There’s probably no more common saying than “hurry up and wait,” and as simplistic as it sounds, the waiting game seems to mark every part of our lives. As children we can hardly wait to grow up; as adults we look back and wonder, “where did those years go?” As unnecessary as it may sometimes seem to be, learning to walk with Christ is an on-going journey.
Looking back over my own life I wonder how I could have reacted so negatively in some situations, why I didn’t show more wisdom in others and whatever made me act so foolishly in yet other circumstances. After too many years of beating myself up over past failures I realized that the wisest thing I could ever do is to learn from mistakes and move on. In counsel to his son, Solomon speaks often of the need to do just that – to keep on keeping on.
In chapter 12 he first addresses the need to be firmly rooted in the knowledge of the ways of the Lord. “A man/woman is not established by wickedness but the root of the righteous cannot be moved,” he says. What reassurance to realize that even when I fail, the root or foundation of my faith is solid. Next he speaks of the cleansing power of a rooted faith: “The wicked cover the vain things of evil men but the root of the righteous yields fruit. The wicked is snared by the transgression of his lips but the righteous will come through trouble.”
Centuries later, the Apostle Paul offered the same solid counsel: “As you have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, as you have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving.”
Let’s keep putting those roots down deeper!
