Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and he will establish your plans. Proverbs 16:3 NIV

Wow! As I look out my windows, the signs of spring are popping out all over. Our perennials and trees are making a strong comeback from that nasty spring freeze in March. Lots of plants are showing off their spring colors, and the trees are budding out nicely, except for one, my favorite red maple.

We are blessed to have four lovely mature trees in our yard. Our large pin oak graces the front yard, a treasured old bur oak sits between our neighbors and us, and two red maples are at home in the back yard, waiting patiently to show off their fall colors.

When we moved here over ten years ago, those maples were still just teenagers, about fifteen feet tall, and their growth was mostly upward. In the intervening years, they’ve probably doubled in height and begun a more mature spread, turning the backyard from a sunny space into a very shady one. The trees stand about forty feet apart and, for a number of years, they flanked a large island of perennials. We removed that bed a few years back, but the watering of all those perennials, along with the mulch that covered the bed, helped to create a condition not uncommon to maples called girdling roots. The term girdled may have been borrowed from the corsets worn by ladies of a bygone era, in that they tighten around the body to restrict the waistline. Girdling roots circle the base of the tree and continue to grow tighter, restricting the flow of water and nutrients, essentially strangling the tree.

Improper planting can also cause girdling to occur. If a tree, or any plant, has been in a pot long enough to become potbound—that is, with roots circling around the plant because the pot won’t allow them to spread outward—you must break those roots apart and spread them out before planting, so they can grow properly away from the base of the plant.

We made it easy for our tree to obtain water at the surface of the ground, and small roots formed there, hidden under the mulch. It wasn’t until the landscape bed was removed that we realized we had acquired a mass of these roots climbing over each other, resembling a sort of snake’s nest in appearance. This tree typically sprouts leaves before the other maple in spring and drops them later in the fall, providing a prolonged period of beautiful color. Last fall, the sequence reversed. The other maple was absolutely lovely, but my favorite tree just turned brown and dropped its leaves. This spring, it’s sprouting new leaves much later, and they are small and unhealthy in appearance. Intervention is required.

So, we’ve been researching, and Ken is currently attempting to cut as many of the girdled roots away from the tree as he can. They are not just keeping our tree from reaching its potential. If they aren’t removed, it will slowly die. We hope to avert that.

And, of course, those strangling roots made me wonder how much my spiritual roots are being strangled by the girdling effect of the distractions in my life. They don’t necessarily have to be negative distractions; losses of relationships, illness, or financial issues. We can become distracted by overcommitting to good causes, like taking on an extra class when we don’t have time to keep up with the other ones, accepting new leadership roles when we’re already bogged down, and taking on new volunteer opportunities, prompting the erosion of our efforts in others we had started.

Too many commitments can weigh us down with responsibility so that our spiritual roots are strangling, just like that maple tree in our backyard. We all require downtime to be the people God meant us to be. We need the nutrients that can only be supplied by spending time in the Word and talking with Jesus. The next time you’re asked to accept a new commitment, take a good look at what you’re already doing and be sure that you can continue to flourish by adding something new. Or maybe you could choose to drop a current project and take on something new and different that would be more fulfilling.

Think about a maple tree struggling with girdling roots each time you consider adding more to your plate. Sometimes less is better.

You have planted them, and they have taken root, they grow and bear fruit. Jeremiah 12:2 NIV