Deal With the Roots

It's a simple gardening truth . . . if something is growing above the ground, there's some roots growing underground.

Sometimes those things growing are good, and we want the roots to be strong and grow down deep so the plant can thrive.

Sometime those things growing are weeds and we don't want them to strong roots. We hope that they have shallow roots that are easy to remove, so the weed doesn't just come back. If the whole root isn't pulled up, the weed will just come back again.

(OK, that's the extent of my gardening knowledge . . . don't ask me to keep a plant alive.)

This same concept can be applied to our spiritual lives as well. I've heard a lot about this is the last couple weeks.

If something is showing itself in our lives, it's because the roots are there for it to grow. Whether good or bad, it comes from somewhere below the surface.

Those things that are good in our lives - those are things we want to go down deep inside us. Because we want them to stay.

Those things in our lives we wish we didn't do - those sins we struggle with - those are the things where we want to remove them from our lives root and all. We really hope they don't have deep roots, because that makes it more work to remove them.

Just stopping doing something we don't like, may not be enough if it's coming from somewhere that we don't deal with. Then we're just removing the part that's above the ground and it will come back. We have to take out the root if we don't want it to come back.

It's not always easy to get the whole root out - whether in our physical gardens or in our lives. It takes work to dig down and find the whole root so we can pull it out. But it is worth it.

Dealing with the root is important. We can't ignore it, because it won't go away on its own.