Episode #65 - What Is Holding You Up?

My wife visited a tree in South Carolina.  That's right, a tree. But it's not just any tree, it's the Angel Oak Tree that covers 17,000 square feet with it's branches. It is absolutely enormous! How do the branches, that extend up to almost 190 feet long, keep from breaking? Well, it has incredibly deep roots for starters. But secondly, each branch has been tethered to another. It literally holds itself up. Well...what is holding you up? Scripture teaches us that it can only be one thing: when we are rooted and bound to one another in love. 

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Transcript

Welcome back to all of our listeners! I’m BJ Sipe, and you’re listening to the Set Your Mind Above podcast – where everyday ordinary events teach us extraordinary eternal truths. I’m so glad that you’ve tuned in today, I am excited to share my life and my faith with you, and I sure hope that you’ll do the same with me along the way. 

Well, my time as Mr. Mom has finally come to an end. Last night at 11 pm my wife finally arrived home safely from her trip, and we were so exited to see her. The kids were already in bed, but they together worked hard on making a ‘Welcome Home Mommy’ sing for her to see as she walked through the door along with some flowers they picked out earlier yesterday. Kylie got in and settled and proceeded to tell me all about her trip. As she filled me in on all the details, she stopped and said, “Oh! I have a podcast for you btw. I have to tell you about Angel Oak Tree.” I was intrigued, and she proceeded to tell me about this incredible tree that is a tourist attraction there just outside of Charleston on Johns Island. Now, you might be thinking to yourself, “What’s so incredible about a tree? A tree is a tree.” All I can say is you just need to search Angel Oak Tree on YouTube or Google to understand. Let me try to paint a picture for you. For starters, this tree is centuries old. Conservative estimates date the tree anywhere from 400-500 years old, while some speculate it could even be as old as 1500 years. Now that is a very, very old tree to still be standing. But it’s age is not it’s most amazing feature, it is it’s size. The tree shades over 17,000 square feet! While the base of the tree stands at 66 ½ feet tall and 28 ft in circumference, the length of it’s branches is unprecedented. The length of it’s branches stretch well over 100 feet, the longest of which extends 187 feet away from the base of the tree! Some of the branches weave in and out of the ground, almost like roots while others are free standing. But as you consider that, how can a branch that is well over 100 feet be free standing? Understanding the basic laws of physics, certainly over time with weather and gravity the weight of those branches would collapse and break away. Naturally a tree this large has an enormous root system you don’t see underground, so that is a huge part of it. But here comes the coolest part about what they have done to preserve the tree. Kylie noticed that there were large cables attached at different spots on each of the branches, so she started looking to see what they were tethered to. There was no structure above the tree or around the tree they were connected to, instead each branch was connected to another branch in different parts. What was holding the tree up incredibly was itself. Combined with deep, well established roots and the tether of each branch to another, centuries latter it still stands for onlookers to behold. Kylie and I are planning a trip over to that part of the country at some point maybe in the next year or two ourselves, and if we make it that way it will for sure be on my list of places I want to see for myself. 

Needless to say, there are some powerful spiritual lessons for us to learn form the Angel Oak Tree. I think the first question we need to ask ourselves is this: what is holding you up? It’s tempting to oversimplify this and say, “each other, just like the branches” – but there is more too it than that. Sometimes we are actually the ones who bite and devour one another, and it is what destroys churches. So what is the difference maker? Well, scripture teaches us about this, and reveals to us that what are rooted in and what also binds us to each other is what keeps us alive and strong. And that thing is love. Let’s consider two passages of scripture together. Let’s begin in Ephesians 3:14-21, “For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.” Did you catch that? Paul prayed that these saints would be rooted and grounded in love. It was only through this that they could have the strength to endure and carry on. When he says that they were able to do far more abundantly according to the power at work within them, I believe he is certainly talking about Christ and the Spirit, but by way of extension he is also talking about love. When we are rooted and grounded in love, we will be able to do far more abundantly than anything we could ever imagine. We will not be easily uprooted, but will hold strong because love is stronger than anything else in this life. Even further, when his church is rooted and grounded in love, it will last throughout all generations. Though other institutions fail, the church has stood strong for centuries and will continue to do so because it is grounded firm and deep in the Savior’s love. Secondly, lets us consider Colossians 3:12-14, “Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.” The way that Jesus designed his church is that we do not stand alone, rather we stand together – but that is only possible when each and every single one of us is bound together with each other through love. When we put on love, we hold one another up through every storm, every season, and through every burden. We don’t buckle under the weight and pressures of life or temptation because we are there to bear one another’s burdens through love. A church that has love and whose members are bound together in love will withstand anything as one body. But when a church does not have love, that is when branches start to break and could even destroy others or the whole. What is holding us up? The answer is love. We must be rooted in it, and we must be bound together with it. I need you to help hold me up, and I hope that I can hold you up too through the powerful love of Jesus. 

Thank you so much for listening to today’s episode. Tune in, Tuesday-Fridays, as a new podcast episode will be uploaded each day. Also, be sure to follow the Facebook page for the Set Your Mind Above podcast for future announcements and video sessions. As you have the opportunity, share these thoughts with your friends and family, and share with me what important lessons you are learning from every day, ordinary events. Until next time know that I love you, that God loves you, and may we all each and every day set our minds above.