Mighty Oaks
It is easy to assume that all stress is bad. Physical stress, emotional stress, and even financial stress, we tend to view them all as things to be eliminated. When things are going wrong in our lives, we wish they were better, easier, perfect. We assume that a life without stress or problems would produce a perfect life. But nature gives us an analogy that tells us how stress, to a certain degree, can be good if not vital for us. Science has produced ecological studies that illustrate this, and the Bible offers ecological references to support it as well. Specifically, trees.
You may have heard this before, but there was a major project that studied exactly this. In the early 1990s, scientists built Biosphere 2, a massive sealed glass structure in Arizona designed to mimic Earth's ecosystems. Inside the dome, scientists provided what they thought were perfect conditions: filtered light, pure water, and nutrient-rich soil. However, they noticed a strange problem. The trees grew incredibly fast, but they collapsed and fell over before reaching full maturity.
The researchers discovered that the sealed dome completely lacked wind. In a natural environment, wind acts as a vital mechanical stressor, and its absence had two major consequences.
First, when a tree sways in the wind, it is stimulated to produce a specialized, dense material called reaction wood, or stress wood. This wood structurally hardens the trunk and allows it to support the plant's expanding weight. Without wind, the trees grew soft, weak wood that could not support them.
Second, the constant pulling and bending caused by natural wind signals a tree to anchor itself by growing deeper, wider root systems. Without this physical resistance, the biosphere trees developed incredibly weak, shallow roots.
This discovery became a classic ecological lesson: some level of natural environmental stress is not a defect but an absolute requirement for healthy development.
I believe this gives us a powerful visual for understanding stress in our own lives. We often hate our stressors and overlook the character they build in us. Trees require the stress of wind to survive. This is by design to harden their reaction wood and grow deeper root systems. If we list all the character traits we wish to have, we can see that there is almost an equal and opposite reaction required to produce each one.
If someone wants to be brave, they have to face fear. Bravery does not grow by removing the thing that frightens us. We must endure and conquer fear. Fear is the wind, and bravery is the deeper roots and hardened wood. The same is true for patience, you have to want to act but choose not to. Strength, in any context, means you have to have something heavy to handle and lift, literally or metaphorically. To become intelligent you have to learn things you know nothing about, likely feeling unintelligent in the process.
Creating an environment without wind was harmful for the trees. I believe living a life without any stressors or problems can be equally detrimental for humans. Think about the wealthy, sheltered kid who gets everything he wants and whose parents remove every obstacle in his path. What kind of character would that produce?
However, the experiment also showed that the trees were given good soil, light, and water. Wind alone does not grow the tree. The soil it grows in, the water it receives, and the sunlight it gets all matter just as much.
The analogy continues. We are meant to handle stress when we have the necessities we need in place. Wind can uproot trees in poor soil. It can break trees that are too dry from drought. So we have to manage what we can control, the soil, the water, the sunlight while handling the stressors we cannot, like the wind.
The soil and water might look like a savings account when financial stress hits. It could be taking care of your health before sickness arrives, building good communication habits with your spouse before marital problems surface, or leaning into your faith in the ordinary seasons before the hard ones come.
The significance is this: we will deal with wind. The key is shifting our perspective on it. Instead of "woe is me," we can choose "grow with me." We can use stressors to harden and strengthen us, to grow our roots deeper so we can weather the next storm even better.
A Biblical Perspective
The Bible uses seed, soil, planting, and nature analogies frequently. But I want to offer one more on this topic. I think we often treat our faith like a light switch, I have it or I don't, on or off, working or not working. But think of faith more like the seed of an oak tree. Or an acorn, I suppose. Bear with me for a moment.
Choosing to put our faith in Jesus and follow him is like starting with that acorn. Our soil is the condition of our heart (what the Christian world often calls the posture of your heart.) Jesus gives us an entire parable on this, found in Matthew 13, Mark 4, and Luke 8. A farmer scatters seeds that land on four distinct types of soil.
The path: the seed is snatched up by birds, representing those who hear the word but do not understand it, allowing the enemy to take it away.
Rocky ground: the seed springs up quickly but withers because it has no deep roots, representing those who receive the word with joy but fall away as soon as trouble comes.
Among thorns: the seed grows but is choked out by weeds, representing those who hear the message but are overtaken by worldly concerns and the deceitfulness of wealth.
Good soil: the seed takes root and produces a massive crop, representing those who hear the word, understand it, and produce a fruitful life.
So given good soil, an open and receptive heart, what is the water?
In this analogy, water represents the controllable things we can do every day. Reading the Word, choosing to love, praying, going to church, and fellowshipping with others is like watering the acorn daily. Our actions matter when it comes to our faith. We play an active role in its growth. The Bible affirms this in 2 Thessalonians 1:3: "We ought always to thank God for you, brothers and sisters, and rightly so, because your faith is growing more and more, and the love all of you have for one another is increasing."
The sunlight is God's faithfulness. Regardless of our soil or our watering, he shows up day after day, offering the gift and power of life guaranteed to all who are willing to receive it. He will do what he has always done since the beginning of time. James 4:8 comes to mind: "Draw near to God and he will draw near to you." God is not trying to make himself hard to find. As consistent as the sunrise is, he is just as faithful to give his light to those who seek it.
The wind is the stress of a broken world. I think many people hear how life-changing Jesus is ,which he is, but somehow assume that means an external, circumstantial change. Like Jesus simply removes the bad things. That is not really the case. God can use miracles to change external circumstances, but when we are talking about faith as a whole, it becomes a different conversation.
God does not promise to remove trials, stress, and suffering. In many cases, Scripture actually says the opposite. But it does give them purpose the same way wind has purpose in the life of a tree. James 1:2-3 states: "Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything."
Just as a tree without wind lacks reaction wood and deep roots, a life without trials cannot produce perseverance, maturity, and completeness. The tree may not be grateful for the wind in the moment, but it is grateful for the deep roots and hardened wood that result.
We are guaranteed to face trials. Our faith is what gets us through them. It is also what gets tested by them. So the stronger the faith, the more it can withstand. Good soil, consistent watering, daily sunlight, and wind all work together to strengthen us.
Rely on your faith in all that you do…. in the small daily things, like choosing to trust Jesus and trying to live as he did. The wind may come as a gentle breeze at first: working a job you chose, marrying your spouse, buying a house. You rely on God through it all and your roots go a little deeper. Then the wind picks up. A new baby, tough marriage compromises, a job that grows difficult. You choose to trust Jesus again, and your roots go deeper still. Then the storm arrives. A lost job, serious marital issues, financial crisis, a global pandemic. And you are still standing, roots deeper than before, growing stronger. And then the tornadoes… the devastating losses, the grief that does not make sense. But your faith is now deeply rooted. You can withstand what once would have uprooted you.
One person who comes to mind when I write about this is my grandmother. She was a remarkably strong woman who endured some very hard storms. She lost one of her sons. She lost her husband. She faced major health issues. And yet she was always saying God is good, always grateful, until the very end. She had a peace that I genuinely did not understand at the time, but it taught me more than I realized.
She had trials. Her faith was tested over and over. She persevered. And though she was human and struggled like all of us, she was mature and complete because of her faith in Jesus.
This was a difficult newsletter to write. This is an area I am actively working on, because I often become anxious in trials rather than joyful. I fixate on the wind instead of my roots. I treat the wind like a burden or a punishment and overlook how my faith grew each time I came through it. I feel like I have the shortest faith attention span ever, like a tree terrified that the sun went down, regardless of how many sunrises it has already seen.
So I write this in conviction as much as encouragement. Here is to the trials that strengthen us and deepen our roots.
Until next time, Cam