Swaying tree and a small seat

My younger brother Corey and I both enjoy hunting. We share many tools and things back and forth. One is a tree stand. It's technically mine I think (he'll probably argue) but Corey has used it and set it up and down a lot more lately, so it's referred to as "Corey's stand". I had been sitting in a nice two person ladder stand. However with no luck, I decided to change my venue and go sit in Corey's stand.

As I walked into the woods under the dark of night, I finally found it tucked back off the trail up in the trees. It's a simple one-person tree stand. I started climbing the stakes and up up I went.

After about twenty five or thirty feet I started feeling a little nervous. I'm not scared of heights, but my coordination and strength isn't 100%, so I was not 100% confident in myself. As I got to the top, it was an awkward transition from climbing stakes to tree stand seat, but I made it.

To call it a seat is a big stretch though. It's metal wire mesh about the size of a dinner plate. I settled in, took a deep breath and started waiting for daylight. Then the wind started. Oh did it blow. I was strapped on a metal dinner plate to a 20 inch tree thirty feet in the air. As it gusted my "foundation" moved with the tree.

As humans we don't like to have our foundations move. When the ground moves it's a big deal. Things that are stable like trees should not move. As the wind howled, we were rocking. It was so disconcerting and unsettling. I physically felt the effects of the nervousness. Remember I'm not afraid of heights. However I am afraid of being blown out of tree stands.

When I was diagnosed I tell people I feel like my life went into auto-pilot for a few weeks. I didn't really think a whole lot, I reacted based on the foundation I had spent my entire life building and being built into by those around me. This foundation was built on the truth and hope of Jesus Christ. When our world is rocked we react. Reactions are based on the habits and disciplines you've created and made into second nature.

If you're foundation is built on something that blows in the wind, it will be viscerally unsettling when you encounter a wind storm and your whole world starts shaking. You don't know when the wind will blow, or what direction it will blow from. However, you can build that foundation on something firm and stable so when the wind blows you are on solid ground.

This isn't my concept. Jesus gave the parable of building your house on a firm foundation in Luke 6:47-49.

"Every person that comes to me and listens to my teachings and obeys--I will show you what he is like: He is like a man building a house. He digs deep and builds his house on rock. The floods come, and the water tries to wash the house away. But the flood cannot move the house, because the house was built well (strong). But the person that hears my words and does not obey is like a man that does not build his house on rock. When the floods come, the house falls down easily. And the house is completely destroyed."