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Men of Integrity, Nov/Dec 2001
The Wrencher
Theme for this Week: Tapping in to God's Power
Tuesday, December 11
Key Bible Verse: After you have suffered a little while, he will restore, support, and strengthen you, and he will place you on a firm foundation (1 Peter 5:10).
Bonus Reading: 1 Peter 1:6
During a tour of a forestry giant's properties, our guide led us out into a huge field of two- and three-year-old trees. He explained that the first year of a Douglas fir's life is spent in an indoor nursery, its next several years in the field. Then, it's transplanted to the forest and grows naturally until harvest at about 30 years.
The guide pointed to a tractor pulling an apparatus on a sled. He said, "That machine is a wrencher." He then explained that when trees in the field reach two years, the wrencher is driven down their row. The wrencher slices the roots off several inches under the ground. The wrencher then literally lifts the tree up out of the ground and drops it back down on top of its original hole where it is allowed to resume its growth.
The wrenching process stimulates the growth of new roots, a thicker taproot, and a broader root base.
I've had some wrenching experiences: the sizzling pain of rejection, the loss of loved ones, health issues like my diabetes. These things slash at our roots. They cut us off from the comforts we know. Wrenching isn't fun, but it's necessary for strength, growth, and fruitfulness.
—Randy Rowland in Sins We Love
My Response:
Something that is wrenching me right now is . …
Thought to Apply:
Storms make oaks take deeper root.
—Anonymous
Adapted from: Sins We Love (Doubleday, 2000)
For your convenience, Sins We Love is available in the ChristianityToday.com bookstore.
Copyright © 2001 by the author or Christianity Today, Inc./Men of Integrity magazine.
Click here for reprint information on Men of Integrity.
November/December 2001, Vol. 4, No. 6
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Prayer for the Week |
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Sovereign Lord, help me to accept my trials as permitted by You to strengthen me.
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