I was out walking one day after a storm had passed through the area a few days before and noticed this tree that had split open, cracked, and fell. Only one time in my life have I actually seen a tree fall on its own (not one that was being cut down), and it really did not make as much noise as one would think, but it was a crash nevertheless.
When there is a split between two people or a crack in their character or armor, sometimes it’s a clean break while other times it’s gradual and not always detected until all of a sudden there’s a crash. That’s the way life goes. One day a person is standing tall and stately like a beautiful tree, and the next day the tree has crashed to the ground. What was the cause?
Roots may have been disturbed.
- The roots of a tree are what keeps them anchored to the ground.
- Roots absorb moisture and nutrients from the soil and send nourishment up into the tree.
- Roots keep the tree balanced.
How are your roots? I don’t mean family tree roots, although they are part of your life.
- Do you cultivate the things that keep you grounded in life?
- What are you feeding on? Not just physically, but mentally and spiritually?
- Is all of your focus on one thing or one path in life? Or do you take time to look around and allow God to show you other paths?
Preventative maintenance is necessary in all aspects of life.
- Running over roots sticking out of the ground with a lawn mower may not disturb a tree the first time, but repeated strikes of the mower blades on the roots over a period of time will eventually destroy the tree.
- What a tree absorbs good or bad affects its growth. There was an overbearing what I thought was a plant in my flower garden, so I left it go for a while until I discovered what it really was. When I found out what it was, I knew I didn’t want it because it was invasive. It was extremely difficult to kill this particular plant which would have grown much larger than I cared for in my flowers next to my house. So I actually had to try all kinds of poisonous chemicals to keep it from growing. Its roots went so deep into the ground that I couldn’t dig them out and every time I thought I had killed it on the surface, a new shoot sprung up from the roots in the ground. It was even growing under my mobile home where it’s dark.
- A balanced diet keeps us healthy and strong. If we eat too much of one food and not enough of another, our body won’t respond as it should. It needs a balance of food to maintain a healthy weight, complexion, and strength.
“Having been firmly rooted
and now being built up in Him
and established in your faith,
just as you were instructed,
and overflowing with gratitude.”
Colossians 2:7, NASB
If your life would right now crash to a sudden halt, what would those left behind see? Would it be a clean break where you were living right and God decided it was time for you to go to be with Him? Would it be a life that was riddled with sin that had decayed from the inside out, causing unseen destruction that you never knew was coming? Was your body malnourished because it wasn’t fed properly?
I’m not a doctor and not big on diets nor medicines so I’m not even going to address the physical body. But our spiritual bodies are just as, if not more, important than our physical bodies. So here are some spiritual maintenance ideas to help your spiritual life remain strong and and keep it from crashing down:
- Prayer is the first line of defense for me. When something happens, I make it a point of taking it to the Lord in prayer, though not always as soon as I should.
- Reading the Bible is next. I find that if I read the Bible, even if I don’t understand everything I read, it is getting into my head and my heart, and I often recall later what I read and put it together with new knowledge and understanding.
- Bible study is not the same thing as reading the Bible. If I really want to internalize what I’m reading and apply it, I need to study the Bible. Recently I went through a Bible study book on loving God with your whole mind and it captured so much of my spiritual attention, helping me to focus on the right things and attitudes.
- Worshiping the Lord God is what keeps us focused on Him and His attributes. Corporate worship together with other believers is so necessary because it not only helps us to focus, but uplifts us as we see and hear others worshiping Him along with us, energizing us even more.
- Praise Him for all He does for you. Don’t let a day go by without thinking about what the Lord has done for you, and then thank and praise Him for it. Listening to your favorite Christian music is an excellent way of keeping your mind on Him and give Him glory and praise back.
- Journaling your prayers and what you’re learning about God can be very helpful. It gives you something to go back to when you need a boost, reminds you of the lessons you’ve learned from past experiences, and keeps you focused on what is true and right. I may have mentioned it in a previous post, but at the end of each day’s journal entry, I start a sentence (or sometimes a paragraph) with “Today God…” which forces me to think about what God has done for me that day.
If you don’t want to crash to the ground from spiritual deficiencies or neglect, try these spiritual maintenance ideas. It will help you maintain that perfect peace we all need and want.