The Self-Choking Tree

October 28, 2019

 Scripture

 “Cursed is the strong one who depends on mere humans, who thinks he can make it on muscle alone and sets God aside as dead weight. He’s like a tumbleweed on the prairie, out of touch with the good earth. He lives rootless and aimless in a land where nothing grows.

“But blessed is the man who trusts me, God, the woman who sticks with God. They’re like trees replanted in Eden, putting down roots near the rivers— Never a worry through the hottest of summers, never dropping a leaf, Serene and calm through droughts, bearing fresh fruit every season. (Jeremiah 17:5-10 Message)

 The Self-Choking Tree

 More than 40 years ago some friends planted two maples on the front lawn of our former home in the country. They have grown from saplings to majestically beautiful arches creating a shady place of conversation and friendship. But one tree isn’t doing so well.

 The current owners consulted an arborist who said, “The one tree has only a few more years left, because its own root system is actually choking the life out of it.” All the external enemies of the tree couldn’t kill it, but its own roots are doing the job.

 Noodling with that thought I wondered if so many of our fears, both personal and cultural are less dangerous to us than our own “roots” can sometimes be. A couple of years ago I went through a dark period of anxiety which was immobilizing me. Looking back from this particular day, none of the things that had choked me with anxiety actually have occurred.

 Many difficult and painful experiences have come but they are the normal stuff of life to be faced as they come. Fear can create self-focus and self-protection and keep us from acting with love and care for those who come across our path. Finding roots in the God who loves us and in friends who care keeps health and perspective.

 A Prayer for Today

Loving God, you look on us kindly, but you must be perplexed by our constant self-interest and self-destructive behaviour. We have so much, but we are sometimes dulled by our affluence and freedom, unable to freely give as we have been given and to love as we have been loved. Help us …. For Jesus’ sake