“And it came to pass that the servant said unto his master: Is it not the loftiness of thy vineyard—have not the branches thereof overcome the roots which are good? And because the branches have overcome the roots thereof, behold they grew faster than the strength of the roots, taking strength unto themselves. Behold, I say, is not this the cause that the trees of thy vineyard have become corrupted?” (Jacob 5:48). Both roots and branches contribute to the life and growth of the tree. The roots dig through the dirt, largely unseen, to bring up water and nutrients. The branches thrust their leaves up into the sky, seen by all, to soak up energy from the sunlight. Focusing too much on either the roots or the branches at the expense of the other will leave the tree vulnerable to corruption. Many of us put too much emphasis on the branches in our lives. We want our trees to grow as big and as tall as fast as possible. We don't necessarily want to be burrowing into the earth in thankless and invisible tasks for long stretches of time with nothing to show for it. On the other hand, some of us are too uncertain that we are ready to show off our hard work with great, tall branches and would much rather continue to toil in obscurity and continue building greater and greater roots without any kind of expectations or responsibilities that would attach to us if our branches were more visible. If our branches draw too much strength from our roots, we will wither and die. And if our roots hold back too much strength from our branches, then we will also wither and die. We need both the dreams and the visions that will cause us to reach ever upwards towards the light and also the dedication and diligence to dig ever deeper to give us the solid foundation we need to sustain our growth. If we are stretched beyond our limits to do all of the things that we want or are expected to do, then maybe we have allowed our branches to outgrow our roots. And if we are feeling stalled out and directionless then maybe we need to focus a little more on our branches. As we maintain a balanced focus on running as fast as we can and no faster and bearing as much as we can but not more, then our branches and roots will be perfectly balanced and we will be able to produce good fruits.
