I’m going to Fuller seminary right now, one class at a time, and this summer, I’m taking NT 500. One of my assignments this week was to read the Gospel of Mark in one sitting. Mark is the shortest of the four gospels, the biographies or historical books about the life of Jesus. Most think it’s one of the earliest gospels written.
I came to the Parable of the Sower, a story Jesus tells about seeds that fall on different kinds of soil, and how various kinds of soil help the seeds or hurt them.
Jesus talks about what happens when seeds fall on rocky ground.
Other seed fell on rocky ground, where it did not have much soil, and it sprang up quickly, since it had no depth of soil. And when the sun rose, it was scorched; and since it had no root, it withered away. Mark 4:5-6
Later, he explains more about what happens when we don’t have strong roots. How when trouble comes we crash and fall away.
This got me to thinking about roots and trees, my garden and my own life. I desperately want to be a person with deep roots, authentic and grounded. Life’s storms are bound to blow and we never see them coming. Like just the other day, I drove into a curb and popped two tires on my car. Lovely. Just lovely.
Reading this parable got me to thinking. What are some things I can do to help my roots grow deep? What can I do to make sure I’m rooting down in good rich soil, so when the storms do come, I don’t blow away?
Here are three practical things we can do to help our roots go down deep:
If you want good, rich soil, you need to keep good, rich company. There is nothing so wonderful as having thoughtful, caring friends who enrich our lives. Are most of your friends exactly like you? Do your friends look like you, act like you, think like you? If that is the case, you need to enrich your life’s soil. We need friends who are wiser than we are, who will push us to think beyond ourselves. We need friends who will challenge the status quo in our lives and ask hard questions, and who live differently than we do. If all your friends agree with you on every single subject, you’re living a very truncated life.
Roots that go deep, drink from deep places. You have to drink deep. We live in an incredibly superficial age. Consumerism is over-the-top, and quick, easy answers are what we tend to run toward. To have deep roots, you have to find ways to force yourself to go deeper. Alan Jacobs calls it temporal bandwidth. Read good books from people who lived long ago. Watch movies and television shows that offer a different perspective and force you to think. See a few movies with subtitles. Go to the other side of town and makes some friends who aren’t from your side of the train-tracks. Have painfully awkward conversations with people about things that you don’t understand. Ask people about their childhood and listen. Travel. Get out. Find ways to fill up your emotional and spiritual reservoir that cost you something.
Third, weather a few dry spells. Trees that are over-watered tip over and fall during wind storms because they have shallow roots. This happens in Seattle sometimes because we have so much rain. Roots that go deep are trees that have weathered seasons of drought. Loneliness, boredom, failure … all work as tools to help mold your character if you’ll let them. They work to deepen your roots if you’ll show up and do the work. If you freak out the moment you’re bored and find something to fix it, you won’t learn how to weather drought. If you organize your life so you’re never alone, you’re never going to learn how to be at home with yourself. Learn to be just a bit more settled with your own sense of I-am-not-very-comfortable, and you’ll be amazed at how much your sense of strength and inner resolve grows over time.
One of my favorite literary heroes says …
Deep roots are not reached by the frost.
Deep roots don’t just happen to us. We cultivate our root system by choosing the company we keep, the media we take in, and how to wrestle through our life circumstances.
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