Almost twenty years ago a Messianic Jewish friend and pastor of the Christian & Missionary Alliance congregation, Hope in Messiah gave me the best advice I have ever received. By getting to know me he could see that I was ambitious and loved to strategize and accomplish goals. Having three small children by the time I was twenty six, I was trying to figure out how I was going to navigate to a place to be able to provide for them, while wondering if I should enter into vocational ministry, and desiring to be closer to God, his words to me were well timed and very impactful. I still live by them to this day. The advice was biblical and simple. It took the western focus on externals and flipped it on its head. He agreed with my overarching reach to be a good disciple of Jesus, a good husband, a good father, and a good worker for whoever I would work under. He recognized my driven approach from his experience and loved me enough to speak from his heart.
He instructed me to think of myself as a tree. He explained how I would never have sustainable success in the areas I outlined by merely doing external things because this was like a tree concentrating and flexing its bark in an attempt to force new growth to bud, bloom, and bear fruit. I can still hear his voice and see his eyes through his glasses as he told me to continually treat the root. This made sense to me but the implications began to spread in my mind like ink in water. He went on in his usual thorough way to explain that my heart was the root. If the tree's root is healthy and strong then new growth and the bearing of fruit will be a natural byproduct. My ultimate focus was never to shift or be updated. I was to feed my heart scripture and cultivate my love of the Lord by abiding in and walking with him. He causes the growth. It has been interesting since then seeing this advice at work over the years. There has been a lot of outward activity but it has been the natural flow from my heart instead of striving at the branch level to accomplish. Knowing him is loving him. Loving him is loving what he loves and hating what he hates.
The key is a relationship to a person. This is illustrated well by John, the disciple whom Jesus loved. The title - the disciple whom Jesus loves was the descriptive summary title John gave himself. It is his way of saying there is no higher title. John is often depicted in the last supper as leaning his head on Jesus. John fertilized his root with the words and relationship from his Messiah and was content to let this summarize him as a person.
This internal focus on a relationship and enjoying the grace and the friendship of God through the finished work of Jesus is alien to our world and as such we are offered daily invitations to shift our focus. This focus is not an arrival. Since God is infinite and we are not, our growing capacity to delight in him will be an eternal process. In my prayers I am often asking the Lord to put in my heart what simply is not there. "Lord, create in me a clean heart, renew a steadfast spirit in me, and give me a hunger and thirst for you when my appetites and affections want to uproot and stray." We must be watchful over our roots and be mindful of how we define success. May we define it relationally and be firmly rooted in our Lord.