Cut Down to Spring Forth

"For there is hope for a tree, if it be cut down, that it will sprout again, and that its shoots will not cease."

(Job 14:7 ESV)

Years ago, when I was a teenager, I walked through probably the most difficult season of my life thus far. A serious leadership situation at the church I was attending at the time happened that caused the church to split. It completely rocked my world. The wounds from it were many, and they cut very deeply.

I almost—almost—walked away from my faith and away from God because of it.

I won't get into the details of what happened here, but the fallout from that situation left me extremely bitter, confused, and depressed as well as angry, bitter, and unforgiving towards some of the people involved. I also became very distrusting of people and their motives and interactions with me (something I admittedly still wrestle with to this day). I just couldn't reconcile in my heart and mind the behaviour of some of these individuals involved with their identity as believers and ambassadors of the faith. None of it made sense to me. I was equally dumbfounded and devastated! And there were few answers as to why the situation happened (which weren't mine to know anyway, considering my young age at the time, etc.).

In the immediate aftermath, and in the throes of that bitterness and desire for justice, I spread slanderous word about one of the individuals involved, and, well, that word got back to that person pretty quickly! Yes, I was wrong to do that, and, yes, rightfully so, I did get into trouble for it. I was made to write a letter of apology and give it to this person, which I did.

Can I be honest here, though? I didn't really mean what I wrote in that apology letter. I just wrote it to get the punishment done and over with. I pretty much shoved that letter in that person's hand and walked away.

That situation sparked a decade-long process of walking through major depression (that caused me to spiral into suicidal ideation at one point), bitterness, anger, and unforgiveness. I was utterly miserable. I had a hard time being at church and being involved in church, even after my parents and I moved on to a different one entirely. Sure, there were moments where the light broke through and I found joy in some things church-related, but overall a dark cloud hung over me as I continued to wrestle with God over what had happened. A decade later, now living in a new province and city on my own, I was still a hot mess, still depressed, still distrustful, and still unforgiving.

But God broke me one night, and it completely changed me forever.

I was at home in the basement suite I lived in at the time, and I was just having a day where this church situation was on my mind yet again for the umpteenth time. But this time was different. This time, God was shining a light directly into the garden of my soul where the weeds and gnarly trees of anger, bitterness, depression, and unforgiveness had taken root, and He revealed in incredible fashion how I had made those emotions—and the people those emotions were aimed at—idols in my life. Oooph! That revelation hurt! It felt as if God had literally poked my heart. But He was absolutely right! I was no better than the people I was still angry with and bitter towards after all this time! I badly needed emotional, mental, and spiritual course correction. God had to uproot these idolatrous weeds and cut down the gnarly trees of bitterness and unforgiveness down in my heart to make room for new shoots to sprout up, shoots that would bear far better fruit than the disgusting stuff that had taken hold.

I wept bitterly and spoke forgiveness out loud over each individual. I prayed for God to forgive me and for Him to help me release these folks from my bitter emotional and spiritual grip. And that He did. As I prayed over each person, I also prayed that God would bless each one of them and grant them joy and peace as life moved forward.

What was uprooted and cut down soon turned into fresh new shoots/sprouts of joy, peace, and hope inside of me, and I can honestly say that the depressive fog I had walked in for so long finally started to lift, and I literally felt as if the heavy burden that had grown in size this whole time was removed, and I felt a lightness of spirit. I could finally breathe. I was finally able to be free.

But God broke me one night, and it completely changed me forever.

This is where the profound verse at the beginning comes into play, and so does the entire book of Job (pronounced "Johb") in the Bible.

For those who don't know, the book of Job chronicles the story of a man named Job who's been faithful and devoted in his life to God—a little too faithful in the eyes of God's enemy, the devil (Satan). Why? Because, according to the devil, Job hasn't faced any hardship to date that'll test whether the foundations of his faith will hold up. God in essence says, "Fair point," and permits the devil to wreak havoc so that Job's faith is put to the test. Job loses everything in a single day, and the majority of the book let's us peek into Job's interactions with family, friends, and ultimately God as he wrestles with the immense suffering he's enduring. Trust me, it's a great read, and (spoiler alert!) there is a happy ending to it!

But right in the thick of Job's suffering, he makes another stunningly profound statement that ties in well to the above verse:

Did you catch that? Job came to know and understand suffering intimately, and yet he still said in the midst of it, "Though He slay me, I will hope in Him," and "There is hope for a tree, if it be cut down, that it will sprout again." What mind-blowing insight into God's loving and redeeming nature! Job's character was shaped and refined thanks to his suffering, which produced steadfast hope in God, and God in turn caused new sprouts to spring forth (and then some!) in Job's life.

Romans 5:3-5 speaks to this process specifically. Suffering produces endurance, endurance produces character, and character produces hope. And that hope will enrich the soil from which the new thing will sprout that God has in store for us!

God will cut us down/slay us for our good. He'll permit suffering to act as the conduit through which we eventually flourish. Not because He's an abusive or sadistic being at all. Quite the contrary! If you know anything about horticulture and taking care of plants and trees, you know that, for the sake of their health and wellbeing, its the gracious, kind, loving, and prudent thing to prune them back or even cut them right down to their roots if they're showing signs of severe disease and/or death. In John 15:1-2, God the Father is described by God the Son, Jesus, as the "Vinedresser", and part of His role is to prune back and remove what doesn't produce fruit. It's a slow and painful process, but that very process leads to better results and an abundant harvest in due season. And that in-between time from being cut down to harvest is where the enriched fertilizer of hope and the waters of trust and surrender are poured on the stump at the roots in order to super-charge and facilitate growth of new shoots/sprouts.

