Nourishment has been an important topic over the last twenty years with diabetes on the rise and obesity at its all time high. Nutrition seems to have different meanings depending on the spokesperson and diet trends have never known such success.
Sometimes I wonder what happened to food. Did our grandparents think so much about what they put on the table? Maybe. Maybe not. Some may argue that’s why we’re in the mess we’re in with cancer running rampant and allergies that invade every classroom. Let’s not claim to know all the answers today. Instead, let’s think about a different kind of nourishment.
Psalm 1 is where I derived the name BaringRoots for this blog. The reason being the tree. It’s described as yielding fruit from time to time, knowing when to work and when to rest. No matter its produce the tree remains planted and receives its fuel from the River. I never understood metaphors when reading fiction, but the Bible is not fictional and the Lord reveals Truth. In the previous verse we’re told who is like the tree. A person who devours God’s Word, digesting it’s truths, and living from the nourishment will be sustained in every season.
Just as food sustains bodies for a handful of hours at a time, there is something more that sustains our whole selves for days, weeks, and year after year after year and beyond.
The challenge given me years ago is the same challenge I present to you now. Bare your roots. What are you feeding on to give you purpose? To make you feel complete? To bring you peace? With confidence I blog about Jesus - the living Word, the Bible - the written Word, and the Life that He brings when your roots are drawing from Living Water. Why do I bother? Because I’ve known for years my roots dry up apart from Him.
Today make sure you’re planted in healthy terrain. Every day you need to wake up and draw from Living Water. Read the Bible. Pray to Jesus. Make Him part of your daily nourishment so you can be sustained in times of abundance and seasons of barrenness. Nourishment (His presence, wisdom, encouragement, protection, forgiveness, and more) is His gift to you - free.