Go Deep

“Beyond the surface, beyond what you see;
go deep to the roots, that’s where real change will be.”
Loren Thornburg

Sometimes I feel I am living that definition of insanity doing the same thing over and over expecting different results. It’s like the weeds in our gardens. We can cut what we see all we want, but until we get the root of it, it will just keep growing back. We have to go beyond the surface and beyond what we see to change what we see. As a softball coach I see this with my pitchers. I can tell them to finish the pitch a certain way all that I want but until I change what is causing the problem in the first place it will just keep happening. I have to go deeper into something at the start of their pitch that is causing them to finish in the way that they are finishing. The same is true in our lives. Our actions have roots and until we deal with the root the action won’t change, at least not for long. We can cut it off like a weed and see change for a little bit, but until we pull up the root it will eventually grow back. When we are seeking real change we have to go deep! That thing you’ve been trying to change…what’s at the root?

“Can you pick olives from a fig tree or figs from a grapevine?
No, and you can’t draw fresh water from a salty pool.”
James 3:12 NLT

When we go into the ocean, we don’t expect to swallow fresh water, yet sometimes our lives live like that. God is not so concerned about the surface and the outside as He is about what is in our hearts. I think sometimes we expect olives from a fig tree. We expect a plant different from the root which has been planted. We expect ourselves to reap something of which we haven’t sown. We expect different results doing the same things, planting the same things. And we go insane doing the same things, expecting different results. We keep cutting at the surface when God is asking us to go deep, go deeper, to the root. It is only when we get to the root that we can really change that which buds at the surface. When we haven’t dealt with the bitterness in our hearts we can’t expect to be at peace. When we haven’t dealt with the fear in our hearts we can’t expect to be of good courage. So before you spend anymore time cutting at the surface, wanting things to look different, let’s look deeper, beyond the surface. Let’s go deep to the root of what’s going on and start there. When we start there we can end there. For once we go deep to the root that is where real change can begin to occur. When we cut to the heart we can start to really change and we can find the fresh water we were drawing for.