Rooted

“The seed falling on rocky soil represents those who hear the message and immediately receive it with joy. But since they don’t have deep roots, they don’t last long. They fall away as soon as they have problems or are persecuted for believing God’s word.” Matthew 13:20-21 (NLT).

I so admire people who are good gardeners and can grow just about anything! On the other hand, I had a reputation for killing just about any plant out there. But I decided during Covid to try to develop some gardening skills. I’m getting there slowly, but one helpful thing is having good, knowledgeable, and patient friends to whom I can turn for answers to my many questions. For example, in early Spring this year, I started to grow several plants indoors before transferring them outside, but some were not growing well at all, no matter what I did. They kept falling over for some reason; I was stumped, so I asked my friend what I was doing wrong. He told me that outdoor plants get pushed around in the wind and the rain, and the occasional bugs and little animals brush up against them, too. My indoor environment was basically “too safe.” It meant that my plants didn’t HAVE to grow deep roots to help them stand up to resistance, so now they were floppy and frail and kept falling over. So, my friend prescribed a regular dose of “resistance” to force my coddled little plants to grow deep roots. Every day, I would gently run my fingers through the leaves, blow wind on them, etc. The goal was to disrupt my plants’ peaceful and easy existence to train them to go deep to grow strong.

Unfortunately, the same logic applies to our lives, too. We all wish for an easy existence with no resistance or trouble, but that would make us coddled and frail Christians unable to cope with life. I suppose that might be what James had in mind when he said: “Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.” James 1:2-4 (NIV). Although having troubles, challenges and ‘resistance’ in life is no picnic, we can trust that God is the ultimate good gardener (John 15:1). We can trust that God knows how to train us to develop deep roots so we will be strong and able to stand firm even in the face of life’s disturbances.

Today, I still kill the occasional plant, but I managed to harvest a bunch of fresh veggies this year. Those little coddled, frail plants that kept falling over became strong and produced great lettuce all summer! My friend was right; resistance makes us develop the deep roots we need to produce good fruits (or lettuce, in my case).