We planted a couple trees in our yard 7 years ago. I had researched and planned looking for just the right trees for our yard. The problem was we had never planted trees before and we planted them too deep. Within a couple of years they started to fail and we thought they would die. A family friend came and raised one of the trees, and within a couple of years it began to thrive again. The other one was never raised and because it was so low, and in a very wet spot, it slowly started to rot from within. Last year I noticed it was covered with mold, the ants had moved in, and the trunk began to split. The tree is not only failing to thrive, it will soon be dead, completely useless for shade, for beauty, and for privacy. We will be left with a lifeless piece of wood, an ugly sight in a backyard landscape, and it will have to be removed.
Christian, our lives are like that tree. When we remain planted too deep in the world, we inevitably will succumb to it. We are soon weakened, allowing more and more sin to overcome us until we are no longer good for anything, completely useless for loving a hurting world, for reflecting the light of Christ, and for standing for the truth of Christ. All that remains is an empty shell, at best clinging to the remote hope that things will improve while all along we are falling more and more into an apathetic slumber. At worst we become a lifeless, self-righteous Pharisee with the hardened outer structure like a Christian, but void of the life giving power of the risen Lord.
Allow the Master Gardener to raise you up, and replant you firmly in Him, above the suffocating effects of continual sin. It DOES matter where the roots are. (Mark 4:5, 6 &16-19; John 15:5)
walknthepath 