When the world pours asphalt on your head…

My running route last Friday was a fabulous out-and-back on the rolling hills of Rosemont Road. It’s the closest thing to flat that we have around here. Along the flats and downhills my eyes are up–the sky was glorious blue and the sun was warm on my face even though the temperature never tipped past forty. I love the time to look around and take in the beautiful land where we live.

But on the hills my eyes are down, focused on every step, telling myself to just keep running all the way to the top.

And almost at the top of one particular hill, where my eyes are always down, focused, there is a stretch of asphalt with lumps and bumps and crests like ocean waves because of some mammoth tree roots underneath. I have to remind myself to pick up my feet or these big blacktop speedbumps would do me in.

And I’m always amazed that apparently this asphalt, poured down boiling hot and hardened like concrete, is no match for the might of a tree root. Slow and steady this tree has remained, broken through the asphalt to grow, providing oxygen, life, beauty, through the years.

That’s exactly how our lives can be. 

Man’s best effort at a lasting substance is asphalt. Pour it out, let it harden, it’ll stand the test of time. But the tree remains longer, breaks through it. The tree–because of its roots–can break through whatever weighs it down.

Do you feel like perhaps the world has poured asphalt on your head? Sometimes it can feel like everything in the world is opposing your growth. Opposing your desire to live for God. Opposing your desire to live in peace, joy, faith, harmony, grace. Sometimes just when you’re most excited about the things of God the enemy backs up a dump-truck load of asphalt and pours it right out on your head. The result is that your stuck, weighed down, consumed. Perhaps, even, feeling crushed.

But the asphalt is no match for the tree. 

The tree continues to grow because the roots are connected to the true source of life. If, when, we abide in Christ, the promise is that we will bear much fruit. No matter what is dumped on top of us, nothing can uproot us.

And all that really matters are our roots. 

“Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, whose trust is in the LORD. He is like a tree planted by water, that sends out its roots by the stream, and does not fear when heat comes, for its leaves remain green, and is not anxious in the year of drought, for it does not cease to bear fruit.” Jer. 17:7-8

When our roots remain near the stream of living water we can, like the Count of Monte Cristo, look the world’s asphalt in the eye and say, “Do your worst.” The tree does not fear.

What has the world tried to dump on your head? What threatens to crush your spirit today? Remain near the stream of Christ’s living water, sending your roots down deep into His love and truth. In time, slow and steady, you will grow, amen?

By the grace of God: The asphalt is no match for the tree. 

{Praying for you today … mind those roots. Thanks for reading.}