Stubborn Stump

Over 25 years ago, (27 to be exact), Michelle and I were in missionary training. Part of the training was during the afternoons we had what was called work detail. This was jobs needed around the campus that everyone worked on to keep maintenance costs down, but also to teach us to work in teams, think about projects etc...

The spring of 1981 saw one of my work details trying to get a huge, I mean huge stump out of the ground. It entailed shovels, picks, axes and a lot of sweat. Day after day we dug, picked axed our way down. This stump was huge, (did I mention how big this stump was?).

Finally after inspecting it all and seeing that we had dug through and cut through every root there was on that thing, a huge back hoe came in to tear it from its resting place. A chain was securely wrapped around it and the back hoe hoisted away only to be met with resistance and difficulty. Finally with one big heave the chain snapped with big thick links flying all over.

As we surveyed it was agreed that we had to dig under the stump to eat away at the tap root. I said what? It was then that the country boys who were working on this told the city boys, (only me really), what a tap root was. After all our hard work, after every seeming root was cut and broken and the stump was ready to be removed...there was another root dead center going down some said probably 6 - 10 feet or so judging from the size of the stump.

Made me think...

There are times in our lives where after many years of misbehavior, Wrong choices and actions and sin that we try to repent and relieve ourselves of the problem. We are forgiven, but we still find that there is something that is keeping us pinned in our same predicament, returning to the same issues and we cannot resolve them. Perhaps it is like that stump. All the roots we could see are dealt with but there is that incessant tap root holding tight not letting go.

We need to cut the tap roots of misbehavior, wrong choices and actions and sin. We need to thoroughly 'repent' of these actions and on a daily basis, repent, confess and turn completely away from those things keeping us from extreme fellowship with the Father.

Matthew 18:9, 18 says:

"If your eye causes you to stumble, pluck it out and throw it from you. It is better for you to enter life with one eye, than to have two eyes and be cast into the fiery hell...If your hand or your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it from you; it is better for you to enter life crippled or lame, than to have two hands or two feet and be cast into the eternal fire."

Better to be disabled than to be disavowed, cast away from God because of the 'tap roots' in our lives we cling to so readily.

Hebrews 12:1 says it best in the spiritual race we are all involved in:

"Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us." Amen!