What Is Damaging Our Growth?

I’m not a great fan of the often-constricting rules created by HOAs, though I understand the reasons behind them. Homeowners Associations create standards designed to “preserve and enhance” the property values of an entire community by regulating what residents can and can’t do with their properties. Some find these restrictive, while others appreciate the intention to protect the value of such a major investment.

HOA regulations came to mind recently when I came across the tree branch pictured above during one of my morning walks in the neighborhood. As you can see, it’s still wrapped up in holiday lights, though the tree is starting to bud out with new growth. Now, I’m fairly certain (though I did not look it up) that I recall the HOA newsletter giving us a deadline by which all holiday decorations had to be taken down. It certainly should have happened by now!

The HOA’s reasoning for decorations removal is probably based on the social calendar. As I looked at this branch, however, I saw something different. I realized how much the tree itself would be harmed if homeowners were to remove these strings of lights at this point in the year. The clusters of emerging blossoms and tiny leaflets would easily be broken off, and the tree would lose valuable pollination possibilities and leafy sustenance during the months ahead.

This happens at a societal level too. I think about the sudden and untimely stripping of funds and support for everything from USAID to cancer research. This has damaged the growth of hundreds of projects that impact literally millions of human lives, now and in the future. The tree that is our shared network of support on this planet is being mercilessly torn apart in ways too numerous to imagine.

So, what is ours to do? The impact is being felt at all levels of society, and our response can be too. Are you called to protest the work, to take a stand on the public level? In what ways can you push back and disrupt the comfort of the powerful in this increasingly flawed system? Are you invited to care for those whose branches are being stripped and broken?

I invite you to pray for this American tree (including the roots, which reach far into Canada and Mexico) and for all whose growth has been damaged by recent ill-timed and unconsidered actions. We will be suffering the effects of this damage for generations. We get to(!) be in this work for the long haul.