{"id":1322,"date":"2019-04-04T21:43:12","date_gmt":"2019-04-05T02:43:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.abideinlove.com\/wp\/?p=1322"},"modified":"2019-04-04T21:56:30","modified_gmt":"2019-04-05T02:56:30","slug":"getting-to-the-roots","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.abideinlove.com\/wp\/?p=1322","title":{"rendered":"Getting to the Roots"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\u201cThere are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one who is striking at the root.\u201d Those words of Walden<\/em> by Henry David Thoreau, written in 1854, still speak wisdom today. He was addressing social evils such as slavery, but the image applies equally well to marital strife and personal struggles with morality and spirituality. It\u2019s an apt image in every case. Remove the evil fruit, and more will take its place, again and again.  Cut off the branch, and it will eventually grow back \u2013 along with the fruit it bears. If we are serious about change, we will need to go down to the roots.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Digging down to the roots of a tree is hard work enough.\nDoing so with the human heart takes enormous courage and vulnerability. We will\nnever be able to do it alone. The prophet Jeremiah describes it well: \u201cMore\ntortuous than anything is the human heart, beyond remedy; who can understand\nit? I, the Lord, explore the mind and test the heart, giving to all according\nto their ways, according to the fruit of their deeds\u201d (Jeremiah 17:9-10). Our\nown hearts are a mystery to us. Only in communion with God and others can we\ndiscover the full truth about ourselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ve shared before the insights of Mark and Debbie Laaser. They wrote a book for married couples entitled Seven Desires<\/a><\/em>, in which they identify certain universal human desires: to be heard and understood, to be affirmed, to be blessed, to be safe, to be touched in a meaningful way, to be chosen, and to be included. They often tell couples, \u201cThe problem is not the problem,\u201d using the image of an iceberg. What we think of as \u201cthe problem,\u201d what we focus so much of our energy and attention on, is just the tip of the iceberg. Beneath the surface, silent and massive, lurks a strong force in motion that warrants much greater attention.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For example, Fred may be an alcoholic. At first glance, his\ndrinking is the main problem in their marriage. After all, his acting out with\nalcohol has damaged his health, his career, and his relationships. But his\ndrinking is not the primary problem. Lurking beneath are painful places of his\nheart that he does not want to enter: sad places, lonely places, feelings of\nunworthiness and shame, as well as distorted beliefs about himself and about\nGod. He is afraid to go down there because of the pain. Little does he realize\nthat, even deeper in his heart is the full and glorious truth about himself \u2013\nthat he is a beloved child of God, fearfully and wonderfully made. In the\ndepths of his good heart he still feels very deep and very good human desires:\nto be loved and accepted unconditionally, to feel safe and secure, and so\nforth. With the right kind of encouragement, he can reconnect with those deeper\ndesires. Whether in the form of Alcoholics Anonymous or some other support\nnetwork, he can find the encouragement and consistency needed to journey into\nthe labyrinth of his heart \u2013 and discover God\u2019s image there. Meanwhile, Fred\u2019s\nwife Sally needs to discover that her deepest pain is not from Fred\u2019s acting\nout with alcohol. She has an unexplored iceberg of her own, including deep\ndesires and painful problems that existed long before she met Fred. She, too,\nwill need enormous support to begin believing that her heart is good and worth\nfighting for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s return to Thoreau\u2019s image of the roots of a tree. Bob Schuchts offers a similar image of the human heart in his book Be Healed<\/a><\/em>. He contrasts the Tree of Life (an image for our life in Christ) with the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil (an image for our life of sin).\u00a0 Drawing from Ephesians, he describes a process of security \/ maturity \/ purity as we grow from the roots to the trunk to the fruits. By contrast, our life of sin sprouts up from the roots of insecurity, grows in immaturity, and bears the rotten fruits of impurity. The unhealthy growth comes in the form of one or more of the seven deadly sins. The rotten fruit that emerges are the sins we priests typically hear people confessing \u2013over and over and over again. Perhaps it\u2019s gossip and jealousy, perhaps fault-finding and outbursts of anger, perhaps pornography and masturbation, perhaps overindulging in food and drink.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Those poor penitents sincerely desire to stop their sins.\nAnd without a doubt, they are forgiven every time. But they are likely to keep\nrepeating the same sins until they can go down to the roots. There Bob\ndescribes the \u201cseven deadly wounds\u201d of abandonment, fear, powerlessness,\nhopelessness, confusion, rejection, and shame. We experience these wounds\nduring the most painful moments of our life. It is within those deep human\nwounds that the evil one eagerly attempts to sow his lies: you are all alone,\nyou will never figure it out, you will always mess it up, no one would ever\nwant to love you\u2026 We can carry these lies within our hearts for many, many\nyears.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Healing at the roots of our sins includes allowing Jesus to\nenter in and cast out the lies about ourselves and about God. Even more\nimportant than renouncing the lies, it means positively allowing the love and\ntruth of Jesus to be proclaimed and embraced and integrated. It is one thing to\nbelieve a truth intellectually, but another for it to sprout and grow and bear\nfruit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As we approach another Easter, may we all take courage in\nthe fact that Jesus has borne our pain. By his wounds we are healed. He knows\nthe depths of our hearts and desires to meet us there with his love and truth.\nMay we all have the courage to go down to the roots.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cThere are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one who is striking at the root.\u201d Those words of Walden by Henry David Thoreau, written in 1854, still speak wisdom today. He was addressing social evils such as slavery, but the image applies equally well to marital strife and personal struggles with morality … <\/p>\n

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