Wild Dogs and Trees

Not long after the Civil War in America, President Grant then designated Yellowstone Park as the national park for the first time in the world. About 150 years ago, the park was designated as a national park because it was considered worth preserving. However, after decades of time have passed, the densely populated aspens here and there have begun to disappear. It was discovered sometime ago that the aspens, the symbol of the American west, were disappearing because the elks were eating up all the new sprouts in the trees.

Everyone understands that to maintain the ecology of nature requires an overall balance. Even though our technologies have advanced leaps and bound, thinking that we know what we are doing, we only discover the solution after the fact. For the last fifteen years or so, the trees started to make a comeback. It is discovered that the solution to the disappearing aspen trees was none other then wild dogs, namely wolves.

Because hunters killed numerous wolves, they reached a point where they had become almost extinct. When a great fire broke out in the mid-1980s at Yellowstone Park, then President Reagan ordered, “Let nature control the fire by itself.” Thus, major areas of the park burned up within weeks. I, myself visited the park immediately after the fire, and I couldn’t find a single tree on the completely empty plain. As time went by, nature began to recover. Riding the wave of recovery, a project was initiated in 1995 to move the almost extinct wild dogs to this park. The entire number of elks the wolf families enjoyed feeding on numbered 6,500. Naturally, it was the mathematical conclusion that no matter how many elks the wolves ate, it wouldn’t affect the entire number. However, upon observation for an extended period of time, even though the number of elks eaten by wolves was small, these elks didn’t come to the aspens because they didn’t want to be killed. Thus, the trees survived, and with the passage of time people can now find aspens thriving in the park.

Nowadays the next generation is decreasing considerably not only in the Korean churches in the States, but also in the churches in Korea. Whether the reason is Satan or society or culture, statistical data evidently shows us that our second generation is distancing itself from the church. Faced with this new dilemma, many churches and theologians are exchanging a variety of theories and methodologies. I think it’s still too early to expect these organizations, with which I am associated with, would be able to come up with a sure solution. When I look at the footsteps the Korean churches in the States have taken, I can see the reality that only a handful of churches have made an intentional commitment to and investment in the second generation. Thus, the reality is that no one can be sure whether there is an actual solution.

The results of moving a small number of wild dogs to the park in order to return the nature to its original state followed with the thinking that wolves didn’t considerably decrease the number of elks by devouring them, but rather with the existence of the wolves the elks that used to eat the sprouts in the aspens couldn’t eat from the trees, and thus the park would become dense with trees. Likewise, I don’t think the solution is a huge program, or this or that methodology, that the churches are trying to adopt. The number of people who are directly helped might be small when churches give a drink to those who are thirsty, feed the hungry, clothe those without clothes, and visit those who are in the hospital or prison, with a heart to go back to the original state as instructed by Jesus. However, wouldn’t the word get out that churches are truly attending to the needs of the orphans, widows, and the elderly? Then, I imagine that as a result of it our second generation will begin to grow and fill the empty pews of our churches.

This could be a ministry that directly helps second generation, or people with needs, a ministry to help with the funerals when elderly people pass away, or a ministry to take care of children. Whatever the ministry, if it is something churches can do and if people around can set their feet in the church through these ministries, very effective results that we can’t even imagine can come out through these seemingly insignificant ministries in God’s way.

It seems like there isn’t any relationship between wild dogs and vast forests, but seen comprehensively, there is not only a very close relationship between the two but also a mutual help of each other. In the same way, even though churches might think they are wasting their time or resources when they do funerals, weddings, a ministry for the homeless, Indian ministry, or a ministry to give scholarships, it’s possible that those who benefited from these ministries directly, and those around them, might want to attend the church after a while.