How to Be Grounded in God
Rooted
Grounded--that feeling of eating slightly more than your fill at a dinner with family and friends, kicking back in a recliner, laughing about the good old days. Or perhaps walking alone with your thoughts by the ocean, your toes digging into the sand, the waves lapping up around your ankles. Being grounded is being comfortable in your own skin, at peace with your past, content in the present.
If we are planted by the true and best source of grounding, Christ, streams of living water allow our roots to grow deep and our hearts to have the security and reassurance we need to flower open. Knowing where our security lies allows for the blossoming outwards and upwards that is our calling in Christ.
Rooted, planted, feet in the earth, secure, safe, grounded. For growth to happen and to be sustained, deep roots are non-negotiable.
But, for some of us, perhaps almost all of us, for one reason or another, our roots are weak, shallow. And here's the litmus test: If sickness, personal loss or shifts in the political climate have us feeling significantly shaken, then there's a good chance that at least some of our roots are of the shallow kind.
Deep Roots--The Example of Daniel
Life happens, but that shouldn't affect our rootedness. I'm currently studying the book of Daniel. If you want a few examples of some grounded dudes, look no further. The Babylonian and then the Persian kings and their posses continually have it out for Daniel and his brothers in faith. The leadership asks them to worship something or someone other than the living God, and they, unruffled, don't give in. Take Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in Daniel 3.
King Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter. If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to deliver us from it, and he will deliver us from Your Majesty’s hand. But even if he does not, we want you to know, Your Majesty, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.”
Daniel 3: 16-18Now that's rootedness. To paraphrase, we don't care what happens, we know what's true, we know we're safe even if...insert your own worst case scenario here...Daniel's friends are facing down immediate death by fire, which puts our problems in perspective. Whatever, and I mean, ANYTHING we are facing, when set before a person rooted securely in their faith, is a non-issue. Truth is truth and all is well.
If that is their stance when faced with a fiery furnace, just imagine what a regular day must look like for them. That's the kind of unshakeable faith that I want to live with, the kind that gives us perfect peace. As Paul says from first century Roman prison, yet another situation I'd rather not be in, "I know the secret of being content in any and every situation...I can do all things through him who gives me strength." For a person with that kind of rootedness, there are no bad days, and the good days, well, just try to imagine.
Digging Up the Shallow Roots
To get to that inner place, that kingdom of heaven where Daniel, Paul, Jesus, and the like reside, we need to allow God to dig up all of our shallow roots that do us minimal good. This process can be unsettling as you temporarily go from having shallow roots to no roots at all. There's a paragraph in one of my favorite spiritual texts that explains this.
All shallow roots must be uprooted, because they are not deep enough to sustain you. As these false underpinnings are given up, the equilibrium is temporarily experienced as unstable. However, nothing is less stable than an upside-down orientation. Nor can anything that holds it upside down be conducive to increased stability.
-ACIM, Chapter 1, V.6I can only speak to my own story. I used to be very tied to earthly security and control. Those were my shallow roots. On my own faith journey, I realized that I couldn't effort my way to safety. No amount of money in the bank or layers of bubble wrap around my loved ones could give me that security--only God could do that. And so, after I experienced enough suffering to realize that my way wasn't working, I held up my white flag of surrender and let God do the gardening.
I begged God to heal me, to grow my roots strong and deep in Him, and that prayer was answered. If you've heard me speak before, you know parts of my story. The ripping up of my shallow roots did lead to a period of significant disorientation as my worldview shifted. However, I eventually became more genuinely grounded, roots digging deep, branches reaching ever higher to God. The Holy Spirit, one memory, one misconception at a time, held my hand and showed me how to reconcile with my past and to have his eyes for my future. All I had to do during this process was be willing, aware, and entirely trusting in God's care.
Anytime the familiar friend of anxiety and unsettledness popped up, I was willing to see it as a sign that God was showing me something, bringing something up for healing. Instead of running away from the discomfort, I learned to lean into it. With each iteration of learning, some lessons relatively easy, some more challenging, I saw the signs of permanent, deep roots in my life. I began to feel peace and joy that I would not previously have thought possible.
Rooted in God
This journey is one we are all on when we submit to God being the gardener of our lives. God teaches us to be intimately connected and reconciled to our past, while being simultaneously aware that we are much more than this physical form. We learn to listen deeply with our whole self in the present moment: mind, body and soul, without fear or judgment. As those true roots grow, we are able to be aware and at peace with all that we are as individuals: flaws, quirks, and all, while feeling secure in who we are as children of God. At peace with the past, aware in the present moment, embracing of all that we are, grounded.
Grounded people, those rooted in God, act differently. When we are secure, we are quick to listen and slow to respond. We are aware of the complex and yet seamless interconnectedness of all things and flow with that ocean of loving being. There is no fear because we are aware that we are so much more than our small selves, our current body, situation, even our cultural and temporal context.
We have a bird's eye approach on life, where we see that all has been well, is well, and will be well. And yet we still have our feet on the ground.
We can literally put our bare feet on the Earth and feel joy at the energy within the soil that gives life to the grass and the trees.
We are grateful for all those who gave us life and made us who we are.
We are aware of our challenges, our weaknesses, and are submitted to allowing God to use those for His glory.
And we take joy in it all, even those challenges, knowing that all things work for the good of those of love God.
One thing that every spiritually awake person I've met has in common is laughter. I love watching Eckhart Tolle teach just to hear him laugh, and he does so often. We don't need to take life or ourselves so seriously.
Groundedness often takes time to develop. It takes time and healing to be at peace with our past and to trust in the compassionate, guiding hand of God in our lives moment by moment. And it takes time for the Spirit to transform us so that we are able to move through life so intimately connected to God that fear slowly becomes almost unthinkable and connectedness to all the only thing we know.
A Little Willingness
God is the mover, the doer. Our role is simple and singular. Be willing. All that is needed for spiritual growth, for healing, to be used by God is a little willingness. The greater our surrender and willingness for God to take the helm and to be fully and completely His, the greater His action in our lives.
Groundedness is a gift of God. He does the work. He pulls up the old useless roots, grows our new ones, our trunk, branches, and leaves, and has a plan for the fruit we will grow. He waters us and sustains us. Our job is to allow him to do this. It is a little bit of willingness and a watchfulness and surrender to His work in our lives.
Consider where you are feeling anxious and unsettled, where you may still have shallow roots for the divine gardener to pull up. And then, pray earnestly for God to pull those roots, even if it hurts, and grow you new ones. Be on the lookout for God on the move in your life. With every blessing and challenge, ask Him, Lord, how are you growing me in and through this? What do you want me to see? to learn? May we all allow the divine gardener to work in our lives, so that His joy would be complete in us and our work in His name be fruitful. Amen.
I love this metaphor of rootedness. Reminds me of the root chakra also - you need to be rooted before anything else, but how do you get there? Thanks for your wise words. I love the idea of being rooted in God. Digging your feet into soil and letting yourself become grounded through God.
Looking forward to reading this!