Roots

Around 1605 a seedling poked its head through virgin soil to take in the warmth of the filtered sunlight that found its way to the forest floor. The tiny seedling found itself surrounded by sentinels who have been growing for millennia. A grove of tall, strong Sequoias surround the place where this infant is being born. It is that part of earth that will become known as north-central California.

The little seed will become a sapling around the time Jamestown is settled in what is now the state of Massachusetts. By the time the seed grows and becomes a young Sequoia, Quebec City will be established in New France (the soon-to-be country of Canada). When the tender tree grows to be around 11 or 12 feet in height above the ground, scholars will release the King James Bible. By the time the tree is about 2 stories in height or so, a new colonial nation called America will be forged.

This Sequoia will see the time of the civil war, the war of 1812 (the tree is now 206 years old at this point). It will go on to see the days of WWI and WWII. It will even see the Korean War, Viet Nam, the landing of man on the moon, Desert Storm and 9-11. It soars to over 240 feet in height and it takes several men to join arms to circle its trunk. It is a behemoth.

Just a few years ago the Sequoia, without warning and without disease or insect infestation, fell to the ground. It was a mysterious event that puzzled forestry biologists and parks personnel. What they found as to the cause of the Giant’s demise was a surprise – foot traffic - over many years; foot traffic had broken down the root system. After the constant beating down of the earth around the base of the giant by tourists and onlookers and gawkers, the roots gave way and the Sequoias could no longer stand.

There is a man named Bernie Krause, who began recording nature sounds for Hollywood in the 1960's; it used to take him about 15 hours to capture 1 hour of nature without man-made mechanized sound. Today, it takes him 2000 hours of recording time.

In a normal day, people are subjected to an average of 8 hours of television and radio sound per day. We subject ourselves to decibel levels well beyond what the EPA believes is acceptable to human beings. We receive visual pollution from billboards, street signs and business signs every moment as we walk or drive down the streets of our cities. Minivans and SUV’s now come equipped with DVD players. Clothing comes with MP3 and cell phone attachments.

In addition to all of this, we speak thousands and thousands of words to one another - voicing opinion, anger, frustration - we try to talk each other into supporting our ideas or we are being lured and swayed to emotionally invest in every one else's life and problems...I wonder, if we spent the same amount of time being quiet and listening to God as we do talking about our difficult circumstances would we be more at peace?

We find talking so much easier than just listening. But a question presents itself in light of our lifestyle; if we are not still, and if we don’t take time to listen to God, how is He going to give us the rest He promised if we have not positioned our lives to receive it?

There is a saying, “If you continue to do what you’ve always done you will continue to get what you always have had.” Another saying goes like this; “A fool says in his heart, "I can do the same things over and over and expect a different result.” We all understand that that is ridiculous.

Farmers know from planting seeds what kind of harvest they will get. We need to consider what and how we are planting into our own lives and the lives of those around us.

If we think about it, what makes silence so hard to accept into our lives? After all, you do simply nothing to get it. There is no effort on our part to have this experience. You listen to your own breathing and the sound of your own heart beating. If you are outside, in a solitary place, you hear the breathiness of the soft wind…sometimes the blustery wind across the plains or prairie.

Perhaps it is ego or just really bad habits of having to have noise to make us feel less scared in life. But when we consider all of the noise, I hope that we are not too late in awakening to the reality that it is the sound of constant conflict and banter and the stupid rush of the rat race around us that is our version of foot traffic; traffic that beats down the earth around the roots of our souls -slowly, over time, weakening that which is supposed to nourish us and bring refreshment.

I think that we think that other voices and our own are more interesting and more wise than God’s…we must, or we’d reverse the percentages.

Recommended readings: Deut 27:9 Ps 4:4 Hab 2:20 Matt 11 (come to me all you who are heavy laden) Luke 5:16