McMusing: Thoughts on Untangling Life
One of my favorite salvaged reflections from a Facebook post on January 29, 2024
While home from college one summer, I was helping my parents work on a duplex they had recently bought for rental property. My dad and I decided it was a good day to clear out the wildly overgrown front yard.
An older woman had lived in the front part of the duplex for years and planted a lot but never trimmed. She had created cardboard paths through the middle of everything-many layers deep. It was rather spooky in the middle of it all as we ran across abandoned objects. Many of the trees and plants were salvageable, but we realized much of the mess was one huge vine that had wound its way around everything.
I asked my dad how long he thought that vine was, and then we smiled at each other because we knew we wanted to find out. He pointed to the edge of the yard, and said, "Look, I think that is the end of it. Get ahold of it and I will try to cut it loose. Just keep walking it out into the street."
Before we finished, I was two blocks down the street. We got to the root of the thing and my dad had somehow managed to save most of the plants and trees. It took some time, and I am sure the neighbors were watching.
Would it have been easier to chop it all into pieces and toss it away? Yes, definitely easier. What we would have missed by doing that was an appreciation of the vine that at the base looked more like a tree. Also, my dad and I would have missed the shared experience. We also would probably have destroyed some perfectly healthy plants in the process.
I was thinking about this story this morning as I considered the wide range of friends and followers who have joined me. I am grateful for all of you. And if I were to ask your views on the word "deconstruction" your views would be quite varied! So, I avoid that--let's avoid that, OK?
Instead, let me share how my journey of healing trauma and living out my faith has been much like unearthing that vine. At the root was a childlike faith that believed that God was good and loving. And when I unwound it from all those things that were choking the life out of it, I realized how hard I worked to stay above the mess and enjoy the sunlight. It was interesting that the vine was peeking out of the edges of the wild overgrown yard. It wasn't trying to escape its roots; it was trying to grow.
What I find sad is how often those who seek hope at the edges are chopped to pieces and thrown in the trash heap. When I think of my younger self who called back to my dad from blocks away with the vine in my hands, it feels like my life right now. No, I have not left my roots behind. I have unwound my life from all the entanglements and gone out into the street to live life more freely.
I somehow have managed to not get chopped into pieces in this process and I am grateful. I am out here calling out encouragement to those who are working to clear the entanglements that choke the life out of the plants in the yard. I can still see my dad working as diligently in that yard as he did in the church. Keeping either a church or a yard from being overtaken while not destroying the plants requires both caution and determination. Putting down layers of cardboard to keep walking in the entanglements is not effective. And those seeking daylight will gravitate to the edges unless we cultivate yards where people can heal, breathe, and grow.