"Where there is a will..."

Have you ever read about or even studied the effects of toxins? There are many different kinds of toxins of course. Some have far worse effects than others. Before I get into one of the worst that any human being could experience, I would like to tell you a short story that demonstrates the effect of the human toxin that I will share with you.

The last few years I have given more attention to the landscape of my yard. I have read about how some flowers are annuals versus perennials. Some flowers require a great deal of sunlight while others do not. Some require a more specific type of soil where others are not as fussy. Some need a lot of water while others could drown or mold with too much water. Suffice it to say that the conditions and environment have a great deal to do with the health and wellbeing of the flowers, short and long term.

As I struggled to find the right flowers for my yard I learned of other issues which were more subtle and even more troubling than what I have described so far. My yard is very shaded because of the woodlands that my yard is a part. In fact, there are many beautiful black walnut trees in my yard and this wooded area which are magnificent in stature, providing very nice shade and of course providing an incredibly large crop of black walnuts. This explains the herd of squirrels that we have infiltrating our yard.

I learned that the reason many of our flowers struggle and die even with my exhausting efforts to bring them to blossom is because of our black walnut trees. Black walnut trees are stingy with their surrounding resources, and they give off a toxin that is very harmful to many plants and flowers. These trees are huge, sturdy, magnificent and also overpowering. I have learned magnificent as they are that they are not healthy for my flowers to be nearby. For my flowers to live healthy I have to remove them from the negative influence of the toxins that those seemingly friendly trees spread.

It seems to me that there is quite a comparison with the woodland environment of my backyard and to our lives in general. We can easily be attracted to environments that seem to offer benefits to us but in the end those environments are very toxic to our lives and our futures.

Take for example, we make a new friend. They have many of the same interests, they are very friendly and welcoming and a relationship develops. Along the way you discover they have a bad habit which they gleefully invite you to participate in. Maybe its talking about everyone else’s business and troubles. Maybe its sharing or abusing substances. Maybe its pornography, or it could be from a long list of other types of bad habits. At first, the relationship is great, but it begins to slide into moral challenges. Subtly, what seemed like an attractive and beneficial relationship turns into dangerous territory.

I give my mother credit for having incredible wisdom. In my formative years she would share with me simple sayings that were easy to remember and cause me to contemplate a better direction to my decisions and actions. One of the sayings was, “Where there is a will there is a way.”  She would put that out in front of me to consider when I had a tough decision to make. The easy way was typically not the right way, and I could make excuses why I should go the easy way. But as she would point out, I was born with the will to make decisions and taking the easy way out was usually the toxic way. Making the decision to part ways with the bad habits or with those who wanted to take me down that direction was not the easy way, but I had the will to make the right decision and move on it. God gave us a free will to choose good decisions and make a real difference.

Taking the easy direction is like placing those plants within the umbrella of the walnut trees to make things look pretty for a little while. But then in the next couple of years, it would be watching them wither and die. For us, not moving away from toxic environments is setting ourselves up to die spiritually and possibly eternally. Making excuses as to why I can’t or won’t change is only that, an excuse. Remember mom’s advice, “where there is a will there is a way.”  We should always consider the best environments to be nurtured and fed in faith with others, who like you and I want to Shine Like the Son. God bless you.