A few weeks ago when I was having one of my anxious days, my son sent me a picture of a broken-down tree. The caption on it was “keep fighting.” This picture speaks volumes to my heart.

 

 

Since trees can neither think nor make decisions, let’s just pretend for the moment that they do.

 

This broken-down tree could certainly have taken the victim approach to life. After all, something catastrophic happened that altered its future—forever. As a victim, it could bemoan its circumstances, since trees are supposed to stand up—not lie down. It could compare itself to all the normal trees standing tall and straight, and determined that it will never be a beautiful tree. It could consider itself too far gone—fallen too low to fulfill its purpose on the earth. And what about its environment—trees rarely survive in the middle of a body of water. Its chances are not only slim, but near impossible.

 

Choosing to be a victim of one’s circumstances is a hard life. Victims look for someone to blame, and then much of their time and energy is spent lamenting what has been dealt to them. How many have said: I’ll never make it in this set of circumstances? If only things could be different. If only this had not happened. If only things could go back to being the way they were…before. If only….if only….if only….

 

Yet, here it is—a broken-down tree that is a shining testimony of what a tree is created to be—branched out in beautiful foliage, producing oxygen, shade and a resting place for those sparrows God watches over so carefully. And all of that—in spite of its circumstances.

 

Is it not a tree that chose to “keep fighting” and make the most of its brokenness? Is it not living proof that broken things can indeed survive?

 

A few months ago the popular syndicated columnist, political commentator and Pulitzer Prize winner, Charles Krauthammer, passed from this life. In a documentary on Charles’ life, Fox News commentator Bret Baier made a profound statement about him that I won’t soon forget. Now it only becomes profound when you know that Charles suffered a severe spinal cord injury in a diving accident when he was in college. As a result, he spent the remainder of his life in a wheel chair with only limited use of his arms and hands. Yet, Charles finished college and medical school on time, graduating with his class. He changed careers somewhere in midstream and spent many years in Washington DC as a political journalist. He had a wife, one son, and is a best-selling author of “Things That Matters.” He is highly esteemed in the media and political circles around the world.

 

Here is the statement Baier made about him: “Charles Krauthammer lived life as if the accident never happened.” Seriously, I think I gulp every time I read that statement.

 

How did Charles do it? How did he not succumb to being a victim of his circumstances? He kept fighting…against the odds. He was somewhat of a creative genius and he used the resources given him—his intelligence, his wit, and his charm to build a life that mattered.

 

And our thinking tree—what did it do? It kept fighting too…against the odds. It used the circumstances dealt to it and the resources given to also build a life that mattered.

 

I hate the anxiety that I now live with, and I really wish it wasn’t here. I hate it most when it catches me off-guard and causes me to think I’m less than I used to be, that I am a victim of some sort, or that I’ll never be normal again.

 

But like a broken-down tree or a broken-down life, I have a choice. And so do you. Here is the question for us today: Can we live life as if the thing never happened? I’m pretty sure I just gulped again.

 

I’m still not over that picture—that broken-down tree surviving…against the odds. I printed it and keep it where I can see it every day. And I have decided what I’m going to do—I’m gonna keep fighting! I hope you do too. ~ Janie Kellogg

 

For I can do everything through Christ, who gives me strength. Philippians 4:13 (NLT)