God's Coaching #339

God's Coaching #339

Timber! All Canadian trees beware—it’s lumberjacking season in the Great White North! A lumberjack, in case you didn’t know, is a person who cuts down trees. Think axes, saws, and heavy flannel shirts. December is the heart of the Canadian Intercollegiate Lumberjacking Association (CILA) season. CILA events are contested between October and February each year among six Canadian colleges and universities—Algonquin, McGill, Nova Scotia Agricultural, Sir Sandford Fleming, New Brunswick, and Maritime College of Forest Technology. Who else but America’s husky northern neighbors would create a competitive sport that involves chain saws, axes, and log stacking?

The rules of CILA competition are relatively simple: try to score more points than the other team, and don’t chop off your hand. Just kidding. Actually, CILA events are a little more complex than that. Participants compete in Chain Saw, Underhand Chop, Pole Climb, Log Decking, Ax Throw, and Super Swede Saw. If you feel more manly just reading about this sport, consider that lumberjacking isn’t just for men. The CILA hosts women’s competitions, too. (I wonder if they’re called lumberjills.)

What’s the Score?

Believe it or not, Jesus used the imagery of lumberjacking to teach us an important lesson about life. In Luke 3:9, Jesus said God’s judgment is like a sharp ax and that people are like trees. If a tree produces good fruit, it is safe. But any bad, fruitless tree will be cut down and destroyed. In other words, we all have a choice to make. We can be healthy trees that produce the good, pleasing fruit of obedience, thanks to a heart that is changed by Jesus. The fruit of a healthy tree can be found in Galatians 5:22-23. God will bless these trees. Or we can choose to be bad trees, withered by sin and a lack of faith. Fruitless trees are worthless.

Just like a farmer wouldn’t keep an apple tree that doesn’t produce apples, God will cut down, or separate from himself, all those who aren’t connected to him and don’t produce the kind of fruit that comes as a result of being saved through his grace. With this in mind, the choice is obvious. Be a good, fruit-bearing tree for the Lord!

On the Ball

Ask your parents to help you plant and care for a tree as a reminder that God wants you to be a healthy, fruitful Christian.

Coach’s Comment

Even now the ax of God’s judgment is poised, ready to sever the roots of the trees. Yes, every tree that does not produce good fruit will be chopped down and thrown into the fire. Luke 3:9