Cut down to spring forth.

But there's a major plot twist that completely changed (and changes) things forever!

Suffering produces endurance, endurance produces character, and character produces hope. And that hope will enrich the soil from which the new thing will sprout that God has in store for us!

Spiritually speaking, we are born into this world as dead and dying trees. We can't do anything on our own to save or revive ourselves. We're like the fig tree that Jesus encounters in Matthew 21:19. We look like we're thriving and flourishing, but we are diseased thanks to being born into sin (i.e. having a sinful nature), and thus we don't bear fruit at all. The stench of our rot is unbearable. And since God is the Vinedresser, He is perfectly within His right to cut us down and throw us into the fire to burn forever (see Matthew 7:15-20).

Job understood this well, but He had no clue that God was going to do the impossible thousands of years after he lived.

Enter Jesus, the perfectly healthy Tree (or Vine, as He refers to himself in John 15:1). In keeping with the tree analogy here, at just the right moment in history, Jesus, the Son of God, was miraculously planted inside of a virgin woman named Mary, where He sprouted in secret until the time of His birth. Then, this tender shoot grew in wisdom, stature, and favour with both God and humankind, eventually maturing and blooming as He stepped into His time of ministry. Jesus began the work of His Father, calling dead people (or trees if you will) to life and to repent of their sinful ways, offering hope for life that never ends—eternal life! Some breathed in the beautiful and pleasing fragrance of that eternal life He was offering and inviting them to, and they found true hope in Him! They looked upon Him with awe.

But others, particularly the religious elite of the day, looked upon Jesus with disgust and rage. The fragrance of Him was a rotten stench to them, and they sought to have Him cut down and killed, even though He had never once sinned to deserve that condemnation and punishment. They eventually succeeded in seizing Him, ensuring He was tortured from beatings, shredded with flogging, and ultimately hung on a dead tree in the shape of a cross, being impaled through His hands and feet with nails. And there, after six agonizing hours on that cursed tree that Passover Friday, the perfect Tree of Life hung... lifeless. The sap that was His blood had been fully spilled.

In haste, His body was removed from the cross and was placed inside a stone cold tomb for burial. The haste meant His body wasn't properly prepared for burial, and those who had followed Him during His ministry were forced to wait—wait, grieve, and ponder life without Him—before returning to the tomb to complete the preparation.

Saturday was a very long day.

But then came Sunday, the dawn of a new week and, unbeknownst to everyone else, the dawn of the sweetest and purest hope and joy we could ever imagine!

In the biggest plot twist no one saw coming, Death itself was cut down and destroyed, and Jesus' lifeless body was raised back to life! He pulled off what we could never do for ourselves and beat death at its own game! Death no longer had control or ownership over humanity; Jesus now held the keys of Death and Hades in His hand (see Revelation 1:17-18). What had been long hoped for had now become reality! The promise of both new and eternal/everlasting life could now be delivered upon in full!

Some breathed in the beautiful and pleasing fragrance of that eternal life He was offering and inviting them to, and they found true hope in Him!

Don't you see? Job 14:7 perfectly describes what happened to Jesus and what happens to us (as believers in Him).

There's a beautiful paradox here. Yes, God will cut us down and slay us for our good to refine us and prepare us for the new things that He's springing forth (see Isaiah 43:18-19), but as believers, we aren't doomed to be dead, cut down, and destroyed forever. Jesus, the perfect and sinless Son of God, was the one tree out of all the trees of humanity that had life in Him; hence, He was the only one qualified to give up His life to save us from the fires of hell. The healthy, life-giving tree took on our deadly disease of sin on Himself by taking our place on the cross, that tree of death, so that we could have a chance at true and everlasting life to the full! He was the tree cut down to spring forth—for us. As Jesus said in John 15:13, "Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends."

To bring this all home (finally!), I'm walking through another difficult and challenging season currently, albeit for entirely different reasons. This time is different, though. This time, I'm learning to cherish these sweet days of hardship and suffering, knowing full well that there is a hope and a future (Jeremiah 29:11) carved out for me. I just need to let the Vinedresser prune my branches and, if need be, cut me down and slay me to the root. No, it's not a fun process at all. Trust and surrender don't come easily for me, but time will prove the hope I cling to throughout all of this to be iron clad, because I cling to the Tree of Life that gave His life as a ransom for me so I would never have to experience a lifeless eternity without Him.

"For there is hope for a tree, though it be cut down, that it will sprout again, and that its shoots will not cease."

The healthy, life-giving tree took on our deadly disease of sin on Himself by taking our place on the cross, that tree of death, so that we could have a chance at true and everlasting life to the full! He was the tree cut down to spring forth—for us.

Now it's your turn! Have you experienced a season of life like what Job or I have experienced? If so, did that experience of being "cut down" lead to new things springing forth? Comment below!

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This blog is where you and I will explore what trees and their characteristics reveal about God, humanity, and life. I pray that as you join me here you will see the measurable growth in your own life and see God's loving kindness and faithfulness in all of it.

In the meantime, check out Kelly Polhamus' blog, "Whispers in the Wilderness," and Liz Trickey's blog, "God of My Depths," for more insight into how nature reveals God's character in and to us.