Be Rooted -Being Present.

In this episode of the Be Rooted Podcast, Nick continues exploring intentional discipleship by focusing on what it means to be rooted in the present moment. Using the image of an oak tree, he explains how our lives include both what is visible above the surface—our circumstances, past experiences, and future hopes—and what grows unseen beneath it. While the past can refine us and the future can inspire us, discipleship ultimately happens in the present, where we learn to live faithfully today rather than being trapped by regret or discouraged by the distance between who we are and who we hope to become.

Nick then introduces the deeper root system that sustains a healthy spiritual life: our relationship with God, others, and ourselves. These relationships shape our identity and give us the strength to endure life’s storms. The episode concludes with a practical exercise from Ephesians designed to help listeners anchor their identity in the truth of who God says they are, encouraging them to grow deeper roots in their faith and live with greater intentionality. 

Be rooted. Live intentionally. Stay curious.

Email at: berooted@beministries.net

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hey friends, welcome to the Be Rooted Podcast with your host, Nick Koubert, author, discipler, and your guide on this journey. Around here we mix ancient and modern wisdom with real live principles so you can grow deep roots and live out your faith intentionally. So let's stay curious and dive in.

SPEAKER_01 1:20

Last time we talked a little bit about the intentional. You know that everything that I'm doing, I'm doing on purpose for a reason. And even the title of this podcast has uh has a purpose. So I want to help you to experience this. And I'm gonna try to make a or create a little bit of a uh visual for you as well. So if you're joining us and you're audio only, I do want you to have the opportunity to go to like uh YouTube or YouTube Music to download this podcast in video form so that you can benefit from these, but I'll try to be cognizant of all of you audio-only learners. So I want you to picture the title of my podcast page. It has a uh oak tree on it, and on the top you have the tree, and and then you have the trunk of the tree, and then you have the the surface that it lands on. So to start off, we're gonna talk a little bit about everything above the surface, and basically that is what it means to be. Everything above the circuit surface is your reality. You know, it could include the storms of life, the rain that comes down, the strong winds, the things that affect your daily living. It also includes your future, what we call your vision, what do you see in your future, and it also includes your past. What's been done to you, what you've done, your successes, your failures are all part of your past. But what it means to be lands somewhere in the middle, it lands in the moment. Being is a present thing. Yes, it includes your past and it includes the vision of your future. We all want to be something, we all, but the thing that we want to be in the future is not what we are today. That's what that's what makes it a vision. And we want to be aware of it, and we want to do things on purpose to reach that, but not for not forsaking what it means to be today. You see, one of the things that I've experienced in my life and my discipleship, and with most of the people that I've walked alongside with, and more the the pastors or the people that have been walking faith for a long time, the the future can almost be a negative because we don't feel like we're living up to the kind of person that we want to be. You know, we see a better future and we get down on ourselves when we when we're not able to produce that better future today. Well, when we learn how to to be and to find ourselves in the moment in a healthy way, then we can be rooted, and then we'll get to the rooted section in a moment, in the reality with the with the hope of the future and the acknowledgement of our past. So one of the things that I that I like to say about our past is your past is everything that's already happened. It's five minutes ago and it's five years ago. It doesn't have to define you, but it can refine you. And it always should inform you. We're not called to just simply forget our past, because if we forget it, then we lose the opportunity to learn from it. And we don't want to be stuck in the past, we don't want those things to define who we are today. And that's both your successes and your failures. When I screw up, that doesn't define the person that I'm called to be in the moment. I can still choose to not screw up again. So let me give you a few examples of what it might look like to get stuck in the past. The first one's gonna be from my own story. Just recently, we were getting ready for a large holiday party. Um, my wife and I were doing a lot of prep work, and I brought up something from a previous uh situation. And I could tell almost instantly that it affected my wife. It it hurt her. And it didn't hurt her in a in a way that I said something wrong. I just brought up something from the past that I hadn't brought to her yet, and I realized almost instantly I was a bad choice. I should have had the conversation and I needed to have the conversation, but I picked a terrible time to have that conversation. Now, I could have just let that stew. I could have let it, you know, affect the next several hours or even the rest of the night or the party that we were about ready to have. But I I realized my my error, and within a few minutes, I said to her, hey, I what I said was true and I sh and I needed to have the conversation with you, but I picked a terrible time. I'm sorry. And I had to give her a hug and I had to help her through that moment because I did something wrong. Now, it wasn't the words that I said, it wasn't the the thing that I brought up. She agreed, like, yeah, we should have talked about that. But I brought it up at a terrible time. Now, I could have gotten stuck in the past of that past five minutes. Like five minutes ago, I made a mistake. And I could have let that mistake affect the rest of my night and even affect my my relationship. But because I noticed that error quickly and I was able to be present and realize what I did, I was able to do the next right thing just five minutes later. So there's a short example of what it might look like to get stuck in a recent past. I think we all have stories about, you know, larger mistakes or larger failures from the past that we find ourselves getting stuck in. So I don't want