Timber!

I have failed the photo challenge.  I just didn't have the ambition to get past day four.   If I have to fail at something, it may as well be a thirty-day photo challenge.  I can think of much worse things to fail.

I had an interesting weekend.   I watched with nervous anticipation as my friend, David, shimmied up a Turkey Oak and took it down one branch at a time.  I was on the ground with his son, Jonathan, where things were much safer.  However, as David climbed higher, the pressure on us got a little more intense.  Once he reached the big limbs toward the top of the tree, he could not just cut them and let them fall.  His neighbor is about to do an addition to her house, but I don't think a skylight is in the plans!  So ropes were tied to the branches, and it became the task of Jonathan and me to pull the massive branches away from the house as David was cutting them down.

By this point, I am quite certain that David was feeling seriously shortchanged. My father is a logger.  I am pretty sure that he thought I would have some idea about how this whole process worked.  If that is what he thought, then he thought wrong.  Then there was Jonathan down on the ground with me.  He is fourteen and brilliant with computers; however, like me, his tree removal skills leave a little to be desired.  However, we wanted to help and do our part in the challenge at hand.

The first couple of limbs Jonathan handled on his own and did a great job!  He pulled them right where they needed to go.  Then the limbs got higher and heavier.  That was when things became a bit more nerve-wracking.  David told me to tie a second loop in the rope and help Jonathan.  I looked at Jonathan.  He looked at me.  Neither of us had a clue how to tie a loop.  (Do not ask us how many Wildnerness Girl or Boy Scout badges we have earned.) So from forty feet in the top of the tree, David ever so patiently talked me through the process.  He had to be getting frustrated, but he never showed it.  "Okay, take your left hand and hold the left side of the rope.  Take you right hand and bring the other rope about two feet above your left hand."  He gave me about five more very precise and detailed directions, and I ended up with an amazing loop. 

We were ready.  We had been given a mission, and we had accepted it.  Just before David started cutting the limb, I had to stop for a picture.  Jonathan said, "Yeah, we need a picture.  This could be the last one before we die if that big limb lands on us!"  It was time to do the deed.  David cut the limb.  Jonathan and I pulled with all our might and went about two feet before landing flat on our behinds in a big pile of leaves.  We surveyed the damage.  The roof was saved, but the limb did make a small hole in the neighbor's shed and take out a small piece of her fence.  However, the worst collateral damage was the big split in the middle of the  large Tea Olive outside her bathroom window.  Jonathan suggested that we just duct tape it back together, but I am not sure how that would work out!

We finally came to the last limb.  It made the previous one look like a baby.  David spent about twenty minutes surveying it and trying to decide where would be the best place to cut and which direction we should pull from.  He finally had it all mapped out and then said to us, "You can keep from falling down if you will put your arms behind you to pull the rope and face forward as you pull the limb down."  We had not thought of that.  We positioned ourselves just as he said.  Jonathan looked at me and said, "I'm scared."  I agreed.  David cranked the saw.  We were literally shaking.  He cut for about thirity seconds and yelled, "Pull!"  We ran and pulled with all our might, and we didn't fall.  We pulled the limb down just to the perfect spot where David had planned for it to go.  We were so excited and satisfied with our accomplishment.

I thought about that experience today and realized that it is so much like life and our walk with God.  I felt pretty useless down on the ground.  I did not have a clue what I was doing and felt as if I really weren't much help at all.  I am pretty sure Jonathan felt the same way.  Yet there is no doubt that David needed us down on the ground to help him get the job completed.  We may not have been the most qualified helpers, but our hearts were in it, and that was all that really mattered.

You know, God needs each and every one of His followers to help Him carry out His work here on earth below.  We may feel completely inept at the task that He is asking us to do.  We surely aren't the first ones who have felt this way.  Moses felt completely unqualified when God called him to lead the Isrealites out of Egypt.  He even argued with God about it several times.  Even after God gave him miraculous signs, he still said, "But, God, I get tongue tied and I stumble all over my words."  Yet, he was the one whom God wanted.  God assured Moses that He would instruct him throughout the journey.

In the same way, sometimes God calls us to situations for which we feel we will never be ready.  I think we have to be very careful and seek God with all of our hearts.  I have often seen people venture off into areas where they felt God was calling them to something only to experience failure.  Sometimes it is our own desires that we mistake for God's calling.  However, if we have sought Him diligently and we continue to feel that burning call to carry out a work for Him, then maybe He is calling us to that ministry.  It could be anything from volunteering in a homeless shelter to going overseas for mission work.  He often calls us to those areas where we feel the least qualified.  Why on earth would He do this?  I think the apostle Paul answered that question when he said, "His strength is made perfect in my weakness."  One thing is certain.  When God calls us to do a work for Him, He will give us what we need to accomplish the task at hand.  He will guide us every step of the way.  We just have to listen and follow Him.

This weekend when we didn't know what to do, David ever so patiently talked us through step by step.  I just hate that it took us until the last limb to finally figure it out.  But that is okay.  We listened along the way.  We made mistakes, but we learned from those mistakes.  We finished the task and felt satisfaction at being a part of the process.  I want to serve God in that same way, listening and learning as He uses me to carry out the work He has called me to do!

May all who call ourselves Christians strive to one day hear the words from Matthew 25:23.  Well done, good and faithful servant....enter thou into the joy of the Lord.




Jonathan and I decided to leave a bill for all our hard work!