Within the ministry world, people often say, “Sometimes you are the one planting the seed, sometimes you have to water it, and sometimes you get the joy of the harvest.”
Well, we are not planting, watering, or harvesting this week. Instead, we are preparing the ground. More specifically, we are building a road. In a mountainside. With hand tools. This week, I learned to swing a pick-ax, the 45-45-90 technique for proper machete handling, and how to fix a hand tool that has been decapitated (all necessary life skills, I assure you.) I also learned that stumps at stubborn.
On Monday, Dillon spent hours removing a stump. Stacie and I spent hours failing to remove a stump. On Tuesday, we went to San Pedro determined to get the stump out of ground. However, we discovered this stump was no longer needing removal. Instead, we had to chop down a small tree and remove it’s stump. Simple, right?
Think again. This small tree turned into not one huge stump, but two. Dillon, Stacie, and I worked on the stump the rest of Tuesday. On Wednesday, Daniel and I worked on them all morning. But the stumps didn’t budge. The clay and dirt were caked around it. The roots creeped into the ground, reaching deep and entangling. We dug and chopped and pried and dug some more. After several hours of that, the pastor and his helper for the week came to assist us. Finally, finally the stump came out of the ground! We rejoiced, we were relieved, and the ground was clear. The road could come through!
At training camp, God taught me that He can remove a sin quietly and painlessly, and replace it with Himself, a strong and mighty tree that gives us life and guides us. However, I believe sometimes the removal of sin is like the removal of our stump in San Pedro. On the surface, the sin looks small and harmless. However, upon further investigation, the sin is deep, buried, and ugly. The chain is stubborn – unwilling to be broken. The dirt we try to hide it with is packed in and caked on from years of guilt and shame. But God cannot plant Himself in that spot if we refuse to get rid of the stump. And how can we plant and water and harvest if we are mangled up in tangled up knots of our sinful past? It’s not about being perfect – oh how Jesus is teaching me that. But it’s about being honest and repentant with The Lord. It’s about being vulnerable with your fellow believers and letting them hold you accountable. It’s about dying to yourself every single day, so that the roots cannot implant themselves again. It’s about letting God remove the stump with you, no matter how painful, so that He can put Himself in its place. And if we are letting Him do that work, we can do His work more effectively and sincerely.
“Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life. And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up. So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith. (Galatians 6:7-10 ESV)”
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