Rooting by the River
Just this morning, I heard on the radio, that we Americans are finding fewer peaches in our stores this summer. Warm weather in the South and cold weather in the Midwest knocked out a significant number of our nation’s peach crops, leaving shortages across the country. Georgia’s production is down 90-95% and South Carolina’s is down 60-70%. California, on the other hand, is producing a solid crop. So peaches are available but not as many, and the prices have risen.
I took notice of this news today partly because the box of peaches I was hoping to pick up this week has been delayed by a week, making us unable to eat and enjoy them because we’ll be out of town. We’ll miss our favorite juicy August treat, but I know that our daughter and family will happily help us out.
This peach shortage news made me listen up also because of my time with my spiritual director last week. The verses we listened to mentioned fruit - fresh fruit to be exact.
Jeremiah 17:7-8
But blessed is the man who trusts God, the woman who sticks with GOD.
They’re like trees replanted in Eden, putting down roots near the rivers -
Never a worry through the hottest of summers, never dropping a leaf,
serene and calm through droughts,
bearing fresh fruit every season. MSG
While listening to these verses, I thought about my 2023 word, ROOTED. I remember that the kind of fruit God is growing in me is listed in Galatians 5:19-23: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. And I wonder: how does this fruit grow? How do I decide to be joyful or more patient - and then actually come to feel those things?
These verses say that the person who trusts God is like a replanted tree in the beautiful garden of Eden. He/she roots near the rivers and doesn’t worry when it’s hot or when drought hits. FRESH FRUIT appears anyway!
OK, so how am I to understand this?
What can I do to ensure that I will receive what I need from God so that fresh fruit will grow in and from me even in stressful times?
There are so many beautiful answers to these questions. We have so much guidance in the Bible. Remember, we aren’t talking about behavior modification. We are talking about rooting in the places that provide the kind of nourishment our souls need so that growth will happen from the inside.
I think I’ll call it: “rooting by the river.”
It is not called “rooting by the ladder of self-improvement, rooting in the soil of success” or even “rooting in the river of only me, myself, and I.” We trust God by going down deep into his vast love (Ephesians 3:16-19), finding spiritual nourishment for ourselves, and in the process, we have fruit to offer others.
Dane Ortland writes in his book, Deeper: “Your Christian growth is a matter of divine grace. You cannot crowbar yourself into growth. You must be lifted into growth. But the divine grace that brings about change is a divine grace that fuels and fills our own efforts.” (In other words, we want to grow because he helps us want to grow.)
Here are a few thoughts:
We always need to start by opening the Bible to find out who God is and what he says about how to believe and grow in faith. The whole Bible is full of amazing stories of changes that God makes in people’s lives.
Rich Villodas writes in The Deeply Formed Life, “Without living in communion with God, we are incapable of doing anything fruitful.”
I would add to this that fruit will not grow within us by only wishing for it or trying harder. This kind of fruit comes purely from being in connection with God so that he can form us by his Spirit with our cooperation.
Each day, I come “rooting by the river” in my little light-filled studio, to rest in the truth that God desires that I grow into the likeness of Christ. I pray by talking to God, reading scripture to hear from God, and asking myself questions, (oftentimes uncomfortable questions) asking God to show me how he wants to show himself in and through me. Am I resisting? How? What am I missing? I also love to “root by the river” by having meaningful conversations with others who find their nourishment in the water of the Word and connection with God. These conversations delve into the mystery of how God dwells in us and how we can “be” him in the world around us.
So my simple encouragement to you today is: while you are biting into that delicious (and expensive) peach this month, remember that God is in you, growing fresh fruit from the seeds he has been planting your whole life. Pay attention to what he is doing and do not stress when it feels like all is falling apart. With roots in the river of his love and presence, you will have plenty of strength to withstand the incredible heat that you believe will never end. It will. And you will find amazing fruit as you endure. God’s river is so delightfully rich and plentiful that even when it feels like heat and drought all around you have the power to take you down, it won’t.
Because when the roots grow deep, the extravagant love of Christ pours into us until we are filled to overflowing with the fullness of God and wow, the fresh fruit grows abundantly.
Please feel free to forward this blog post to anyone you think might find encouragement tucked into it’s tiny corners. :)