Damage, Danger, and Deception

A friend recently shared how she had to have some trees removed from her backyard due to damage from Hurricane Gustav. She didn’t have them removed back in 2008 right after Gustav blew through Southeast Louisiana; she had them removed just a few weeks ago.

Why the delay? In her words, “we put the removal process off as long as we could because of the pleasure of beauty and shade the trees brought to our yard.” Sure, if the roots had been exposed like the photo above, it would have been obvious that she needed to do something right away. But instead, it was easy to ignore because the roots were still in the ground. Even though there was always the danger that the damaged roots would give way and the tree could fall and hurt someone or something, it was easier to put it off. Removal required effort and change.

This friend got me thinking as she compared this to the danger of habitual sin in our lives . . . something that brings us pleasure but we forget that this pleasure is a deception and danger (think Genesis 3, Eve, a piece of fruit, and a lying serpent).

What’s the damaged “tree” in your life that needs to be removed? Don’t expect the process to be easy . . . if it was, you would have cut it out already. What you can expect is for the process to be challenging and the results to be rewarding. Sure, things will look different once the damaged “tree” is gone but sometimes – most of the time – different is good. Very good.