Ever Been in a Too-Small Pot?

I decided to repot a plant recently, and found, when I pulled it from the pot, that the entire plant slipped out easily. The roots were tangled and matted together into a dense, tightly-woven mass. The plant had become “root bound.” I repotted it, put it on my balcony, and forgot all about it… until today. I was talking to someone on the phone while looking out my sliding glass door at the plant. This conversation with another, added to the image of the plant before me, led to a confrontation from God…

How can you tell if a plant is root bound? The experts say that a plant suffering from the condition will be stunted in growth. An indication of this (when buying a plant packaged in a planting bag) is that the bag will not “give” when pressed because the roots have filled up the container completely. A root bound plant has roots that do not spread out for nutrients, but ones that circle the interior of the container until they conform to the shape of the pot.

At times, and about certain things, I am root bound. I’ve grown only as much as the pot I’m in allows, but I don’t want another pot…I like this one. If you were to check my root bound areas, you would find that I don’t give easily when pressed. I’m rigid, hard, and unyielding. I don’t want to change my way of doing things. My roots circle, never spreading out, becoming more and more tightly constrained until I’ve used up all the moisture and nutrients in my already too-small pot. It’s a comfortable pot, yet I’m not growing…I’ve come to match my surroundings, circling the inside of my heart, never reaching out beyond what I perceive as the limit.

When I repotted the plant on my balcony, I did something to it first: I slashed the root ball repeatedly with a knife. I didn’t cut the major roots, but broke up the network of secondary ones to encourage them to branch out.

That’s what God does. He uses situations and circumstances to slash through those things that hinder us from branching. He doesn’t put us in a larger pot without some major adjustments to our root system. Paul prays that the Ephesians would be “rooted and grounded in love” and that they “may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height—to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge” (3:17b-19a). Perhaps my love, both for God and for others, has grown “root bound” and limited. Maybe God needs to slash open the repetitive cycle so I can branch out from the tiny pot in which I have placed myself into the infinite soil of Christ’s love.

Dustin C. George
Minister to Single Adults
www.sevierheights.org