Straight Talk | Roots & Fruit

I enjoy learning new things.  When I was younger, I really enjoyed school.  When I got into college, I was introduced to a Biblical Literature, a degree offered at Northwest University. This was right up my alley because it involved research, research and more research!  Just about every week I was working on a research paper.  I didn’t mind it so much because I was a new Christian. All the study and research helped me better understand the Bible.  My passion for studying and researching didn’t stop once I graduated college. 

Today, I still find myself studying and learning new things.  When I was preparing for this article, I wanted to better understand roots. So what better place to start than learning about plant and tree roots!  No, I didn’t dig up a tree or dissect plants, but I did do a little recon work and found out some pretty exciting stuff.   

Did you know roots are the organ of a plant? Yep, it typically lies below the surface of the soil, has major functions and grows in any direction where the correct environment of air, nutrients and water exist.   Given the right conditions, roots can grow in such a way to crack foundations, snap water lines and lift sidewalks.   

Learning about plant and tree roots has been quite fascinating.  For the most part, it gives me more insight into how people are intended to grow. Think about it for a second.  Plants and trees have roots. The function of their roots are to absorb the water and nutrients, anchor the body of the plant and tree to the ground, store food and nutrients and provide basis for support. 

We aren’t too different if you think about it.  We have roots; we just don’t show them the same way.  For example, our roots extend to family and friends. They support us, help us grow, feed us with affirmation, direction, influence, and provide an anchor.  Also, our roots can be our environments and experiences.  Our environments and experiences provide nourishment for our belief systems, shape our perspectives and ideology.   

The depth of our roots is dependent upon what they are rooted in.  Perhaps you were rooted in a loving, strong and supportive family.  You were cared for, nurtured and encouraged.  Maybe, this happened throughout the generations in your family.  Naturally, your roots would be deep, given the right conditions to grow and to bear fruit accordingly. 

Say you weren’t rooted in a loving, strong and supportive family. Quite the exact opposite: inconsistent, unstable, favorable toward abuse and neglect.  Instead of care, nurture and encouragement, you felt forgotten, enslaved or an accident.  Perhaps, this happened generationally in your family.  Naturally, your roots would be shallow and you would bear fruit accordingly. 

Have you ever asked yourself the question: why do I do what I don’t want to do and the thing I want to do I don’t do? Yep, you do the do-do!  Essentially, we ask the million dollar question, “Why do I keep going around this same mountain?”  It’s a great question.   Let’s take a gander real quick at the world in which we live. 

Currently, our society tells us to correct the behavior. For example, if you have an anger problem, manage it.  If you are overweight, change the way you eat and exercise.  If something about your body isn’t up to “standard”, go under.  If you are depressed, anxious, suicidal, etc. then take pills.  Should you be afraid of losing control, making a mistake or appear without the answer, then control everything. 

If you have found that correcting a behavior isn’t working.  If you have tried to manage a habit, pattern or cycle and you aren’t getting very far.  If you have found yourself at the end of your “rope” per say, and all the chanting, poking and card reading isn’t working. Perhaps, you should stop chopping the fruit off your tree and go to the root.  Here is what I mean. 

When we have a problem and want to change, we go after what is being produced, i.e. the fruit.  Instead of trying to modify, correct or manage a behavior, head straight to the source.  In other words, go to the root cause because it is the source, the origin and the underlying support for what’s going on. 

Take a moment and read through the following scriptures. Next, journal what you understand them to mean and what sticks out to you. 

Job 18:16
His roots dry up below and his branches wither above.

Job 29:19
My roots will reach to the water, and the dew will lie all night on my branches.

Psalm 80:9
You cleared the ground for it, and it took root and filled the land.

Proverbs 12:12
The wicked desire the stronghold of evildoers, but the root of the righteous endures.

Isaiah 11:10
In that day the Root of Jesse will stand as a banner for the peoples; the nations will rally to him, and his resting place will be glorious.

Isaiah 27:6
In days to come Jacob will take root, Israel will bud and blossom and fill all the world with fruit.

Isaiah 37:31
Once more a remnant of the kingdom of Judah will take root below and bear fruit above.

Jeremiah 12:2
You have planted them, and they have taken root; they grow and bear fruit. You are always on their lips but far from their hearts.

Jeremiah 17:8
They will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit.”

Matthew 13:21
But since they have no root, they last only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away.

Luke 8:13
Those on the rocky ground are the ones who receive the word with joy when they hear it, but they have no root. They believe for a while, but in the time of testing they fall away.

Romans 11:16
If the part of the dough offered as firstfruits is holy, then the whole batch is holy; if the root is holy, so are the branches.

Romans 11:18
do not consider yourself to be superior to those other branches. If you do, consider this: You do not support the root, but the root supports you.

Ephesians 3:17
so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love,

Colossians 2:7
rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.

Galatians 5:13-26

You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love.  For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” If you bite and devour each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other.

So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.

The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.