Strong Roots

On Saturday, Lorie and I did some work around the house. One thing Lorie really wanted to do, get rid of the bushes in front of the garage. They were little four foot evergreens, they really didn't fit.

Now, both bushes looked exactly the same. I mean exactly. The same height, same width, they even both had the same brown spot on the back where they weren't getting sunlight.

So I started pulling the one out. And I pulled. And I pulled. And nothing. It was painful. So I sawed it down to dig out the root. It wouldn't budge (I even broke a shovel). I tried everything. Eventually I had to get my other shovel and my axe, digging out a side then hacking at the roots. At one point we even found a bulbous root, about the size of my fist. All in all, we finally got it out. It took almost an hour and a half.

Then I looked at the other tree. Great. I really didn't want to do that all over again. But I had to, can't leave just one tree. So I started to pull, and it came right out. There was one tiny root, we cut it with the pruning shears. The second bush took 45 seconds.

It showed me the importance of strong roots. The hard thing about roots, you don't see them. Both trees looked exactly alike. There was no way to know one had strong roots and one had weak. Likewise we need to be doing the hard things that no one sees to have strong roots. A verse we used the other night at Drink Deep (our Senior High Meeting) -

Colossians 2:6-7 ~ And now, just as you accepted Christ Jesus as your Lord, you must continue to follow Him. Let your roots grow down into Him, and let your lives be built on Him. Then your faith will grow strong in the truth you were taught, and you will overflow with thankfulness. (NLT)

So dive into some teaching and get some strong roots. It may just save you from being torn up one day...

T