Roots

So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall!  1 Corinthians 10:12

This summer we had 2 notable trees fall during storms along with a partial of a family favorite. They were all located in different areas of the property. It’s been a long clean-up process. During the clean-up, we found the bases of all 3 had become rotten.  There were huge holes in all 3 tree bases. The causes of the rotting may have been different for all 3, but it led to the same result.

The rotten base caused the root system to weaken. The weakened roots could no longer withstand the large amounts of moisture in the earth due to heavy rains. When the wind came, they were easily brought down.

I could easily blame the wind and rain for causing the trees to go down, but if that were the case, all the surrounding trees would have gone down. I think the problem is much deeper. Whatever caused the base of the tree to rot caused the roots to weaken.

There was no way we could have known that the base of the tree was rotten. The rotting was inside the tree. The trees appeared to be perfectly healthy on the outside. I think this can happen in our lives as Christians. Our roots can run very deep. Then, we allow something into our lives to slowly eat away at our base. No one is the wiser. We may not even realize it ourselves.

Perhaps we quit reading God’s word. Maybe we aren’t spending time in our prayer life. Even time spent doing other important things can seem innocent enough. Neglecting God’s house can also cause damage to the base. Habits and bitterness can cause damage. It could be any number of things.

The base is slowly rotting and now your roots are weakening. We get hit with “Life”, or a little wind and rain, and all the sudden we’ve fallen.  

Are your roots strong or are they weakening? Has your base been damaged? Has rotting occurred? It’s never a bad time to check the base and root structure before any real damage takes place.  “Christ is my firm foundation. The rock on which I stand.”

So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall! 1 Corinthians 10:12