The Weekly Encourager – April 16, 2016 – The Cracked Tree Trunk

Today was a beautiful day in the Nation's Capital, so I decided to get outside and trim a large evergreen bush at the corner of our house. It was reaching way up to the roof, twice my height. As He sometimes does, the Lord used experience outside to teach about spiritual principles inside. Bear with me as I lay the groundwork.

First, this bush was so overgrown that many branches would need to be cut back. To prepare for this kind of yard work, you gather several different cutting tools for different size branches. Put on gloves and take water to drink and kleenex for sneezes. Designate an area well away from the house to pile the chopped off branches.

Then pruning begins. At first the work is easy: you use the smallest clippers to trim back the thinner branches blocking the window or brushing against your face. There are many of these to be cut, but the work is painless. You feel great – you're accomplishing something you've put off for months. Then, as you crawl into the thicket of growth, you see larger branches that require a saw. This particular bush has hard wood, so the work requires more effort. As you cut into the larger ones, the wood starts to crack, making clean cuts impossible. You feel the inside of a branch, and it's bone dry. There's no life left. Some of the branches can be snapped off with your bare hand; others require a lot of elbow grease with the saw. You realize that if you had only seen how dead these big branches were, you could have just cut them off in the first place, instead of wasting time clipping each individual smaller twig.

As you remove bigger branches, it's no longer possible to just toss them on the pile, now they must be hauled by force. Dragging each fully grown branch out of the tangle takes determination, since they try to grab any other plants they can on their way out. Misery loves company, and all that. Now that the area is more open, you discover an old azalea bush which was desperately trying to survive under the tremendous shadow of the bigger bush. That old azalea even has some little pink buds. And look, there's that lovely purple azalea given by a dear friend. Now they can find room to flourish. You start to see what you've been missing.

At last, sweating in the sunlight, you penetrate to the trunk. What? It's not a bush, it's actually a tree. Furthermore, the central stem of this whole tree is cracked; in fact, there's a big gaping hole in the middle! Now it's clear that the whole thing must be dying, for there's no moisture left in the core. If only you had known this at the outset! But you couldn't see the trunk for the branches.

Sin is just like this overgrown bush. For a long time, you're walking by that bush every day and ignoring it. Then the Holy Spirit pricks your conscience and you start to notice that the bush “may be a bit unruly.” A few days, months or years go by while you avoid dealing with the problem. It's just one bush, right? Not a big deal if you look at the entire yard. Let's enjoy that nice plant over there instead.

The ugly bush grows larger. Then perhaps someone points it out to you, and you get embarrassed. You promise God you'll do something about it, when the time is right. You can't cut bushes when it's too cold, right? Besides, you have to do your taxes. While waiting for the planets, season, weather, your schedule, and your attitude to align for the “perfect” yard work day, the bush grows even higher and fuller. It's crowding out everything else. That bush would be a perfect specimen of the plant kingdom if only it were in the right place!

Maybe this period of waiting is just assembling the right tools, then getting the courage to use them. “There is a way that seems good, but it leads to death.” Once we realize that the way of sin is death, we know Jesus is at work in our hearts by the Spirit. Sin is hollow at the core, its heart is lifeless, it's just a dry old cracked tree trunk. It may have an outer show of green leaves, but that is an illusion. This happiness is only temporary, the pleasures of sin for a season. And sin has a way of making us forget the flowers in our life. Access is blocked to the good gifts of God. We become ungrateful.

Whether it's our own sin we're dealing with or someone else's, sometimes we need to wear soft gloves, handling the issue with gentle tact. At first we make little cuts on some of the most obvious outer branches. The Holy Spirit works in this tender way sometimes. At other times, as with recalcitrant children, a sharp word or even a spanking is needed. Chop, chop! The remedy may be drastic; it hurts. Our loving heavenly Father may chop down some wooden idol that we rely upon in the place of God. Get out the kleenex; then drink deeply of the living water. Your Father loves you too much to let you continue in that sin.

What about timing? The natural world shows us that if we can tame a plant early, keeping it within proper boundaries, many problems can be avoided. For best results, “train up a child when he's young.” But even when some evil has been allowed to grow for many seasons, it's never too late to start chopping. With Christ, there is abundant pardon for all our sin, and abundant help in the daily struggle against it. He revives our cracked up, dried out empty hearts with hope. He is good, He is faithful, and He is able! Thank You, Lord!

I'd like to write more, but I have to go chop down the rest of that bush.

God is faithful,
j