3MN: Here is why it is good that you are stressed.
Happy 3-Minute Thursday!
💬 In the next 3 minutes:
- Identify the necessity of stress.
- Which road are you taking? Which road are you not taking?
- The violent image of iron sharpening iron.
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🌲 Minute 1 - How windless trees teach the necessity of stress.
A groundbreaking biosphere was developed a few years ago that simulated the perfect growing conditions for vegetation growth. Scientists now had a controlled 'Earth' to innovate farming in a way that didn't harm our actual planet. This also opened the conversation for how future vegetation would be grown: in futuristic domes.
However, one of the most profound discoveries made in this project was not in the success they had with crops and vines. They noticed large trees in the biosphere were toppling over. Scientists scratched their heads. Why would this happen?
The answer was simple: there was no wind.
Without steady stress, these windless trees stood tall but lacked deep roots. This is a biblical idea: They will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit. (Jer. 17:8).
Who are the they Jeremiah is referring?
"The man who trusts in the Lord."
🚧 Minute 2 - Which road are you not taking?
This idea of a new conversation around stress reminds me of Robert Frost’s poem “The Road Not Taken.”
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that, the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I –
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
⚔️ Minute 3 - The violent image of iron sharpening iron.
This topic got me thinking about Proverb 27:17, As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another. It's a violent image of sparks flinging off of clashing metal that is between conflict, tension, and resistance.
As human beings, we were designed to make one another better, but we too often go through life in a pillow fight, making swings but not really wanting to hurt anyone.
God wants us to love people enough to encourage them to be the best version of themselves, even if that hurts them in the process.
- That's what coaches do.
- That's what leaders do.
- That's what Christians do.
What tension are are avoiding? How could it shape you and those around you if you stop running away from it?
VERSE OF THE WEEK 🔥
A I S I, S O P S A.
As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another. - Proverbs 27:17
Until next week,
Payton Minzenmayer
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