Tumbleweeds

A few weeks ago, on my way to Colorado for a mission trip, I was driving (riding, the rental company wouldn't let me drive) through either Texas, the Panhandle of Oklahoma, or the south east corner of Colorado. I don't really know which one because I was barely coherent at the time. That said, I WAS, however, coherent enough to see the tumbleweed blow across the road in front of our van, and then to start questioning the meaning of life as a result.

You're probably thinking I'm going to start writing about Ecclesiastes "Meaningless, Meaningless..." or quote the Kansas song "Dust in the Wind," but I'm not. Truth is, the question that came to my mind when I saw the tumbleweed was this "What is the purpose of a tumbleweed?"

You might be thinking, "THAT is a REALLY dumb question. EVERYONE knows tumbleweeds main goal in life is to blow around, get jammed in someone's axle and cause hundreds of dollars in repairs!" Give me a break, it was the middle of the night, and I had been in a van for at LEAST 8 hours, with little to no sleep the night before, not to mention, it turned out to be a very fruitful question.

During about the same time, I was wracking my brain, trying to find something to speak about at the devo we had planned for that night. I was pretty stressed about it too as the plan for the next day was to arrive in Windsor, have a quick breakfast, change into work clothes, work ALL DAY, shower, then go to the church building for the devo. AKA, I wasn't going to be able to sit down and plan out a long 3 point talk for that night. No worries though, way long ago when God created tumbleweeds, he must have know I was going to be thinking that right when the tumbleweed blew across the road in front of me. 

That's enough back story, I think. 

So here it is. The purpose of a tumbleweed. The moment you've all been waiting for. The BIG mystery FINALLY unveiled. This sentence is purely here to stall and frustrate you just a little longer.

THE PURPOSE OF A TUMBLEWEED IS TO DIE.

Yep. Contrary to what human logic dictates, the entire existence of the tumbleweed is looking forward to it's death. That's not really the whole story though, because for a tumbleweed, to die is the only way other tumbleweeds can live. (I bet you're starting to see where I'm going with this now)

Tumbleweeds are FILLED with tiny seeds, that can only be released when the plant is dead. Even further though, the design and structure of a tumbleweed's branches are, I guess, optimized for maximum wind resistance and to be able to roll. Thats cool to me because it speaks volumes to the fact that a tumbleweed is NOT supposed to be rooted and alive, that is CONTRARY to it's purpose, nature, and design. Here is a quote from the Wikipedia (I know... bad researching...) entry about tumbleweeds.

"The tumbleweed is a diaspore, aiding in dispersal of propagules (seeds or spores). It does this by scattering the propagules either as it tumbles, or after it has come to rest in a wet location. In the latter case, the tumbleweed opens mechanically as it absorbs water; apart from its propagules, the tumbleweed is dead."

The part I bolded really stands out in my mind, and JUST based on that, there are A MILLION directions I could go with this. But the parallel that most interests me right now, is how a tumbleweed must separate from it's root cluster, and DIE in order to spread it's seeds. 

Thats pretty cool to me. Not ONLY does the tumbleweed have to ACTUALLY leave it's roots, but it also has to die. Hopefully by now you understand that tumbleweeds DIE.

Tumbleweeds perfectly embody the sacrifice Christ made for ALL of us, and in turn, the sacrifice He calls ALL of us to make.

He died on the cross to give us ALL eternal life, just like tumbleweed dies to create more life. Tumbleweeds, don't die, roll around, and spread cactus seeds. The intention of the life provided by the death of the one tumbleweed was NEVER to create comfortable easy stationary lives for a bunch of other tumbleweeds. The purpose of the original tumbleweed's death is that the life will NEVER stop spreading. In the same way, Christ NEVER intended for our lives to be comfortable and stationary. He intended to give us life that we might GO and give life to all we encounter. Create REAL life everywhere we go, just like the tumbleweed creates life by dropping it's seeds everywhere it goes.

"And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again." -2 Corinthians 5:15

To an uneducated mind a tumbleweed is just death, symbolizes emptiness, lack of water, lack of life... The tumbleweeds role in movies is ALWAYS to symbolize desertion, emptiness and shriveled up dehydrated DEATH. 

But there is SO much more to the tumbleweed.

The life Christ calls us to live, like tumbleweeds, will seem foolish and empty from an earthly perspective, but if we choose to die to ourselves, we gain the life that Christ promised, which is better by far.

"For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel's will save it." -Mark 8:35

"I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me." -Galatians 2:20

The ONLY way we can truly LIVE is if we DIE to ourselves and live in Christ. Plain and simple. You can't live for yourself AND for God at the same time, it's not possible. A tumbleweed can't stay put forever and still create life and fulfill it's purpose. God's purpose for us is to glorify him by putting ourselves last. Dying to give life.  "For we are GOD's workmanship, CREATED in Christ Jesus to DO  good works, which GOD prepared in advance for us to do." -Ephesians 2:10

So, like EVERYTHING else on that trip, when I was stressing about what I was going to do for the talk I had committed to give, God put the answer right in front of me, made my paths straight if you will.

DO stuff.