One of my grad school professors was asked early in his career to give a homily for a man that had died in his church. The man was notorious for how cruel and horrible he was. He was dishonest at business, cheated on his wives, unsavory when you ran into him in public, and even had been seen kicking his dog on occasion. All this made the task extremely difficult for my professor, in seeing this an older manager offered to take this one for him. When the homily began the older man began to talk about the apple tree in front of the deceased home, what a beautiful apple tree and how much the man that had passed cared for and pruned this tree. In short I learned a valuable lesson from this story, EVERYONE has an apple tree in their lives.
There are some people that are very easy to right a recommendation for, they shine in all areas of their life and all you have to do is pick a few to share with the world. Others make you wonder, but if you wait, listen and watch you can find their apple tree. This doesn’t mean you have to write the a recommendation, that is a personal choice, but it is good to acknowledge their apple tree. Also for those that are multitalented and easy to write about, search out that one area that they do spend more time on. Find the place where they shine like few others in the world, and then be a megaphone on their behalf!
“Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant my apple tree.”
Martin Luther
Web Theologian 
[…] is a follow up to one of my posts, Recommendations are like the apple tree. The language in it may be salty for some, so you’ve been warned. Just remember there is […]