Tuesday, November 11, 2014

Roots

So I have been thinking about that tree Jason wrote about before.  I picture this massive tree with deep roots, distinctly beautiful through every season.  I imagine it standing tall and proud in this open field.  I picture it blazing from the inside.  I try to figure out how it was burning yet not entirely consumed.  I wonder how long did it burn?  What was it like before?  After?  Then I remember what Jason wrote about passion and standing firm.  I cannot help but sigh and feel crummy.  

Then I think about another tree that is rooted in my mind - a tree that caught my eye on the way to a friend’s house one day, a tree standing alone in open field.  Yet this tree was vastly different.  This tree was weak.  This tree looked dead.  There were no leaves like many other trees had at the time.  No fire.  This tree looked old and crumbly.  I feel like this tree- fear, isolation, different. It’s all I can do to just stand.  There is no passion.    

This cycle of the image Jason painted and the image I saw with my own eyes is never ending.  For months it has stuck in my heart.  I want so badly to feel the passion burning inside me but I feel so empty.  It’s much easier to stick with the image I remember.  But the burning tree ignites this aching hope.  It’s almost too much.  I feel like giving up.  But something stops me.  I may feel like this dead tree with nothing left inside, but my roots are strong.  What are the roots you may wonder?  The roots are the friends and family that love me.  The roots are the leaders that guide me to the truth.  The roots are the prayers for strength.  The roots are the Paul’s words in Ephesians.  The roots are the song lyrics like…Burn bright in my life, burn away the things I hold tight.  The roots hold me up.  The roots remind me, “It’s such a different thing to know in your head and feel in your heart.”

I wonder is that aching hope a spark to a burning passion?  Maybe the spark is the passion.  On our own it is just a spark.  But if we give God control of our spark He can use it is a mighty flame for all to see.  Under our control it will consume us.  We need to let God burn away the things we hold tight.  To the world we still look like a tree- but there is something different about us.  There is a light inside us.  See the intense passion is not the fire itself but is the bright blaze that God creates in us.

Think of the tree.  Season by season it changes.  Leaves sprout, change colors, and fall.  The tree has barren seasons.  Branches stretch into new branches.  Trees bloom and trees wither.  Season by season the tree is there – standing.  Sometimes it stands firm.  Other times it all it can do to just stand.  Same with life; we go through seasons.  We experience seasons of growth and joy, beauty and new life, seasons of pain and loss, and seasons of fear and anticipation.  I am the tree.  You are the tree.  The question is not if you have any passion- but who controls it.  The question is what are you holding tightly to that needs burnt away?  What season are you in?  What roots do you have?  The question is who controls your spark?  I know who controls mine.  Sometimes I feel the need to grab the spark back and control it myself.  But that’s why I am grateful for the roots God has placed in my life.

Need some roots?  I know a great place to find some.  Join us Thursday 645-800 pm on the 13th of November at McAllister Recreation Center - just off 20th and Schuyler, Lafayette.  All ages, all seasons.  There is something for everyone.  Safe, loving childcare provided.

Megan