The Giving Tree

Today we did an exercise where we had to draw four pictures. The first was a picture representing your past. The second was a picture representing the happiest memory you have. The third was a picture representing the saddest memory you have. And the fourth was a picture of either what you hope to get out of this DTS or who you hope to be in the future.

I thought of the first and last pictures immediately, but the other two took some thinking.

For the first picture, I drew myself standing on a podium holding a first place trophy. That represents my past because I've done a lot of good things in my life, and for a long time, it was a huge sense of pride for me to have done those things. Now I try to be more humble about things, but sometimes I'm probably too humble. For example, God will tell me something, and I won't share it. "Don't be prideful Mike, what God told you isn't that amazing. You don't have to share it with the group." I've been trying to fight that, but it's a process.

The second picture I drew a couple of people sitting at a table playing a board game. I knew most people would talk about Jesus as their happiest moment, so I picked a different moment that wasn't Jesus related. I felt a bit weird to be the only one that didn't say something about Jesus in my happiest moment picture, but they already know I love Jesus. They didn't know I love board games, so I drew that.

The memory I was thinking of was the last time (and every time) we played telephone pictionary as a family. We were all laughing so hard that our stomachs hurt. I love laughing that hard.

The saddest moment took me a while to think of. No one has really died or abandoned me or anything tragic like that (thankfully!). The moment that came to mind is back when I was in high school, and John was in the hospital after smashing his head on a rock in a mountain bike crash. I was at school eating my lunch and I didn't really know how John was doing. He had been in the hospital for a few days at that point.

I have this vivid memory of the school announcing my name on the speaker system and asking me to come to the office. I just knew in the pit of my stomach that I was about to get some very bad news. That was the longest walk to the office ever. I forget what the news was, but it wasn't good news.

Thankfully John recovered, but when they announced my name on the speaker system, that was a very sad moment in my life as I imagined the worst had happened.

Then the fourth picture I drew a picture of a stump. That's who I hope to be in the future...metaphorically. Have you guys read The Giving Tree? It's a story about a boy and a tree. When the boy is young, the tree gives its shade. When the boy is older the tree gives its apples. When the boy is a man, the tree gives its branches so that he can build a house. Finally when the man is an old man, the tree is only a stump, but he can still offer him a place to sit.

That's who I want to be. By the end of my life I don't want to have anything left that I could have given away to God or other people.

(Side note: After sharing this, one of my friends asked me to find him a copy of The Giving Tree. I went online and printed him out one, but as I was reading the actual story I discovered that the boy is kind of a jerk to the tree. That made me a little sad for the tree.)