Stumps That Grow

Thoughts Along the Way©

Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts.  See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. Psalm 139:23-24

            When we moved into our current house the trees in the front yard were terribly overgrown so we had them severely trimmed. One tree in particular was a problem. It was large, fast growing, and under the telephone wires. We decided the best thing to do was to have it cut down leaving a stump about 2 feet high. Spring came and all of the other trees leafed out but as expected the stump was just a stump. A month later we began to see a few signs of growth on the stump. Within a month we were trimming and thinning the mass of new branches that were growing from the stump. With only two months of growth the branches are over my head and reaching for the telephone wires. I can see that this will take diligence to keep this tree under control.

            My heart is like this tree in more ways than I want to admit to you or to myself. It craves attention, is proud, wants to be right, and is often desperate to be liked. These are fast growing branches that no matter how much I think I have cut them off they re-appear and expand. An example is my pride. I think I have successfully repented of it and humbled myself. (I think I have cut the “tree” down.) God in His mercy shows me the true state of my heart in regards to pride – I have not turned from it but rather disguised it. I am now proud of my repentance, of not being proud, of being humble, of my self-effort. If left un-attended, these branches can grow at an amazing rate reaching truly ugly proportions in just a few days.

            Praise God that He has not left me alone to know my heart and see the sins that grow there. He has sent His Holy Spirit to live in me, show me the truth of my heart, work true repentance in me, and give me the faith I need to grow in Christ. Here is the growth that is good: to know Christ and His love and acceptance. Yes, God calls me to do battle with these sins through repentance, faith, and obedience but He does not leave me to fight on my own. He provides the divine hedge trimmers, the heavenly wisdom to know what to cut, and the spiritual courage to cut off the branches – even the ones that I think are precious. Whatever I am looking to for completeness other than Christ is an idol. I can take good things and make them idols be making them the center of my life. The Holy Spirit can show them to me and how to turn from looking to them for comfort, control, self-esteem, etc. and looking to Christ instead.

Prayer: Father, one of the hardest prayers for me to pray is to ask that You show me my heart. I don’t really want to see the ugliness that lives there. I don’t even want to admit that it is even there. Jesus died because of that ugliness to not just forgive it but to remove it and make me clean. Because I know that You love me and accept me, I can trust You to cleanse me. More than the idols that promise comfort, I want to see Christ and to be transformed into His image.