Heart of Relationships: The Root System

Transcript of a Sage Hill Live Fully Podcast conversation with Dr. Chip Dodd. Lightly edited for readability; speaker labels omitted.

This podcast is brought to you by Sage Hill, a social impact organization. Our mission is to help people be who they're made to be so that they can do what they're made to do. Find more resources to live fully, love deeply, and lead well at sagehillresources.com. This is the spiritual root system. Jeremiah seventeen eight talks about a tree. I did the spiritual root system before I ever knew this Jeremiah stuff. Okay? Jeremiah seventeen five seventeen five through seven talks about cursed, isolated from how you're made, who you're made to be, whose you're made to be, and also what you're made to do. Most amazing thing was that when Jeremiah said that this person would be like a tree planted in the wasteland. I did a word study on the tree. It's a juniper, probably the same juniper, where Hagar left Ishmael. And she went away from him because there's not enough shade provided by this juniper for two people. So it's an isolated tree, grows straight up and offers like a pencil sort of shade. They planted in the desert or or a parched land, its roots go out on the top of the soil greedy for anything that comes. There's not enough room for anything to grow near it. So it's isolated, separated, stingy, greedy, self protective, defensive, and really, ultimately, really bears no fruit. It has pink ends to its little leaves that look like fruit or flowers, but it's just those tinge of pink because there's nothing really there. It's not a productive much of a productive tree. So in its well, amazing part was it says that even when prosperity comes, the person won't even see it. Like, they're not even available for prosperity. Jeff described his kids were, like, talking to him, pumping the pedal for the water, and he just resented them. The blessings of his life were all around him, and he couldn't be present with them because his heart was removed from his actions. And it's not like he knew. All it did was that their need of him insulted his availability. It insulted his capacity because Jeff at the time thought that he was the answer, should be have the answers or should know the this or should this and should that and should this and should that. All the shoulds, all the legalism, he didn't know that it was okay to not know Because the not knowing leads us to asking questions. Asking questions leads us to answers. But if you gotta know, you can't ask questions. If you can't ask questions, you'd well, you have to find your own answers. Okay? So anyway so then the second part of the Jeremiah says, Jeremiah seventeen seven and eight says, blessed is the man. Blessed is the woman. Blessed is the person. And Jeff showed us what blessed means this morning when he he got down. Receive. It means to be down on your knees and to be raised up. It's a it's a it's a movement, a meaning word. Just like I didn't finish with the word obey, somebody asked me this morning. Obey doesn't mean just listen. It's a process word. It's a it's a word of growth and movement. It means to listen so that you will hear the words you're hungry for and act according to them because it's good for you. K. So it doesn't mean no action. It means you listen first, though. Like, what am I doing this for? You ask questions so you understand what's happening. So anyway, it says that that the person who is blessed is blessed is the person who trusts in God, which means that their heart is available to God, who has confidence in God, which means that you're loyal with because of the experience with God. Like, hey. He'll show up. He'll be here. Just wait. He'll be here. And if he's not, we got a lot of talking to do. Like, where'd you go? Where have you been? What did you do? So in other words, you've got a relationship with God where you can say these things. You can it's it's better than a parent. There's no having to caretake the parent at all. You don't have to caretake God. God can handle your heart. He can handle your what the minor prophets were best at doing, complaining. And there's Habakkuk's complaint and Jeremiah's complaint. And then, you know, everybody's complaining. And God goes, yeah. Bring it. I'm gonna stand right here till you answer my complaint. These were called prophets. They were like they God liked them a ton. So he didn't they didn't get rejected. So he says, blessed is a person who trusts in God, who has confidence in God, who's loyalty with what they know. That person will be like a tree whose roots its roots go out into the waters and it drinks. So when roots are fed, they get fat. When fat roots deliver a lot of hydration and oxygenation to the tree and the tree gets fat and the tree gets a lot of fat fruit. Fat