instinct for the light had driven it upward.  Likewise, we have no choice as to the surroundings into which we are born.  Our pedigree is beyond our control.  I was born John from Appalachia, not Prince John from Windsor Castle.  My father was a coal miner not a monarch.  Yet once we are given life, how we respond to our environment is within our quarter.  We can resign ourselves to our lot and maintain a fatalistic view of “whatever will be, will be.”  Or, in spite of the challenges that encroach upon us, we can be driven upward to the light.  We are all products of how we respond to the adversity we face.  Trees were not designed by the Creator to be viable in darkness—neither are we.  Whether we are victims or victors determines how we respond to the darkness.  We can either use the hovering shadows of our surroundings as a crutch to remain diminutive, or we can use the darkness as a catalyst to propel ourselves to the light.  I choose to follow the light.  In the end, we may be slightly bent, but reaching the light is well worth the effects of the struggle.  It is this response to whatever environment we are placed that will ensure we will thrive and be ensigns of resilience and grace with each new day.