Take-Down Teams are for Trees...

But Humans Need the "MT3"!

Photo by Meriç Dağlı on Unsplash

*NOTE: During the Lenton season, we, as believers, contemplate the price that Jesus paid for our eternal life. I remembered this story I wrote several years ago from an incident that happened during COVID-19 …

The Take-Down Team

I awoke to the rumbling of heavy machinery and backup beeping--giant trucks and equipment parked all along our street.

I wondered which neighbor ordered work done today… then remembered, “It’s us!” and jumped out of bed to get dressed.

“The workers are here!” I called out to my husband as I rushed down the stairs. We’d contracted to have a massive maple tree removed from our front yard. The main trunk measured three feet in diameter before separating into five giant limbs reaching toward the sky.

My husband ascended from his basement office and we watched them position the bucket truck using stabilizers on each side. Their equipment included a flatbed for logs, a wood chipper, and several smaller tractors to remove all the brush.

This proud, majestic tree stood as the favorite on our lot. For twenty-five years, I’d enjoyed watching it cycle through our seasons. Leaves budded reddish-pink every spring, then greened up to capture summer sunshine. In fall, those leaves would glow a warm, glorious orange-red. Once spent and fallen, we worked tirelessly in the cooler breezes to blow them (with thousands of others) off the lawn.

“Do you remember when the kids used the middle area between the limbs as a fort off the ground?” I reminisced.

“Oh yeah,” my husband responded. “And it became the ‘home base’ in their games of tag. Remember those giant leaf piles it made for all the neighbor kids to jump in?” Our reminiscing brought smiles.

The massive limbs from our favorite tree.

What Happened To Our Favorite Tree?

Unfortunately, this tree developed a rotten spot over the years, right in the middle where all the glorious limbs converged. Rain collected there in the dip, leaving it moist. As the mushy wood weakened, the ants took advantage, sneaking in to create a hidden fortress.

During the COVID quarantine the spring before, an intense thunderstorm raged. We heard a ‘C-R-A-C-K!’ and then thud as one of the tree’s five massive limbs came crashing down. The sound reverberated through the earth and shook our house.

“What was that?!” my husband yelled. The kids and I all came running to peer through the front windows, appalled at the mess. The fallen limb barely missed power lines, splaying clear across our front yard and into the road.

Thanks to COVID, everyone was home to help clean up this fallen limb!

The inner damage to the tree was now clearly visible— the center mess of dark rotting wood could no longer be ignored. The rest of the tree needed to go before more limbs fell.

The decision to take down the tree didn’t come easily. Cutting it down felt like losing a part of our lives. It took a year to set the process in motion.

The tree company only gave us a one day notice before they arrived. Sorrowfully, we gazed up at the cherry-colored spring blossoms just beginning to bloom.

Our kids, now out of state, requested one last picture, then texted “bye” and “RIP” to their favorite childhood tree.

Our Need For a Take-Down Team

As we watched the team perform their synchronized task of removing the remaining branches, I reflected on how well it corresponded to the Bible study my Women’s Group had been studying. The latest chapter focused on the purity of the Holy Spirit, and how sin within us is the polar opposite of holiness. The study reminded us that one of the Holy Spirit's roles is as a “Convictor” of our sin.

Sin ignored tends to grow inside, rotting our center and destroying our firm foundation. The messiness of sin affects relationships with both God and others when not dealt with immediately. The Holy Spirit acts like a plumb line so we can measure our behavior against God’s standard of holiness as we seek to grow more like Christ.

This particular study included a list of sins to reflect on and pray about. I read through the items on the list, things like ingratitude, worldly-mindedness, neglecting Bible reading and prayer time, lack of love for the souls around us, neglecting family duties, a lack of love for God. Each time I reviewed the list, I became increasingly aware of my own sins.

Like resentment. Jealousy. Anger. Such nasty little words! I would love to think that at this stage in my walk with Christ, I am immune to these, but as a human, I am not.

As I remained in prayer, more examples came to mind.

“Shouldn’t I be beyond this?” I wailed deep in my soul. I desperately want to be! Take jealousy, for instance. I realized that envy has been a pattern since my early teens. Comparing myself to others, coveting gifts or talents they’d been given. It didn’t keep me from being thankful for my own life and gifts, but the root of envy still inhabits my soul.

Oh Lord, I prayed, what to do about these sins still lodged in me? How can I deal with them? Here they are, I bring them into your Light.

The “MT3”!

All morning, those men worked to pull down the giant tree trunks using strategic cuts and strong cabled ropes. I heard resounding thumps as they attacked the problem and brought those massive limbs to the ground. Then, the team quickly and efficiently cleaned up the leftover mess, crunching the smaller branches into mulch and hauling the bigger pieces out of sight.

Just like that big old tree, I can’t fix the rotting mess of sin at my core by myself. I need a “take-down team”! The Trinity--Father, Son, and Holy Spirit--help excavate rotten spots and clean out the roots. In and of myself, I am helpless to effect real change. But I have learned that the “Mighty Trinity Take-down Team” (or “MT3” as I call it!) is ready and willing to help.

How? When I repent and request forgiveness, the “MT3” makes strategic “cuts” to deal with my sin, removing it through His powerful forgiveness and grace. The Holy Spirit nudges and convicts my spirit, Jesus reminds me that he’s already paid the penalty, and the Father promises to clean up my property “as far as the east is from the west.” (Psalm 103:12).

The result is a cleaner, more “alert-to-the-sin” version of myself. I only need to ask for help, stand firm, and allow the “MT3” to erode the roots and complete their work.

Only a clean stump remains after the Take-Down Team!

Prayer

Thank you, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, for your continuous fine-tuning work in our souls, making us more like Jesus and equipping us for eternal life. Thank you that I have a "Mighty Take-Down Team" I can trust!

“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:9, NASB).

Worship Time!