Cutting Down the Tree, Cutting down the church
Yesterday I decided it was time for the tree in front of my house to come down. A river birch, it had overgrown its space. Out came the trusty chain saw.
I know how to cut down a tree - really. First, you notch the tree for the direction you want it to fall. Then, you do the back cut. Then the tree falls.
I think my back cut was too low - plus the wind started to blow. At any rate, my son called out to me, “Dad, it’s about to hit the house!” Sure enough, the wind was making the tree lean toward the house and I could hear the wood starting to crack.
I yanked out the chain saw, and pushed myself against the tree. My son joined me - and we stopped the tree from swaying. Now what?
My neighbor heard our cries and came walking up. He said, “I bet you wish you had never started cutting it!” At this point, I was too paniced to argue.
To make a long story short, we tied the tree off with about 150 feet of rope to my truck and pulled it down. It made a perfect landing - away from the house.
The lesson? It took the tree 13.5 years to grow. It only took 45 minutes to bring it down. It could have caused a lot of damage when it fell. Somebody - like me - could have really gotten hurt.
Churches are like this - it takes time for them to grow. It doesn’t take long to bring them down. Guard and protect God’s work.