to belabor that. The next example I want to give you is one directly from scripture. And it's not getting stuck in the successes, it's not getting stuck in the victories. And the story that I'm going to bring up is Elijah. There was a moment where he was standing on the mountain, where he was talking to God and he was mocking the prophets of Baal and Asherah. And and he says, Where are your gods? And he calls down fire and God shows up, and it was an incredible story. Most people know the story if you've been in church for a while. But the next thing that happens is he walks away and he's depressed, and he wants to be old. He wants God to take his life. And God's like, nah, I'm not done with you. There for those few moments, he was stuck. I like, God, I can't, I can't call it on fire again. I can't do this big thing again. But God was not done with him. That big victory did not define Elijah. Just a few more pages or a few more verses down in the story that we find in 1 Kings is Elijah meeting Elisha. And it's beginning a relationship with one that he's called to mentor and disciple. And Elisha eventually takes the baton from Elijah and becomes God's prophet. You see, if Elijah would have gotten stuck in the story, stuck in the victory of his past, he likely would have missed his opportunity to do what was really significant, and that is to pass his faith on to the next generation. So I want to encourage you to, yes, be informed by your past. Be refined by your past, but don't be defined by it. In the failures and the successes, what does it look like to be today? So as we continue to, you know, come into this image, I want you to start to see what happens under the surface. I want you to see that there are three primary roots systems. And we're gonna likely talk about all three of these root systems in depth later in the later episodes. Today I just kind of want to give you an overview of what that root system looks like. And I want you to see that all of this that's going on in your life is going to be reinforced with a strong foundation. You are able to endure the storms, you're able to endure the scorching heat in seasons of drought when you send your root system deep. And you're able to find the the water sources, the living water that might be farther down than you're than you're ready for, than you're used to. So as you grow, as you grow up, and as you grow in you in who you're called to be in your reality today, you also need to send your root systems deep. So I want you to see that all three of these root systems are rooted in relationship. That relationship becomes the foundation for who you are, for who you're becoming. It's impacted by the people you've met in the past, it will be impacted by the people that you meet in the future, and it's impacted by those that you give influence in your life today. But your primary root system is made up of three relationships. And we're just gonna say primary, because the primary relationship that you have is with God. When you dig that root system deep, you will find that it has more root systems that come from there. And I want you to see that that primary root system is made up of God the Father, God the Son, and the Holy Spirit. That these three primary relationships that you have with a triune God, and we'll just be clear, this is your relationship with Jesus. That if you're digging your root systems deep and you're receiving the provision from the Father, you're receiving your identity from the Father, and you're aligning yourself with the example of Christ and the relationship of Christ, and you call him friend and you call him brother, and he calls you friend and not just servant. Man, digging those roots deep will help you to weather the storms of your reality, to endure the scorching heat of the seasons of drought. And when you let your relationship with the Holy Spirit flow through you and into your reality, into your other relationships and into you, then you then the Holy Spirit will shape you. So we will dive deeper into what these relationships look like in the future, but I want you to see that this primary root system, the one that digs straight down, is your relationship with God. What does that look like to you? And how can you deepen those roots? So I want to look at the the next root system real quickly, and that's this one over here, and we're gonna call that the um the others relationship. How do you interact with the people around you? Now, there are what are these others, and there's there's a lot of social implication to what these are, and we'll probably get into some of that. I one of the things that I like to uh look at is where you meet these others, and it's called the the four spaces, what we call the four social spaces. So you interact with people in a public place, and you interact with people in social ways and in private ways and also intimate ways. So, how do you interact with others? Because how you interact with others and who you give influence to is extremely important in developing the kind of root system that will help you to weather the storm, to help you to be present. And then the the last one, the last root system that we're going to dig into, and that is your relationship with self. How do you become aware of who you are? How do you accept the person that you are, but how do you also embrace the person that God created you to be? How do you continue to become the kind of disciple that God intended you to be from the beginning of time? How do you understand and become comfortable with your personality traits, the unchangeable parts of you? I'm not talking about the little quirks and the little things that you can begin to justify. I think actually you should start to look at those things and say, uh, you know, I'm an angry person. I'm pretty sure God didn't plan on me being angry my whole life. You don't just get to say, well, I'm an angry person. But you can say, Hey, I'm passionate. And and I and I love deeply and I and I and I embrace justice. And sometimes those things make me angry. So how do you learn how to grow in your relationship with yourself? But through the lens of your relationship with God. How do you begin to embrace the things that are true about you because they're what God says to be true about you? And how do you grow in those things? So I'm looking forward to digging deeper into some of these topics and uncovering maybe some of these little tributaries that affect our relationship with self, or these little tributaries of vines or roots that affect our relationship with others, different methods and ways that we can grow and expand our