You Either Are or Your Not

I was sitting in our youth discussion the other night when one of our youth leaders said something that I found really interesting. She said you can’t tape apples to an oak tree and call it an apple tree, its still an oak tree. What a great saying that is and I could not wait to use it in a daily message. The point this is making is that we can’t magically be something else just by pretending. We have to be who we are. An apple tree is an apple tree because that’s what it is. Its roots, its leaves, its fruit all came from an apple seed. It did not start out as an oak in the ground, have oak roots and then turn into an apple tree after the fact, it was always an apple tree. Same is true for us as Christians. We can not act like a Christian; we have to be a Christian. We can go to church, sing the songs, do the things that everyone expects of us, but if you are not rooted in faith and Christian to the core, then you are not really being a Christian. I see too many people like this, myself included at times. We will go through the motions but when push comes to shove we will revert back to our old ways of thinking. Like I said, I can see this in my own life. I would not use this blog as a way to blast folks. I write about stuff I go through and that I live or see around me. I use this as a tool to remind me to stay on the path that God set out for me and be a good person. It is my hope that in the process of sharing my observations that you the reader will get something out of it as well. The end goal is to bear good fruit. The fruit that comes from a life rooted in the word of God and rooted in faith. I know an apple tree because I can see the fruits it produces. I would hope that one day people will be able to know that I am a Christian by the fruit that I bear. Its easy to tell someone that you are a Christian, harder to show it and live up to the calling. If you can’t, all you are doing is taping apples to an oak tree.