![\"Comfort\"](\"https:\/\/corehealingfromtrauma.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/Comfort.png\" "\\"Comfort\\"")
\n\tIn the past 53 years, my husband Alan and I have moved 21 times. I used to refer to our moves as either Major Moves (moving from one city or state to another) or Minor Moves (moves within a city or town). Alan gently reminded me all of our moves were \u201cmajor,\u201d especially when they involved moving our baby grand piano! Neither of us particularly likes moving, but we do like going wherever God leads us. In 2 Corinthians 5:20, He calls each of us His ambassadors. What a privilege we\u2019ve had simply serving God, living from coast-to-coast in the United States, and on mission trips in Russia, France, Costa Rica, and Guatemala!<\/p>\n
Perhaps each move was an answer to prayers I\u2019d prayed before I even met Alan. Someone encouraged me to write a list of qualities I wanted in my future husband. As a 17-year-old college freshman, I hesitated, because I couldn\u2019t imagine meeting the man I\u2019d marry, and I knew I wasn\u2019t wise enough to know how to pray for him. So, I put only one thing on my list: for a man who trusted God. With each of our moves\u2014from Kansas City to California to Colorado to Nebraska and Florida\u2014Alan trusted God (and helped me learn to trust Him, too) to lead us where He wanted us to serve Him.<\/p>\n
The most challenging move for me was from Colorado to Nebraska, where we bought a bargain three-story 100-year-old house that had been neglected for years.\u00a0A cracked fountain and unkempt yard barely hinted at its turn-of-the century beauty.\u00a0 Our oldest daughter named the house \u201cCamp Kill \u2018Em Young\u201d because of its continual projects\u2014with our family stripping multiple layers of wallpaper, discovering leaky plumbing, mowing the triple-sized lot, refinishing vast wrap-around porches and scraping paint on the exterior\u2014amidst a continual parade of curious strangers who showed up unexpectedly at our door to see our \u201cprogress.\u201d Neighbors urged us to get professionals to help shape up the huge yard, so we hired expert arborists to prune the overgrown ancient trees.\u00a0<\/p>\n
When the tree trimming crew arrived, the man known as Boss explained why extensive pruning was essential.\u00a0(This man loved his work!) Pointing emphatically to a large maple tree, he exuberantly exclaimed, “There are two reasons trees need to be pruned.\u00a0One: insect infestation!\u00a0 If you don’t trim the excess foliage, your trees are going to be destroyed by insects getting inside them!\u201d\u00a0Like a concert master, emphasizing each word with his hands, Boss continued, \u201cThe other reason: storms.\u00a0If the wind can’t blow through a tree, a storm will knock it down!”\u00a0<\/p>\n
Back inside the house, listening to chain saws ripping through huge branches, I thought about a parallel in the Christian life.\u00a0If God doesn’t “prune” my life, I can be destroyed either by something in me\u2014an attitude, a thought pattern or a behavior\u2014or by something outside of me, like the “storms” of life.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Suddenly, I remembered I didn\u2019t ask the tree crew not to prune my favorite tree, an American linden sprawling near our back door where I could watch it from the porch swing or a kitchen window.\u00a0Whenever I missed the majestic mountains of Colorado and my friends there, I focused on one exquisite branch swaying in the breeze, sunlight shimmering on its leaves. No one knew, but I thought of it as my “comfort branch.”<\/p>\n
\u00a0I ran outside just in time to see Boss finishing off the \u201ccomfort branch\u201d with his chain saw.\u00a0As the beautiful branch toppled to the ground with a decisive thud, I burst into tears.\u00a0The gruff foreman climbed down, clearly puzzled. “What’s wrong, lady?” he asked.\u00a0I stammered something about how much I liked the branch and tried not to look where it lay, destroyed.\u00a0The foreman spoke decisively, showing me its rotten core, “Lady, that branch had to go; it was dead!”<\/p>\n
For comfort, I had been turning to something dead!\u00a0Walking into the house and drying my tears, I asked God to forgive me for trying to find comfort in something that clearly could not provide it. When teaching Bible studies, I\u2019ve often described an idol as \u201canything we turn to for comfort besides God.\u201d Had a branch imperceptibly become an idol to me? I thanked God for delivering me from false comfort and praised Him for the authentic comfort He faithfully provides.<\/p>\n
I opened my Bible to John 15:1-5 (NASU), where Jesus explains, \u00a0\u201cI am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away; and every\u00a0branch\u00a0that bears fruit, He\u00a0prunes it so that it may bear more fruit.\u00a0\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>You are already\u00a0clean because of the word which I have spoken to you.\u00a0Remain in Me,\u00a0and I in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself\u00a0but must remain in the vine, so neither\u00a0can<\/em>\u00a0you unless you remain in Me.\u00a0I am the vine, you are the branches; the one who remains in Me, and I in him\u00a0bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.\u201d Each of our moves has steadily \u201cpruned\u201d me, helping me rely on God instead of people, places, or circumstances.<\/p>\n Later that afternoon, a neighbor knocked on my back door\u2014the one looking out on the now-bereft tree.\u00a0She enthused, “I had to come tell you how beautiful your house looks from across the street at my house!\u00a0You know where that big branch was?\u201d\u00a0I nodded.\u00a0Pointing at the gaping space, she continued, \u201cWith that out of the way, sunlight is streaming across your house!\u00a0It\u2019s like God\u2019s light is covering your house!”\u00a0<\/p>\n When a pruner got rid of my silly source of comfort, light replaced something dead with joy others could share.\u00a0\u00a0As my life continued to move forward, I learned new ways to put my hope in God and reach out to other people with His love.<\/p>\n We all lose perspective sometimes, don\u2019t we? If you notice you\u2019ve been focusing on “dead things,\u201d please ask God, the master gardener, to lovingly remove them so you are free to enjoy His peace, comfort, hope and strength.\u00a0Oh, how He loves YOU!<\/p>\n\n\t\t\n\t\tSubscribe on YouTube\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/h2>\n\t