I stepped out onto the front porch this morning to say farewell to hubby as he left for work … and there, over to the side, were all the logs from yesterday’s tree work.
Immediately the verse from Ecclesiastes popped into my head:
“Whoever digs a pit may fall into it; whoever breaks through a wall may be bitten by a snake. Whoever quarries stones may be injured by them; whoever splits logs may be endangered by them.” – Ecclesiastes 10:8-9
With everything in life, there is a degree of risk involved.
The work of taking out trees obviously has inherent risk involved.
I glanced out the window yesterday and was shocked to see the tree worker climbing the dead tree!
This tree was completely dead all the way to the very top. Not only that, about 10 feet up from the base, woodpeckers had excavated several large cavities, compromising the trunk at that point.
We were going to have the tree workers leave a standing snag from this tree, so as not to destroy the woodpeckers’ home. To this end, the tree workers had told us they were going to fell the tree in its entirety above the woodpecker area.
As the tree dude climbed higher and higher, sawing off limbs as he went up, the dead compromised trunk swayed and wobbled! I was so nervous as I prayed God would protect him and that the compromised trunk would not snap off at the woodpecker spot.
He topped the tree safely.
Then he worked his way back down, sawing off 6-foot sections at a time … eventually ending with a nice standing snag.
Anything in life has certain risks involved. In each of our normal everyday lives, there are things we face which leave us frightened & scared. Things which are outside of our comfort zone. Things which are outside of our control. Things which leave us fearful & worried about the future. Things which we wonder how we are going to have the strength to make it through!
This is the point of the passage in Ecclesiastes. To live life, to do anything in life, is to face risks.
But a little further down, in the next chapter we read:
“Whoever watches the wind will not plant; whoever looks at the clouds will not reap. As you do not know the path of the wind … so you cannot understand the work of God, the Maker of all things.
“Sow your seed in the morning, and at evening let not your hands be idle, for you do not know which will succeed, whether this or that, or whether both will do equally well.” – Ecclesiastes 11:4-6
The tree dudes are out there again today, working on the Big Leaf Maple out from my kitchen window. There is a section with nothing but dead branches, which need to be cleaned out before they fall and puncture a hole through our garden shed underneath.
The branches are so dead that the tree worker cannot safely climb the tree to do the work … so he has strung a safety line up through the branches of the tree and anchored it down securely far back in the forest on the other side. He then climbed up, hooked himself on to that safety line and is literally hanging in amongst the dead branches sawing them off one at a time.
The branches are so dead they are literally crumbling into pieces as they hit the ground.
The tree workers are so brave!
So also, in the same way, God calls each of us to be brave when it comes to living the life He has called us to live. As we each face the inherent fears/risks in our own normal everyday life, God wants us to be brave. Brave like the tree worker hanging high up in the Big Leaf Maple to do his job. Brave like the tree worker perched high atop a dead compromised tree trunk doing his job.
At the same time, God doesn’t want us to be stupid.
The tree workers have had extensive training in safety. They are highly skilled in what they do. They know their own limits. The worker who climbed up the dead, compromised tree trunk was highly alert to the state of the trunk the entire time he was climbing … he was constantly evaluating safety as he went. He was making the decision to climb higher by the moment, based on his constant observations and assessments.
It is in this way that God wants up to operate. Yes, there are risks we are facing in our normal everyday life. Yes, these things are outside our comfort zone … and yes, we indeed are facing things which seem like they are outside the limits of what we can do.
But God wants us to be brave and to face those challenges, nonetheless. All the while, using our common sense and constantly evaluating & assessing as we go. Adjusting and making course corrections as needed.
God wants us to be brave … but not stupid.
God wants us to be brave … and at the same time, wise.
God wants us to be brave … and trust Him to take care of us through it!
