Roots

Roots. Little tendrils at the very base of a plant or tree weave themselves down into the soil. Taproots drive straight and deep, providing the stability and foundation that the plant requires to stay upright. Fibrous, lateral roots spread widely throughout the immediate environment, seeking nutrients and water for growth. Without this network, the plant’s growth is stunted and its life is cut short.

I have been wrestling this week with some of the words that the Lord has spoken to me. He has (as you heard in my previous blog) reminded me that His word itself brings testing. It doesn’t feel great. Remaining solid and unwavering as His word brings difficulties into your life is hard. Recognizing that there are areas where you need to grow, seeking out the sources of nutrition and the refreshing places that will water you to accomplish that growth – those things take effort that is sometimes exhausting.

As I sat with His word and put my exhaustion before my caring Father, He gently led me to Matthew 13. Verses 20 and 21  read:
               “And the one sown on rocky ground – this is one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy. But he has no root and is short-lived. When distress or persecution comes because of the word, immediately he falls away.”

No root. The ground [the person’s life] that this seed [this word from the Lord] falls into receives it! This is not a parable of someone rejecting Jesus or His word. This person gets excited! They are joyful! Here is a seed worth growing! … But then stuff happens.

I’ve had to sit with this one and let the Lord speak. This isn’t just about how we respond to the initial word about who Jesus is, the forgiveness that He offers us, and the reconciliation back to relationship with God that we can have in Him. It’s about how we CONTINUE to respond as he plants His word in us.

How often have we heard the Lord, received His word into our lives, gotten really excited about it… and then within a very short period of time, abandoned it? Have we been convicted to start something, to use our gifting in some way, to practice a discipline, and a week later can’t even remember what we were so excited about? I have seen it over and over in my years in the church. There’s even language for it in organized religious settings: “the youth camp high,” the “mountaintop experience” the “Kumbaya moment.” We recognize that it is happening, give it verbiage, and then keep doing it!
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Lord, convict our hearts. Convict MY heart. Let us turn away from this endless cycle of getting excited about what You plant in us and then not leaning on the root system You provide to sustain us. The things You plant require YOU in us to grow. We need You. Let the tap root of our relationship with the Father through Jesus and empowered by the Holy Spirit run deep. Let the lateral root system of connection to other believers, of study and conversation, of relationship and rest grow strong and intertwined so that we are not knocked sideways without support. Father, as Your word in us brings distraction, distress, even opposition and pain, may the above-ground, visible part of our lives continue to flourish, flower, and produce fruit because we have established the root system well.