Sweet-gum Saga

  Liquidambar styraciflua, better known as Sweet-gum, is a tree that can be both blessing and curse. Please bear with my Sweet-gum saga.
  Upon the realization that I should plant a church, the first order of business was to purchase a place to live. We had hitherto been captive to occupying a church owned residence, known in Baptist circles as a “parsonage.” Since the church we were serving at the time had no interest in sharing in a birthing process, it was assured that they would not take kindly to our remaining in their house. Our search led us to a property in close proximity to the zip code that represented those who had proven most receptive to our previous three years of ministry. (Philosophically, this is going where the fish are biting.) It was a house built in 1958 on a small lot with a Sweet-gum tree overlooking the backyard from the street side of a chainlink fence.
  Over the years, this tree served several purposes. During our children’s formative years, and especially our son, it was a place of adventure, exercise and observation. During the summer months it was the source of ample shade from the hot and humid days. During the fall and winter months it provided practice material for my golf game in the form of its round, prickly fruit as an abundant source of substitute balls. And then, there was another side.
  At some point, my having taken down a section of the fence for a driveway and storage structure, it became a good place to park a vehicle under its sprawling canopy, providing relief from the brutal summer sun. It didn’t take long before I realized the downside to this parking arrangement. Certain types of birds love Sweet-gum trees, not only as a perch but also as a roost. My truck began to look like it had been parked in a barn yard rather than a backyard. Assuming that the problem was caused by a fowl perching practice, I took my trusty chainsaw, scaled the heights and eliminated all of the branches that extended over the fence and above the parking spot. Amazingly, nothing changed regarding the problem because these foul fowl did what they did immediately after takeoff and prior to landing! Since my plans included either a garage or carport, the tree had to go!
  There are a number of myths endemic to our culture. There is the myth of what is known as “Banker’s Hours”, a reference to when a bank used to be accessible to the general population for business, typically 9:00 am until 3:00 pm. I fully understood the mythical component while working for a bank from 1972-1974. My “Banker’s Hours”? 11:00 pm until 7:00 am, better know as the “graveyard shift”. Then, there is the myth of preacher income.
  The joke goes something like this. Three boys are out fishing and began talking about how much money their dad’s made. The first boy says, “My dad is a lawyer and makes $50 an hour.” The second boy says, “My dad is a banker and needs a vault for his money.” The third boy says, “My dad is a preacher and it takes four men to carry all of his!” While there are a few preachers who make millions a year, most of us are at the other end of the income spectrum. When it comes to having extra money for the removal of trees, it’s just not in the budget.
  Fast forward a few years. The tree is long gone and it didn’t cost me a cent. This Sweet-gum saga is less about tree problems and removal than it is about social networking for church planting. And just as the tree removal had to wait, so will the rest of this story......