Can't have it both ways!

The other day as I was driving back from Dallas, son slept in the back and I was just listening to soft music.  There's not much of a view between Corsicana and Huntsville but I did the best I could.

I was approaching some trees when one caught my eye on the side of the road.  It was a large beautiful tree.  So you might ask "Really?  A tree?"  This one was different.  of course I had all of 10 seconds to look at it but when I really looked at it, it was dead.

Yeah....it was dead on one side and flourishing with a beautiful green color on the other side.  How does that happen?  Is that even possible?  I couldn't believe my eyes but had very little time to confirm this.  So, as I went past it, I did alot of thinking. 

First, it is virtually impossible to have a living tree and a dead tree coming from the same root.  Yet to the passing eye, that's how it appeared.  So many times in our Christian life, we want to do the same thing.  We want to serve God and worship God and keep one foot in the world worried about status and prestige, perhaps even giving up church for an extra shift to impress the boss.  So if you took a picture of our life, it might look like that tree....half green and half brown and we are feeding them both hoping that no one notices.

Second, it is possible that the live tree was flourishing and beautiful and the tree next to it was dead and leaning into it giving the appearance of one tree.  At any rate, in this case the finished picture is one of two halves and we're not giving God or anything else one hundred percent and everyone suffers.

With last year's drought, we lost many trees.  The did not survive without water just like we don't survive without God's word.  These dead trees begin to crack and break and often latch themselves on to the solid green trees.  If we are not careful, we allow that to happen to us as well until soon, we question whether we are dead or alive. 

In our walk with God, we must offer one hundred percent.  Unlike like the illusion of that half and half tree, we can not flourish and be dead at the same time.  We have to give God all of it so that we can grow and be healthy in our walk.  We can't have it both ways.

No one can serve two masters.  Either he will hate the one and love th other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other.  You cannot serve both God and money.  Matthew 6:24