Remember Your Roots But...

This summer, I found a coffee cup that said,  

"Lessons from a tree.  Reach for the sky.  Remember your roots.  Be content with your natural beauty."

I really liked the line..."Remember your roots".  I am thankful for my roots.  But sometimes, root systems can be complicated, can't they?  

This week, we had our first snow and frost and it killed parts of my plants in my garden.  I just decided instead of trimming off all the dead and hoping it may produce for a few more weeks...I just pulled out all the plants to be done with it for this season.  As I tugged and pulled on those large plants, boy, they had quite the tough root system.  

A few thoughts came from that day.

The roots of your life are what have sustained you and allowed you to grow into the person you are today.  

Even though there are some experiences in my life I wish I didn't have to experience...there are days and months that I wish I could wipe clean from the white board of my life...they shaped me - good and bad into the person that I am today at 39 years old.

Your roots will always be the foundation of "YOU".  

It was your start, your beginning.  Don't forget it.

Lastly, there is times in your life where you pull up those roots.  

You look at the lifeless plant of your life and realize - it is time to start over.  Yes, roots, you gave me my start.  You provided the nourishment I needed for that season.  You allowed me to produce fruit and become what I could be for that season.  

Isn't interesting though how God designed plants?  There are seasons of death.

Maybe you are like me.  I have felt that I had to go through a season of death before I could go into a new season of my life.  I'm not the same Christian I was as a teenager.  I had to clear some of those ideas and thoughts of what a Christian is in order to grow again.  I'm not the same wife I was as a newly married person.  I had to clear out those ideas and thoughts.

It is a painful process.  When you pull up those roots, it is not easy.  But it is needful.  

I want to be willing to pull up those roots.  Roots that contain anger, bitterness, resentment.  Roots that hold a past of regret.  Roots of failure.

And guess what...even pastors and churches need to pull up those roots from time to time.  Clear out the dying parts of your church.  Let God plant again and become fruitful again.  Let's face it - there are methods that churches still use that have died.  America isn't what it was in 1950.  It is OK to change methods.  And boy is that hard sometimes!  I know the past year, it was very hard for me dealing with the changes that we have made in our music program at our church.  Why?  

I was focused on my "roots" being pulled up - the style of all I had ever known in 38 years of doing church. 

Now, a year later, having my focus changed to the fruit it has produced through the change - I can say, I'm glad to have gone through the pain of pulling up the roots and dead plants to enter into a season of new growth and production of new fruit.

It is so difficult for so many of us to abandon our roots.  To admit...my roots served me well.  Thank you, God, for my roots.  But it is time to grow again!

The plants and their roots for this summer season are done.  They are in the compost bin.  Now, they will serve a new purpose.  OK, get this because this is so good!  

They will in time decompose into rich, fertile soil that I will be able to put back onto my new plants.  They will turn into something that can further and enrich that next season of growth!  

Isn't that a wonderful thought?  Hey, you might have things in your past you aren't proud of - yes, those are part of the fruit you produced in your life.  But you can start again! Maybe your marriage has gone the direction you never dreamed it would.  Let go of that marriage.  It needs the roots to be pulled - it needs to be replanted - it needs to produce new fruit. Remember those roots - but don't hold on to them!

Maybe your ministry needs to take the next step - remember your roots but don't hold on to them!  

So, today, what is your next step that God is nudging you to take but you aren't willing?  You have your hands grasped tightly around those "roots of your old life" and you are screaming at God...NO!  I am not giving these up!  These are all I have known.  

And God in all His wisdom and knowledge, takes His hands and gently pries your fingers from your roots.  He says, "Trust me, I have new life for you.  I have more fruit for you to produce.  But you have to trust me and you HAVE to let go."

Remember your roots but let them go - today.