What Do You See?

There is a delusion in your life.  It is a great and beautiful tree in your front yard.  It is full of leaves and shades your home, it has fragrant blossoms and thrills you when you step near to breath in its headiness.  It drops blossoms like snowflakes floating softly to the ground.  You wonder how long it has grown there and hope it will ever be there and believe it brings you peace.

The reality of that tree.

It is a sin you have harbored so long, it seems like it has always been in your life.  You can’t imagine life without it.  You don’t ever think about life without that tree (you did once and it scared you so badly, you never went there again and thought it must’ve been a bad dream).  The tree is firmly planted in your yard, and you go there when you choose to enjoy it -- walk away and go on with the rest of your life.

Under the tree, gnarly, malicious roots grow hard knotted swells anchoring it firmly in the soil.  Tendrils snake out under your home, imperceptibly piercing through wood and foundation, invading the walls, drawing insects and mold, rats and disease.

You think,

“I go to the casino by myself, and I don’t involve my family.”

“I never watch that on my computer or big screen when anyone else is at home.”

“I’m the one who takes care of the checkbook, I deserve what I spend that they don’t know about.”

“I only indulge after the workday is done, and I don’t answer the phone unless I have to.”

“My thoughts and daydreams about living a different life and not having to deal with this family are my own.”

“I think God leads me by the ambitions and desires I have, and I can find something in scripture to support that.”

So, you’ve built a little white picket fence around the tree and deceive yourself that the arguments you’ve been having with your husband about other things have brought you to the brink of divorce.

Your children are out of control, but it’s the friends they run with and the school they go to.  The teachers don’t understand them, and your neighbors are looking for reasons to get

them in trouble.

You can’t sleep, your head and back continually ache, you hate your job.

Tear down that picket fence. Get the Bobcat.  Dig a trench around that tree, tear it from its roots.  Poison the roots.  Get your neighbors to help (they always saw the tree for what it was and will be willing to help).  Weep over it, bear the loss and begin to heal.  If you leave that tree standing, it will crush your home and destroy your life.

1 Peter 2:24

New International Version

²⁴ “He himself bore our sins” in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; “by his wounds you have been healed.”

Psalm 34:18

New International Version

¹⁸ The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.

Dear God,

Reveal to us the sin in our lives that grieves your spirit, that causes you to think if only you could gather us under your wing.  Help us to be honest and make that choice in our hearts to give you this thing that only you have the power to heal.  Whatever it takes you can do with the same power that raised Jesus from the dead, and you can carry the full weight of our loss and suffering in order for us to see you more clearly and to know the width, breadth, height and depth of your love for us.

Amen