Our month in Honduras was really cool, and I mean that on many levels. We were in the mountains and for one of the first times since January, I got cold. Praises. So one of our ministries was pruning plantain trees. There were thousands of trees that either needed to be pruned or completely chopped down.
My main goal from the get-go was to machete down all the dead trees, all while cutting off the dead leaves.
I personally loved it. Yes it was hard and sometimes I had so many blisters on my hands that I couldn’t even grip the machete. But how empowering it was to take that machete, sling it at a tree and watch it fall all in one one blink of an eye.
So as my eyes and mind were so focused on the dead trees only, I neglected many dead leaves and skipped so many trees to be honest. Sorry Joe.
Then as I made my way up towards the top of the mountain, I found myself into waist-deep weeds and plants.
The whole time I’m trying not to think of what could be underneath it all, because with my fear of spiders and such, I probably wouldn’t have been on that mountain.
Then I saw my dead tree off in the distance. That’s where I wanted to be so I could slay the rotting spongey plantain tree with a slice of my machete.
But how do I get there? There were what seemed to be miles of waist deep weeds and barriers in front of me. Guess I better start chopping. I began using my machete to make a path for myself towards my destination. At first, I was only chopping the top portion of everything in front of me because I became a little lazy. But then I realized that doing that didn’t do me any good because I couldn’t move entirely forward. There were still things underneath that I couldn’t see that I ran into that hindered me from getting to my dead tree.
There were briers, webs, vines etc… Then I started cutting closer to the roots of these weeds and plants and that was when my circumstances became much better. I could see and walk more freely. I chopped down any thick vines that I could get caught in or any briers I could have been poked with.
The closer to the root you get, the better.
I feel as if there is something in that. Well, of course there is! This is exactly like the process of healing.
We all have had some damage done to our hearts. We’ve all experienced pain and have wounds.
When we first start the healing process of something in our lives, we see the destination we want to be. (No, it’s not the significance of the “dead” tree.)
When I first started one of my biggest healing processes in my life, my destination was to be like Christine Caine. I wanted to be writing books and speaking and helping people reach freedom in their lives. I wanted to use my past struggles to make them someone else’s victory. But what I failed to realize was that my past struggles were actually my present struggles still.
I was almost over zealous to get there and subconsciously wanted to skip weed whacking through my baggage to get there. I thought I could do it without clearing a path.
The first step I took I tripped over some vines and got cut with thorns and briers.
We sometimes do that ya know? We think we can can step over some things or push it down with our feet.
And sure we may be able to do that but there is always potential to be surprised at what is underneath the weeds and shrubs. I can guarantee that something will pop up that you neglected to chop down.
What’s the root of you turning to alcohol or drugs to help you forget something that was done to you or hiding behind the mask of perfection? What’s the root of your addiction to pornography or sex? What’s the root of why you are easily angered or easily defeated?
These things will resurface if we don’t get to the root of them. The effects of some our our heartbreaks and ache and trauma won’t be our “past” if we don’t deal with them now, in the present.
We have to face the stalks that are in the way of walking freely with the Lord and walking freely to our healing destination.
The more we chop off the shrub and the closer to the root it is, the better off we are to getting there.
It’s also one step at a time. You can’t move forward unless you’ve cleared out that shrub. You can’t move forward unless there is nothing in front of you. Or else you’ll be walking into an unknown patch of weeds.
Part 2 coming soon
