I say enough. I’ve spent enough time floating through life. I look good on the outside. I appear to be living for God. But what I don’t want to admit is how little effort I put into my relationship with God. To disclose how complacent I’ve become would be shameful.

I don’t think I ever get this way deliberately. Initially, it may be an event or season that caused my spiritual walk to suffer. Busyness is always an easy excuse. I may not even be aware that I enjoyed the time it freed up. But what started out as unintentional can quickly evolve into intentional if not caught. Soon it abandons unintended and becomes a conscious choice. More appealing activities occupy my time when I should be reading God’s Word, rejuvenating my spirit and growing in my faith. As my view of God slowly grows dimmer, the temporal joys take over. They become my preferred interest. They become my idol.

It’s not always easy to see amidst it but over time and especially looking back I realize I easily traded freedom and life in Christ for a wearisome existence of self-contentment. Instead of joy, depression, sadness and loneliness developed. Extremely burdened by the heaviness of daily life. Nothing was going my way. Nothing was fulfilling. There was no joy. I’m selfish, irritable, discontented. And the further from God I got, the blinder I was to my position of wretchedness.

And then snip.

Out of nowhere something occurs that is unexpected. Something I just couldn’t prepare for. Something happened that began an unraveling of myself that stripped me down to the core.

Often the method God uses is neither anticipated nor pleasant. His pruning is often painful and breathtaking as it slices to the very center of our being and maybe even our belief system. And yet, the pruning is crucial.

After a little while, I thought I knew what he was cutting away at, yet suddenly he cut off a branch that took me by surprise. It’s a core branch, God. It threatened to destroy and uproot everything. God, I didn’t know this was a problem, I pleaded with him. It’s what I built my life around. It’s what I consider valuable. It’s what I put my love and effort into. It’s what I’ve worked all my life for.

The pruning is so deep and profound that it feels as if there is nothing left that makes me who I am. My identity is gone. Who am I? My hopes, dreams, desires, expectations have all been stripped away.

Sometimes God doesn’t just snip one branch at a time. Sometimes he snips many at once and it feels like it comes from every direction. But these slices are vital to our walk with God. They disconnect us from idols, false beliefs, pride, lies or even victimization. Some of these branches have grown since we were children and have become part of our life’s foundation. When God prunes a branch it may cause pain but ultimately changes the direction of our life. It calls our focus and dependency to turn away from ourselves toward Christ. And as we abide in Him and he abides in us we begin to look less like our idol and more like Christ.

It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness. For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. Hebrews 12:7-11

It is for our good. And every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. John 15:2

And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. Romans 8:28