relationship with God, but all for the purpose of learning how to be today. Be the kind of person that God created you to be. Enter into your discipleship with intentionality. Discover who He wants you to be, and continue to discover who you are as you dig these roots deeper and deeper. So I look forward to seeing uh you next time as we maybe uncover some more of this. So thank you and don't ever forget to stay curious, my friends. So, what does it mean to be in your current reality and how can I be intentional about that today? In a few minutes, I'm gonna give you an assignment. Um, before I do, I want to share with you a resource that I put together. I call it a guide, but it's kind of a devotional um style discipleship guide. It's called Engage, and it's the art of intentional faith. And you can find it on Amazon or you can find it in um in a link on my website, be ministries.net. And the first one that's been released, and and I'm building some more, but the first one is the foundations, and it's the foundation of awareness. So there is an assignment very much like the one that I'm gonna talk to you in this um resource. So if you want to find other ways to grow in your awareness of what does it mean to be intentional about your personal discipleship or your discipleship with another person, um I want to encourage you to check out that resource. So, what does it mean to be intentional about your current situation? So, one of the foundations that I have found to be almost pivotal in this, it is, it lands in your identity, your identity with Christ, your your identity that you derive from your creator. So I want to identify three potential different, um, what I'm gonna call, for the lack of better term, maturity levels in faith. So maybe you're one of those people who don't really have a faith, you've never professed a faith in Jesus, but you're curious about what this means, or you're coming to this material because somebody sent it to you. You're like, okay, well, what does this mean for me? I don't even follow this stuff. Um I think you can do this assignment. And then a the the next step on the journey might be, hey, you've made uh a commitment to to Christ, but maybe you you don't have all the tools you need to develop. Well, I think you can do this assignment. And then the the uh the the next maturity level, so to speak, is maybe you've been walking faith for a long time. Uh see this assignment you can do as well, because one of the places where I find it most beneficial is the reminder. Actually, one of my favorite quotes from C.S. Lewis is people need to be reminded more often than they need to be taught any new morality. So I I actually changed that last part to like not from morality, but to uh to truth. You just need to be reminded of the truth. So here is the assignment. I want you to grab a piece of paper. I want you to write on the upper left hand side of this piece of paper, I am. And on the same piece of paper on the right side. On the upper right hand corner, I want you to write, he is. And then I want you to open your Bible. I want you to go to the book of Ephesians, and I want you to read the first four chapters. However long it takes you, maybe you read a chapter a day, maybe you read a half a chapter a day. It doesn't matter. But I believe that Ephesians, the first four chapters, is one of those places in the Bible that has a condensation of identity. That there is a condensed place where God is saying, hey, this is who you are through the scripture. So in this exercise or in this assignment, I want you to write down as you encounter different statements, like I am blank. And when the scripture reveals to you what you are, write it down. But then when the Holy Spirit reveals to you who he is, who God is, I want you to write that down. By the end of this exercise, you will have a list of what Scripture says about you, who you are. And you will have a list about what Scripture says about God, what he says about himself. And I want you to walk through that list and I want you to say to yourself, are these true? Do I believe them? How am I allowing these I am statements or these he is statements to impact my identity? You see, I've I've done this process, and I've done it a couple of times, and I've encouraged other people to do it. And it is a process that always comes back fruitful. And it is one of the things that I do to undergird and to develop and to build and to strengthen my identity in him. I've done it in all different aspects of or all different places in scripture, but I just think I would like you to go there into Ephesians because it is a condensation of truth for you. One example of this process and the fruit of it actually is the is what you're viewing right now. See, I was reading through the book of Ezekiel and I was hearing God say to Ezekiel, you worry about saying the words in this culture. I'm giving you a task, and you are responsible to say the things that I've told you to say. Yeah, there's going to be people out there that don't listen. There's going to be people out there that are probably going to revile you. There's going to be people out there that want to curse or abuse the words that I'm trying to give you to speak, but you don't worry about them. You just be obedient and do what I've asked you to do. See, I didn't want to start a podcast. I don't, man, this scares me because I'm so worried about me saying the wrong thing. But God said to me through that scripture, through Ezekiel, I have made you to do this. And don't worry when you mess up, because my power is bigger than your mess ups. I just want you to be obedient and I want you to speak the words that I give you. So that is part, and that's part of the reason what that makes this so practical and makes this so real and makes this so powerful. Because when you gain your identity, when the undergirding of who you are is in your relationship with God and you trust him more than you trust yourself, man, there's there's a comfort in that, there's a power in that. And I don't stand on my own two feet, I only stand in the power of God. And I also acknowledge that I'm probably gonna mess up every now and then. And that's okay, because he will use those as well. And and when you get to see me in an authentic way, I think he'll be able to use that too. So that's my challenge for you today. I want you to do that assignment. It's the I am and the he is assignment through scripture. And if you're reading through another section of scripture right now, just do it with that. But if you're not, enter into the book of Ephesians with that mindset and see what God can do.