07 05 11 A Time to Tear Down and a Time to Build Up: Are they the same thing?

Springtime is a season when I am particularly motivated to cut down cottonwoods and certain other trees. I suffer from allergies to some trees and am especially affected during the spring time budding season, so I feel most motivated to cut when my allergies are most affected. So I was cutting down cottonwoods on our property this spring, making room for some fruit trees we want to plant someday, when a neighbor came by. I saw him watching me work, so I stopped to talk.


“Clearing land to build something?” he asked.


“No, I’m allergic to cottonwoods, so I’m taking them down to plant something else.”


With that he looked up and down the rest of the mountain beyond my property, all of which is cottonwood forest, and asked, “Are you going to cut down the whole mountain?”


Well, of course I don’t want to cut down the whole mountain—I only have rights to a little bit of it, anyway—and therefore my allergic reactions never will go away; I truly am aware of that fact, even as I cut the trees. And yet, I also feel justified in cutting these trees. As I pondered how to respond to him, it occurred to me this encounter raises the question of why humanity, or Western humanity at least, feels so justified to arrogantly do whatever they want with nature. That arrogance has brought our planet into our current time, a time in which its life systems are deconstructing at a monumental pace. What about me and my impact on nature?


Living in relationship with nature clearly cannot mean having no impact on nature. Tribal cultures, like traditional Native American cultures, often have a sense of a permanent relationship with the land that must be cared for forever. At least some Native American culture cultivated forests so that the plants that best flourished were the ones that were edible or otherwise useful to the people. This turned out to be such a great idea that others are rediscovering it in our day; we now call that kind of gardening forest gardening.


Living relationally is less about having no impact on the ones we are in relationship with, and more about taking the long view and working together with our relational partners so that all may thrive for generations to come. The old Iroquois proverb comes to mind, which calls on leaders, in their every deliberation, to consider the consequences of their decision to the seventh generation of those to come. We must live now in such a way that others can live well later.


In my case, I certainly could have told my neighbor more than I did. Yes, I feel motivated to cut cottonwoods when my allergies are acting up, but that is not really why I do it. I wouldn’t cut the trees if there were not a use for them, or if we did not have a plan to build up the forest ecosystem afterward. The trees make beautiful lumber, and we are using them that way. But we also want at least a section of the canopy portion of our forest (that is, trees) to bear more edible plants than it does now. This requires cutting out some cottonwoods and planting a few other varieties of trees.


On the other hand, my neighbor’s comments were telling in another way. At this moment I have a lot of logs laying on the ground which I will have to cut into lumber, and there are a lot of branches to drag over to the chipper to make mulch. The place does look like a construction zone. And yes, we are in the process of constructing something. We are working in concert with the land toward a future that will be much more sustainable as a human-nature partnership than our current situation. We who live in the world in this generation must engage in that kind of work, if we are to give real hope to future generations.


Since engaging in that kind of work means tearing down what is there now in order to make way for what is to come, it causes me to ponder.

  • What is God wanting for the future?
  • What am I aware of that has that ugly, construction zone look about it marking what is being “deconstructed” in order that God can “construct” something new?
  • How well am I looking for that new thing God is bringing about,and how am I called to participate in this work as God’s relational partner?

It seems to me that God is doing this kind of work in my personal life, my family, my country, my church, in human social networks, human economics and in the world’s ecology. That’s a lot to ponder.


Ecclesiastes 3:1-8

1 There is a time for everything,
and a season for every activity under the heavens…

2 a time to be born and a time to die,
a time to plant and a time to uproot,
3 a time to kill and a time to heal,
a time to tear down and a time to build,
4 a time to weep and a time to laugh,
a time to mourn and a time to dance,
5 a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing,
6 a time to search and a time to give up,
a time to keep and a time to throw away,
7 a time to tear and a time to mend,
a time to be silent and a time to speak,
8 a time to love and a time to hate,
a time for war and a time for peace.



Luke 21:5-6

But Jesus said, 6 “As for what you see here (the beautiful temple of Jerusalem), the time will come when not one stone will be left on another; every one of them will be thrown down.”


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