TO BE ROOTED DEEPLY, NO I MEAN REALLY DEEP

Ever see a tree blown over by strong winds?  I mean sometimes there doesn't have to be a real storm, just a strong wind will topple some trees.  It doesn't take mush to blow over a tree who's roots are shallow.  I remember as a child, we had a beautiful apple tree in our yard.  I used to love to pick the apples and eat them.  I could climb up in that tree and sit there just breathing the smell of the apple blossoms in the spring.  It was an awesome tree.  Then one day we got a lot of rain, I mean a lot.  The wind wasn't even blowing that badly.  I looked outside our kitchen window to see that apple tree laying on the ground. 

I was so sad.  I couldn't understand why it fell so I asked my dad.  "Well Deb, the roots were very shallow.  When the roots of a tree are shallow, the slightest amount of wind or rain can destroy it."  No more apples.  No more apple pie. No more apple strudel.  No more applesauce.  My world had been destroyed (at least in my little mind).  

  I remember another time when my mom decided it was time to redo the landscaping in the front of the house.  (If any of you have the yew evergreens and tried to remove them and the roots you will understand where I am going with this one.)  We had probably a total of 8 yew bushes in front of our house and my mom wanted them all removed.  They were large and overgrown and basically dead on the inside.  Outside it looked lush and green but once we trimmed them, they looked awful. 

So my loving, and not so patient father, went to the garage and grabbed a shovel and an ax.  Well let's just say words flew as the dirt flew.  Those stupid bushes had roots that went deeper than the basement of the house, at least that's what my dad said only in very different words I cannot put on the internet.  It took a few broken shovels and a few broken axes but eventually the bushes came out, often without most of the bottom of the roots.    

   Colossians 2: 7   Have the roots [of your being] firmly and deeply planted [in Him, fixed and founded in Him], being continually built up in Him, becoming increasingly more confirmed and established in the faith, just as you were taught, and abounding and overflowing in it with thanksgiving.

Roots?  Who would have ever figured how important they would be?  I mean I know to trees and plants they are extremely important, but to me?  Sometimes I wonder just how deep my roots go down.  How rooted in Jesus Christ am I?  Do my roots go deep or are they shallow?   

Let me be honest here, for most of my life I have had a very strong faith, but to say my roots went deep would be wrong.  There are still times today that I get wrapped up in stupid distractions and my roots creep back up to the surface.  I know I'm not alone here.  I (we) are human and we are tempted by the distractions Satan puts in front of us.  TV, internet, games, gambling, books and magazines filled with lust, money, and so much other stuff draws us away from allowing our roots to go down deeper with Jesus.

Also, if I may admit this, it's a little scary to go deeper with Jesus.  He may take us away from our comfort zone and step outside of ourselves.  He may require us to do something we don't think we can do.  He may have us look in the mirror and get really honest about who we are and who He wants us to be.  He may remove some of our friends from our lives.  And God forbid, He may actually want us to stop going out to bars on Saturday night. 

It can be frightening to allow our roots to go deeper, but I have a promise from God, that when my roots are deeper, the storms in life will not bother me and will not knock me down.   I want my roots to become so deep that nothing or no one can blow me over in a storm.  Who's with me?

Lord, forgive me for allowing the distractions in life to cause my roots to be shallow.  Lord I want to go deeper with you.  I want my roots to be grounded in you and your love, in Jesus name I pray, amen.