Been thinking about storms lately.
In October of 2019 a storm came through west and middle Tennessee with a wind like we had never seen before. Many trees were blown over and it took more than a week to get all the power lines reconnected.
Why were those trees blown over? Because they couldn't stand against the wind. Why were they there to BE blown over? Because they hadn't experienced a wind like that before. They could grow like they were growing precisely because wind like that doesn't usually blow through this area.
Some places get wind like that all the time. They don't have a lot of trees blowing over when the wind blows, because any trees like that would have been blown over long ago. The only trees they have are trees that can stand despite the wind, because those trees grew up in such conditions.
We're seeing a lot of weird stuff lately. Pet salons, people identifying as dogs and cats, people getting offended about anything they can find just because they like the rush of being offended. All that can grow right now because we don't know real adversity. Whole generations have grown up without knowing the hard times our ancestors knew.
If we do see real hard times, a lot of trees are gonna get blown over.
On the other hand, a wind is blowing right now through churches. A lot of people have been growing as ostensible Christians for many years, because it has been easy to be a Christian. But now Christianity is not so popular, and a lot of trees that looked solid are falling.
It's getting a lot easier to see which trees are really strong.