Tree Roots - Micha Boyett<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"If you had asked me ten years ago which of my brothers would be running a ministry for impoverished kids in Amarillo and living out an inspiring life of\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/michaboyett\/2010\/04\/tree-roots\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Tree Roots - Micha Boyett\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"If you had asked me ten years ago which of my brothers would be running a ministry for impoverished kids in Amarillo and living out an inspiring life of\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/michaboyett\/2010\/04\/tree-roots\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Micha Boyett\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-04-23T06:09:56+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Micha Boyett Hohorst\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Micha Boyett Hohorst\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/michaboyett\/2010\/04\/tree-roots\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/michaboyett\/2010\/04\/tree-roots\/\",\"name\":\"Tree Roots - 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{"id":335,"date":"2010-04-22T23:09:56","date_gmt":"2010-04-23T06:09:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mamamonk.com\/?p=335"},"modified":"2010-04-22T23:09:56","modified_gmt":"2010-04-23T06:09:56","slug":"tree-roots","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/michaboyett\/2010\/04\/tree-roots\/","title":{"rendered":"Tree Roots"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

I could write a very long piece about the process of his emotional and spiritual transformation, how he went from being your average business suit to risking his family\u2019s entire livelihood in order to feed and love the kids he met at the local soup kitchen. But I\u2019ll leave it at this: I respect him. A lot.<\/p>\n

In spite of the fact that my spiritual journey has been leading me toward all things liturgical and monastic, Brooks has slowly veered toward the Charismatic. \u00a0No, he\u2019s not praying for gold teeth (which, believe me, is the weirdest Charismatic movement<\/a> I\u2019ve encountered so far), but his church is one to emphasize the receiving of visions from God for the encouragement or direction of others. And that kind of thing gets me all shaky.<\/p>\n

I should point out here that I love my brother\u2019s church. Whenever I\u2019m in my hometown, I\u2019m much more likely to spend my worshipful moments among their authentic community than anywhere else. Plus my brother usually invites me (I think because he thinks it\u2019s funny to put me in situations that make me squirm).<\/p>\n

Last night I joined him and my sister in law for their home group\u2019s weekly Bible study\/prayer time. I\u2019ve met several of their\u00a0 friends at some point before but managed, for the most part, to spend the hour quietly and awkwardly smiling from the corner in my cushy seat, having not read the book being discussed.<\/p>\n

So I was surprised (to say the least) when, following the study and time of prayer, Sam, a man I\u2019ve met once before, spoke up in front of the group: \u201cMicha, I need to share something with you.\u201d<\/p>\n

Panic.<\/em> Maybe you understand this by now if you\u2019ve been reading this blog for a while. I talk about prayer because I\u2019m bad at it. I pursue the life of faith out of the lens of a terrible doubter. And I\u2019m in a constant state of fighting off nasty guilt, most of it coming from a fear that God is disappointed in me.<\/p>\n

So, if someone has received what he says is a word from God for me, you can count on my certainty that God wants to remind me of my prayerlessness, how he\u2019s missed hearing from me for the past week almost as much as my tummy muscles have missed crunches.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s not what he said. He said: \u201cMicha, you\u2019ve spent so many years trying to win God\u2019s approval through your own works. That\u2019s in the past now.\u201d<\/p>\n

He\u2019s right. I\u2019m on a long journey of giving up my attempts at controlling how God sees me by controlling how all of you see me.<\/p>\n

Sam continued: \u201cSan Francisco is full of people who have rebelled against culture, who are longing to see Christ as counter cultural. Don\u2019t be afraid of rebellion.\u201d<\/p>\n

As I was thinking, what does that mean?<\/em>, Sarah, who I knew growing up, was speaking. \u201cMicha, I feel like God is showing me a tree, in your distinct neighborhood in San Francisco, growing up out of the place where your house is. It was a tree you had to uproot from Philadelphia. And it was a really painful process. But God is saying, \u2018It\u2019s okay to spread your roots, now. You can settle, despite the fact that you may not be there long term.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

She continued: \u201cI just have this vision of you and August walking to the park, and the roots following you, making this line in the sidewalk. The tree is following you wherever you go. And as the roots spread out, little baby trees are sprouting up from the roots.\u201d<\/p>\n

They prayed for me. I cried a little. Then I got in the car with my brother, who said: \u201cYou\u2019re so worried that God is done with you now that you\u2019ve left the ministry, but he wants you to know it\u2019s not over.\u201d<\/p>\n

Most often when I hear something that may be from God I cannot comprehend more than: I need to think about this some more<\/em>. I drove back to a tantrum-throwing toddler who would not fall asleep. Then I got on the phone with my husband and complained about how the internet wasn\u2019t working and I wouldn\u2019t be able to post on the blog for another day. I lay down in the bed I\u2019m sharing with my little boy, and listened for a second.<\/p>\n

I stared for a long time at our house in my brain: where the tree would stand, how it might follow me and my stroller like one of those commercials (you know, the one with the financial red line). I watched little off-shoots sprouting. I heard Sam say: \u201cThat\u2019s in the past now.\u201d<\/p>\n

I\u2019m leery of people speaking for God. There are plenty of crazies spouting crap and signing God\u2019s name under it. But, I want you to know that the God who may have said those things to me last night is the God I want to believe in: kind, hopeful, willing to see me as more than a disappointment, willing to use me despite my craziness and prayerlessness.<\/p>\n

So I\u2019m going to think about those tree roots some more. And I\u2019m going to pray. I\u2019ll let you know how that goes\u2026<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"