The Rev. Clint Wilson reminded me in his homily yesterday that roots are important. Without them, I am easily toppled and blown away when a storm comes into my life. Everything living starts, and ends, with roots.
However, Clint also pointed out that we have to be open to cycles of being “plowed up” for renewal. In some cases, holding onto the “old roots” allows us to sugar-coat our transformation, but eventually the old bad habits return unless the roots of our former life are destroyed.
Rev. Wilson quoted C.S. Lewis from Mere Christianity, “We are all trying to let our mind and heart go their own way—centered on money or pleasure or ambition—and hoping, in spite of this, to behave honestly and chastely and humbly. And that is exactly what Christ warned us you could not do. As He said, a thistle cannot produce figs. If I am a field that contains nothing but grass-seed, I cannot produce wheat. Cutting the grass may keep it short: but I shall still produce grass and no wheat. If I want to produce wheat, the change must go deeper than the surface. I must be ploughed up and re-sown.”
We can only truly turn away from our former life, when we are willing to be “plowed up”. Just like the small children who are willing to learn and be vulnerable, we must be willing to accept God’s grace in order to start our new life with Christ.
Blessings, my friend,
Agatha
My new book of forty meditations, Reclaiming Time was released on September 6, 2015 and is available as a Kindle eBook for $2.99 on Amazon.