What Is the Root of Your Life?

Money, success, pleasure? What is the root of your life. This article will talk about what a life root is and what it means for us.

What is a Life Root?

A life root is a term I use to describe what we center our lives around, which naturally shapes our identities. I like to picture a large tree, and the life root is the base.

We all have something that we’ve made the root of our lives, the thing that every other aspect branches out from. These roots don’t always necessarily seem negative. Sometimes they can be family or comfort or even love. It’s just to describe what your base is.

For example, let’s say comfort is your life root. This means you want to be able to live a comfortable life above all else. What does it take to live a comfortable life? For one thing, you would need money, so money would be a branch. Money requires a good job and wise financial planning, so those would be two more branches stemming off money. You would also need downtime to relax, another base branch. Downtime would require you to have hobbies, another stem branch.

While money and downtime are important to you in this example, comfort is still the root. It’s what you seek over all, and will therefore shape every other part of your life.

Worldly Vs Godly Roots

Living a comfortable life sounds nice right? So would living a family-driven life, or a successful life. You’re probably thinking some life roots are more fulfilling than others, or they just sound better. Maybe family over money, or love over success. What if I were to say these are all the same? They will all fall short of fulfilling you. That’s because they all have one thing in common: they are all worldly roots.

The only root our lives are meant to have is God. All else is meant to stem from Him, even love and family. Christian values, especially the big ones from the Bible, are all base branches that will inevitably lead to many stem branches. The bases may be love, community, seeking and learning about Him. These are all very important, but they are still meant to come from Him, making Him the true root. And the truth is, for many of us, He’s not.

Is God Our Root?

For many of us, God is not our root, but a branch. Maybe for some He’s a base branch; maybe for some He’s more of a stem. I believe this is why many Christians act superior to others, morally and otherwise. They think their branch of God is closer to the root, or they have more stems off their branch (going to church or reading their Bible more). While these stems are still good things, they are not where they’re meant to be on the tree. Your identity is still rooted in something else, meaning something in your life is taking priority over God.

Christian is not a label or a credential or even a religion (in the ways people think of religions today). It’s a calling to God, from God. It is not something you call yourself and then say well I believe so I’m going to Heaven. Jesus said that “many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’” (NIV, Matthew 7:22-23). Christianity is certainly not a bus pass either.

What does this mean? Does this mean I can’t be a Christian if He hasn’t called me? Relax. For starters that’s a whole other can of worms to open another time. Let’s not get too off topic here. For now, just know that we are all given the choice to answer His call, it’s just that most of us don’t. He is for all of us.

Identifying Your Root

If our root is meant to be in God, then how do we know if it actually is? Well for starters, prayer. Ask God to reveal your life root to you. Are you prioritizing something over Him? Is He your base or your branch? It’s not like you’re telling on yourself here, He already knows the answer. This is about going to Him, asking Him to search you so that He may reveal where you fall short. And if the answer is that He is not your root, you know you need to change that. If anything, that’s the first step to making Him your root.

Is that all? No, it’s not. Retrospection is a great second step to figuring out your root. Start with what you can see. What are your habits? What are you giving most of your time to? What do you think about the most? These are usually stem branches. Follow them back to the root. Just be sure to start with the prayer. This isn’t meant for you to figure out by your own power. That’d be pretty counter-productive to this whole thing. As you continue to prayer and think, more will be revealed to you.

Focusing Your Root

Everybody reading this article is at a different place in their faith journey. Some may already truly have God as their life roots. Some may not even really believe in Him right now. Regardless of how much of this article you agree with, we all have something at the root of our lives. That root is either Him, or it’s guiding us away from Him, towards worldly values.

Now a bit of a disclaimer: just because you fall to sin doesn’t necessarily mean your root isn’t in Him. For example, I can be very lazy myself. I over-consume Instagram reels and television way more than I care to admit. It’s actually why I used the comfort example from before, I relate to that one well. There’s a lot I can talk about as to why this is (I very well may in a future article). For now, let me remind you that all trees need to be trimmed. We can certainly perverse the good that comes from Him. That’s called evil, and those are branches that should be trimmed, but they do not mean you are not with Him.

Focusing your life root means seeking Him. Learn about Him, follow Him, and invite Him into your life. You’ll see what is and isn’t branching out from Him, you’ll see what you are perverting if you remember that He is the root of your life.