When your dreams die, how you feel about yourself deteriorates, relationships become hard, and your “mission” (your strongly felt aim, ambition or calling) can feel like its been trampled under a herd of rhinoceroses. How does God redeem all of that? How does he compensate for the destructive things that happen and regain possession of our hearts when they’ve been broken? God won my heart by gathering and lovingly replanting my “sacred roots” that had been scattered by life’s storms. Sacred roots are those unique parts of us that God gives us in order for our lives to have meaning and purpose.
I had no idea what my sacred roots were or how they could be replanted, but I was challenged to ask God. So, I did. And He began revealing what the roots were and healing my wounds at the same time. This is the story of how God redeemed the third and final root. I don’t know why there were 3 sacred roots, there just were. This reminds me that Biblically speaking, 3 is the number of salvation. Looking back, I can see how these 3 roots saved me from the grave of my dead dreams.
Shortly after I had asked God to show me what my roots were, I went to a Beth Moore Bible study at my church. It was a huge step for me to go, because I was really quite fearful of getting hurt again and getting back into “it.” (1) One day, God used Beth’s words to help me see the larger picture of what God had been up to in my life. I began to see a different perspective on what had happened. God allowed my dreams to die not because they weren’t important, but because He knew my character and mission would grow as He pruned.
The idea of Beth’s teaching was that God weeds out that which is unnecessary or is keeping us from our mission. John 15:2 says, “Every branch in me that does not bear fruit (the Father) takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit.”
I’m not a gardener, so I can’t really relate to how pruning technically works. But I do understand the concept that if a branch is cut back, the purpose is for it to be healthier and bear even more fruit than if left alone. It isn’t that the branch is second class or defective. And yet, that’s how I tend to feel when I sense the Lord cutting into me….that somehow that part of me was bad. It is actually quite often the opposite. The truth is that “God cuts things out of our lives so we have the time and energy to bear fruit.” (2)
Of course the whole pruning process hurts! But my perspective on the pain has changed. Instead of getting angry at God or at people, instead of succumbing to depression, instead of feeling like my dreams are dead and I am useless, I want to let God actually do His work. He is the professional gardner, and I need to trust Him.
As with the other sacred roots, I’ve tucked away some lessons that will help me to have a healthy perspective the next time I catch God cutting or pruning.
Lesson #1: God often cuts away energy wasters.
I need to have confidence that His judgment is right, even if at the time I don’t feel like I’m wasting time or energy. When God changed the direction of what my husband and I thought we should be doing, I couldn’t see what God had planned, and so I gave into negative thinking. Instead of accepting the changes God was making, I felt like my dreams had died and as a result, I let my fire go out. In reality, we were supposed to be pouring time and energy into different avenues that would actually contribute to making our dreams about our mission come true. Positive thinking is knowing that sometimes God cuts off last season’s branch to make way for this season’s. He prunes so I will be more fruitful. And, only He can determine what that fruit is and what it is going to look like.
Lesson #2: God works on us in our areas of effectiveness.
It is so easy to wrongly perceive that He clips and trims only in our areas of ineffectiveness. Yes, of course, God removes the bad, but not everything that is cut back is bad! This truth calls for a change in my perspective.
Lesson #3: Even if I don’t feel like waiting until the harvest, I must not get bored or give up.
Sometimes I feel a little bit like Abraham who waited 25 years to set his eyes on the promised Isaac. My husband and I moved to Colorado 17 years ago. When we got here, we fully expected our mission to look so much different than it is. But, God knows what He is doing. And, I love how His Word sends encouragement when we need it! Galatians 6:9 buoys our spirits, “And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.” And, Psalm 92:14 offers this hope, “They still bear fruit in old age: they are ever full of sap and green.”
The third sacred root that needed healing and replanting was my mission in life. I had ideas about what that should look like. I think God has had some different ideas. Since God knows how my life fits into this generation and how I can best cooperate with Him in repairing this broken world, I will choose to trust His discernment about what areas in my life need to be pruned.
Do you trust God? Have you stopped doing your mission because of painful circumstances? How have you perceived God’s pruning process in your life? What new dreams do you think are waiting to be discovered?
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