My name is Lindsay.  Lindsay means Linden Tree.  For the longest time, I hated the meaning of my name.  It wasn’t fun.  it wasn’t something neat and regal.  It was a tree.  What’s fun about a tree?  What’s majestic about a tree?

I thought nothing was. 

I was wrong.  Thanks to a friend of mine, I came to realize that my name had a truly prophetic significance.

Metaphorically, I’m a tree.  I’m a place where people can rest and relax.  I’m a good listener.  I have deep roots that are supplied with fresh, living water.  I am strong.  I am part of a network of other trees.  I am planted where I am to stay where I am.  I don’t uproot easily.  I’m not flippant.  I grow gradually and become wiser over time.

Now, before you think I’m getting all environmentalesque on you, let me get spiritual instead.

I am a Christ-follower.  I believe in God.  He is the source of my existence.  He is my everything. 

I am tree-ish because He intended me to be this way.  The traits of the tree that I described above are my character traits.  Now, that I’ve accepted and embraced my treeness, I am more who I am than I’ve ever been.

I’ve spent a good portion of my life denying who God created me to be.  I’ve frustrated His creation.  I’m not going to do that anymore.

I am going to be the tree that He created me to be.

What’s interesting about this, is that I’ll be a founding member in a church multiplication.  This “branch” of churches has a network.  It’s like a forest of churches set up surrounding and within Nashville.  One by one, we keep adding churches, thus strengthening our root system. 

I am a place of rest, strength and wisdom within this church network. 

God gave me a vision of myself as a tree.  He planted me within this network of churches.

My metaphorical name grew into a full grown testimony.