From Root to Fruit

It is strawberry season now, and I keep looking for the perfect container of strawberries!  I have not found a pint that is sweet and tastes like strawberries; furthermore, I have not found a container that is exactly ready to be eaten!  It seems that there is an overripe berry or two in every box.  I'm not very happy about this.  Do you know how quickly one bad strawberry can ruin an entire pint?  It almost happens before my very eyes!  The same thing happens with raspberries and blueberries.  I bring them home, and before I can enjoy them for breakfast the next morning, they knit a little blanket of green fuzz. 

We went to an especially sweet service last Sunday.  The pastor was talking about knowing Jesus as King.  We very often look at the Bible as a great guideline for our lives without truly acting as if we know that this is the very Word of God, the mandate of a King.  That is so true.  I know that in my own life, I do a pretty good job of keeping the fruit of my life fairly clean and sweet enough.  Unlike those strawberries, I don't grow too much mold on the outside.  It's not easy, per se, but it's not too hard, either, to keep oneself pretty clean in the public eye.  In other words, the fruit sins of our lives - the sins that others can see, we can keep those at bay pretty well.  However.... what if the foundations of my life were rocky, slimy, moldy.  What if the roots of my Spirit were decaying?  It's easier to hide sins that can't be seen.  The root sins of my life are more stubborn to deal with.  Every now and then, I turn around, and great anger overtakes me.  I find myself wondering, "Where did this jealousy come from?"  or I may find myself dealing with greed in extra measure on another day.  These things are so much easier to hide, but they are sins no less.  In fact, the root sins are usually the cause of the sins that grow upward and outward and display themselves for everyone to see.

For example, pre-meditated murder can almost always be traced to anger, hatred, or jealousy.  Theft is always a greed issue.  Adultery is the culprit of lust.  The hidden sins that lie dormant in our lives, unchallenged, will always grow up into monstrous calamity for our lives.  Why don't we deal with those things as eagerly as we deal with the fruit sins that we see in the lives of others?  I know that most likely none of you will face murder in your own actions, but you will probably find yourself in a spot where you know the root of anger, the root of bitterness.  If we see these things surface from time to time, shouldn't we deal with them as vigorously as we do that crab grass that wants to take over the flower bed?  I stop at nothing shorter than hoes, shovels, picks and Round Up!  Shouldn't I go after the things that contaminate the roots of my life with the same tenacity?  James 4:17 tells us that, "If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them."  If I am aware of the thoughts and ideas that rage in my own mind but don't deal with those things, I am in sin.

I go back to the fact that Jesus is our King.  He's not some great prophet who lived and gave wise words as others might say.  He is, in fact, our God and our King.  His law is not suggestion.  We do not live in the democracy of Christiandom as some might suppose; rather, we live in a Kingdom.  We serve a King.  His Law is law.  We should take the Bible as absolute mandate in our lives and live by it as if our very lives depended on it.  We follow our King because of His great love for us, which is so compelling.  But we cannot make any mistakes about it, He knows our hearts.  He sees both the good and the wickedness concealed therein.  He is thorough in His examinations of our thoughts and intents.  "The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it? 'I the LORD search the heart and examine the mind, to reward each person according to their conduct, according to what their deeds deserve.'" Jeremiah 17:9-10  I do everything in my power to make sure that people perceive me as a moral, upstanding Christian.  All along, all that really matters is what God sees when He looks at my heart.  It's not about the visible external life that I lead...it will always be about the internal condition of my heart and whether or not I am submitted to the King.

I have no idea why the strawberries in this particular area of the state seem inferior to the other two places I've lived in NC.  Is it the soil?  Is it mold spores that have grown deep in the earth and on the roots that contaminate the fruit before its time?  Is there something innately bad about the particular plants that they use?  Are their harvesting methods less sanitary? or is this a season of undesirable circumstances? I have no idea, but the fruit is not exemplary.  It can't be the fruit's fault.  There is a deeper cause than just the fruit.  But I am so very glad of the reminder to examine my own heart.  I want to be pleasing to my King.  I want the fruit of my life to be sweet and clean in His eyes.  We can hide the roots of our actions from the world, but we can't hide anything from the Lord.  It is best for us to deal immediately with the things that subtly enter our minds than to let them grow into roots that are bitter and ugly.  In the end, aren't we all wanting to offer sweet fruit to a perfect King?