The Beautiful Upset: WK4 - FRI
THE ROOT WORK OF PRAYER
Mark 11:20–25 (NLT)“The next morning as they passed by the fig tree he had cursed, the disciples noticed it had withered from the roots.”
If you sit with this passage long enough, one phrase rises to the surface: from the roots. Mark could have said the tree died. He could have said it withered. But he adds that small detail, roots first. Underground first. The hidden place first.
Years ago a counselor told me, “People keep pruning their behavior, but nothing really changes because the roots are unchanged.” That line has become something of a pastoral compass for me. We want new fruit without new roots. We want growth without the slow work of tending the soil. We want resurrection without surrender.
James K.A. Smith puts it this way: “You are what you love, because you live toward what you want” (Desiring the Kingdom, 2009). And our wants, our loves, are formed down deep, in the subterranean places of habit and desire. What you practice in the quiet eventually becomes who you are in public.
This is why Jesus links prayer and forgiveness here. Because unforgiveness is root rot, it poisons the soil of the soul. And prayer, real prayer, is the practice that opens that soil again. It softens what’s compacted. It loosens what’s hardened. It pulls us out of our grudges, resentments, and rehearsed narratives. It makes room for God to breathe again.
It’s funny, the disciples want to talk about miracles, about mountains moving, about dramatic displays of power but Jesus wants to talk about grudges. He knows the real work of transformation begins where no one sees it. Underground. In the roots.
The irony is that we often want God to change the visible parts of our lives, the fruit, the outcomes, the circumstances, without inviting Him to tend the unseen places. But Scripture is consistent: renewal always starts below the surface. In the daily habits. In the quiet surrenders. In the prayers we pray when no one is watching.
Before God grows fruit, He tends roots.
Mark 11:20–25 (NLT)“The next morning as they passed by the fig tree he had cursed, the disciples noticed it had withered from the roots.”
If you sit with this passage long enough, one phrase rises to the surface: from the roots. Mark could have said the tree died. He could have said it withered. But he adds that small detail, roots first. Underground first. The hidden place first.
Years ago a counselor told me, “People keep pruning their behavior, but nothing really changes because the roots are unchanged.” That line has become something of a pastoral compass for me. We want new fruit without new roots. We want growth without the slow work of tending the soil. We want resurrection without surrender.
James K.A. Smith puts it this way: “You are what you love, because you live toward what you want” (Desiring the Kingdom, 2009). And our wants, our loves, are formed down deep, in the subterranean places of habit and desire. What you practice in the quiet eventually becomes who you are in public.
This is why Jesus links prayer and forgiveness here. Because unforgiveness is root rot, it poisons the soil of the soul. And prayer, real prayer, is the practice that opens that soil again. It softens what’s compacted. It loosens what’s hardened. It pulls us out of our grudges, resentments, and rehearsed narratives. It makes room for God to breathe again.
It’s funny, the disciples want to talk about miracles, about mountains moving, about dramatic displays of power but Jesus wants to talk about grudges. He knows the real work of transformation begins where no one sees it. Underground. In the roots.
The irony is that we often want God to change the visible parts of our lives, the fruit, the outcomes, the circumstances, without inviting Him to tend the unseen places. But Scripture is consistent: renewal always starts below the surface. In the daily habits. In the quiet surrenders. In the prayers we pray when no one is watching.
Before God grows fruit, He tends roots.
- What root issues—fear, resentment, bitterness—need God’s healing?
- How are your prayers shaped by unresolved anger or disappointment?
- What would it look like to release someone so your heart has room to breathe?
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