We had moved into a new home and like any homeowner, we began to prioritize projects.  Right outside the kitchen window were two trees, both of them completely choked with thick vines.  The larger tree seemed to have grown above the reach of these heavy vines, while the smaller, a mimosa tree, had succumbed to the chokehold of these aggressive plants.  All of the branches ended in dead wood. No green could be seen anywhere.  I assumed the tree was dead, and it was on my list of to-do’s.  Cut down the dead tree outside the kitchen window.

One sunny day, I walked past the tree and saw something that surprised me.  A small sprout with about five green leaves was growing from the “dead” tree.  Perhaps it wasn’t dead after all.  This sign of life moved the tree further up my list; perhaps it could be saved.  Little did I know I was about to enter into a year long conversation with the Lord.  I thought I was just doing yard work.

At this time, I had been a counselor, in practice for about twelve years, I was learning everything I could about how to partner with God in setting captives free, and helping to restore His life to those ensnared by life’s struggles.   If that sounds noble let me correct your thinking.  It was messy.  It was hard.  It was sometimes costly, as you cannot engage this battle without stepping up to the front lines yourself.  It was often exhausting.  I needed all the help and encouragement I could get from God and from man.  I never knew until that day just how encouraging yard work could be.

I eyed this medium sized Mimosa tree, completely strangled with aggressive pulpy vines.  I had thought it dead until the tiniest sign of life appeared.  I went into the garage and came out with an arsenal; saws and clippers, power tools, hand tools and a ladder.  As I sized up the task, I thought I would cut the most accessible vines first.  These medium sized shoots wrapped themselves around the large limbs branching out from the trunk of the tree.  As I began to cut, I heard a familiar voice in my mind.

“This is what I have been training you to do, Bob.”

I knew immediately what the Lord was saying.  Often, with almost no strength remaining, people would come see me, and ask my help in removing the stranglehold of a lifetime of growth.  The most evident of their struggles is what brought them to me, and we would begin the task of identifying and sawing away the things that had been choking the life from them.

As I sawed, some vines fell away easily.  Others were more entangled, and needed to be cut and then forcefully removed from the trees branches.  It wasn’t long before the branches within reach were cleared of this intruder.  Then I looked up.  The entire canopy of the tree was filled with vines, all of them choking the life out of the branches they were wrapped around.  I began to climb the tree, weapons in hand, and I heard the voice again.

“Sometimes you have to get more deeply into their lives to help remove the vines”

As I climbed the trunk and leaned my weight out onto one of the limbs, so that I could reach the next level of the invading plant life, I heard Him say,  “In fact sometimes you will put yourself in the hands of the very people you are here to help so that you can truly reach them. I did.”

As I reached out into the tree to cut more vines, I realized that the vines had grown to mimic the branches on which they were growing, in shape and circumference. Each branch was encased by a vine that looked surprisingly like the very branch it was killing.  I realized that sometimes the things that stand against us can become so familiar that we actually think they are us.  As I cut into this level, the vines and branches were so similar occasionally, I would accidentally cut a branch instead of a vine.

“Sometimes people are so attached to their chains they may have to lose a part of themselves in order to lose their chains.  It was hurting them already, you do not cause their pain when you push them to let go…”

The vast canopy of growth seemed so entrenched I thought it might be impossible to get the whole tree cleared.  I had been in the midst of the tree, working at all the branches I could reach, leaning out as far as I could, but many branches remained of reach.  Then I had an idea.  The tree was next to the house, so I left the tree and climbed up on the roof.  From this vantage point, I could see the canopy in a whole new way.  It was like an umbrella, capping the tree.  I reached out and grabbed a handful, and amazingly almost the whole mass of vines lifted in my hand.

“The higher your perspective the more you can see and the more effective you can be as you remove the obstacles.  You could work on each branch, one at a time if you wanted, or from up here, you could see ways to remove the whole thing.”

As a homeowner, and as a counselor I rejoiced at this new way of thinking.  It didn’t always have to be so hard.  I threw the mass of murderous vines off to the side, to allow them to dry up and die in the light of the sun.

As I climbed down from the roof, victorious, something in the ground caught my eye.  The roots of these vines were close to the base of the tree and still very much alive.   By this time I was exhausted.  I had been freeing this tree for several hours, but I knew if I left the roots, it was just a matter of time before the vines took over again.  We had gained some freedom, but we were not finished.

I began to hack at the roots and found this to be the most difficult part of the job. Not only were they thick and pulpy, and difficult to sever, they were underground and often it was hard to be sure I was getting at the thickest root.  I chopped and hacked and felt like I made no headway.  I was tired so I went in the house to clean up.  The tree was alright, and I could attack these roots another time.

Two weeks later, refreshed, I attacked them again.  Still I found them resistant.  They were too big and too complex a mass to just pull them out, and they were too deeply entangled for any single cut to finish the job.  After a few hours of digging and cutting, I decided to pour some plant killer on the things.

A few weeks later I tackled them again.  Amazingly, even with all the sawing and poison, green leaves and fresh sprouts had snaked out of these roots.   It seemed like they would never be completely eradicated.  Every few weeks I would again go wrestle with these beasts, and every few weeks I would make some headway, only to discover the aggressive growth that had taken place in between attacks.  Fall and winter came.  I rested.  I was about to make a great discovery.

Early the following spring, I went to renew my attack.  The tree was blossoming, and green leaves were everywhere.  Life had come to it again.  My constant tug of war with the nearby roots of the vines had given the tree enough breathing space to regain its health and grow.  I turned my attention to the seemingly unending battle with these insidious roots in the ground nearby.

Anticipating hours of battle, I laid hold of one of the fearsome beasts with my hand.  What happened next made me choke with emotion.  Literally it fell apart in my hand.  The roots had died, and in a few moments I was able to remove every last tattered piece of that which had once almost killed the tree.  God didn’t have to speak at that moment.  I knew the truth.  Never give up, don’t let the battle wear you down, don’t let the appearance of futility deceive you.  While you fight the fight, don’t underestimate the power of the seasons to finish what you began.  And Victory is Inevitable.

As a homeowner, I was relieved for my yard.  As a counselor I was deeply encouraged in the face of the sheer number of ongoing struggles I assisted in, that at times seemed futile.  As a man, who has wrestled against the roots of my humanity for decades now, my heart was filled again with hope and resolve that as long as I do my part to continue to cut at the roots, My Heavenly Father will destroy those things of my past that once tried to choke the life from me.

Our God is a very talkative God, He is constantly surrounding us with ways to know Him.  Look up today and ask Him what He is saying to you.

For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made…

Romans 1:20

Bob Hamp

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