meaning rich and full. Lots of it. More than they can handle, which means they're rich, which means they come get some of this fruit, man. I can't stand having all this. Come get some. Should ness. You're not getting out of your have to because you don't see it as a sacrifice. You see it as an opportunity to participate in the sacred. And what is most sacred? A human being being fully alive to how God made them, which means they've gotten themselves, they've become themselves, and now they're giving themselves away. You cannot give what you do not have. You cannot give what you do not have. If you don't have heart, you can't give heart. If somebody comes over and they want you to listen to them and care about them, if you don't care about you and you don't even listen to your own heart, then how are you gonna listen to theirs? Pretend, act like, memorize stuff, give them the right words, say something scripted. You know, that whole thing, you know, where you you learn you read about learning how to talk to people so they don't know that you're not really giving them anything. That kind of stuff. You know? Crazy stuff. Anyway, so these roots, what was amazing was the roots go out into the living water, and the living water is relationship with God and relationship with others. Now I want you to know that God talks to us, and I'm gonna move very specifically. God talks to us. Now based on my experience and some people I've been paying attention to for a long time, listen to them, but based on what I've watched and seen, God talks to us in five ways. I'll tell you what those ways are. K? Now I'm not saying it's end on, be all. Remember, I didn't go to theology school, so go talk to them. But but take this to them. Say, hey, this would, you know God talks to us through prayer, which means we're talking and listening. Which we hunger for, need, wish, want, you know, struggle with. And the more you're able to say what hurts, You know every day. I'm not giving the doctor any help in helping me. Any direction and directing me. Any offering to be healed. You see? It's amazing. My exposure to the doctor is a direction towards my healing. So God talks to us through prayer. God talks to us in our circumstances. And he doesn't give you things to figure out. He gives you things to ask about. You hear the poetry. You gotta kind of feel it. Funny thing. I was with a bunch of, guys, in Atlanta. Y'all heard La Cree. Kind of hip hop like today. And, but I'm I would say actually, I was dressed more hip hop because I thought about what I needed to wear before I went. So I had on striped pants, brown pants with a white stripe, a little bit kind of loud. Right? And then I had on a checked shirt. Conflict. Do you see? A man in conflict. Right? Like because I didn't want to say I was like trying to like get approval or anything like, you know, I still me. And I said to Dashi, I thought about coming here because I wanted to do, you know, let you know I'm I'm hip hop too. Because I'm I'm with you. You know? Tadashi is a gigantic man. He's every bit of three fifty and wears it beautifully. He says Samoan, African American. I mean, guys, just I mean, he's cool. Right at cool right here. There's a mountain of cool in front of me. He goes, man. I mean, I know I was in trouble right there. He goes, man. Like like, that's pitiful. Like, man, you gotta tell me you hip hop, man. You mean hip hop. I'm like, I know. That's alright. But I thought I just wanna see what he'd do if I told him I thought I was. It's I knew I was. Okay? But those guys are really cool, and they are really doing this. They've taken in the whole spiritual root system stuff. The Cray, Tadashi, with Pro was with them, Andy Mineo. I mean, they're just like this is so in it, Jeff. I mean, they're just like really interested in us, and they this is a workplace that's taken into this stuff. So it's not about church. It's about home. It's about couples. It's about relationships, families, work, everything. K? So circumstances, God's God talks us through our circumstances, not things that we have to figure out, but things we ask about. You're not your job is not to figure out why God's doing something. Your job is to ask God what he's doing. Why are you doing that is demanding a defense from God. Like he's your personal apologist. Are you doing? And that means that you're actually questioning in doubt. You're questioning in pain. You're questioning in fear. You're questioning and thinking maybe he's not God all of a sudden. I remember when William, the, you know, son I was talking about, I said we pulled into the driveway and there was a he had had a pretty tough injury. And right at the midst when he and Tennyson were gonna be playing together in this great extraordinary moment of their lives, and he got hurt. He He was out for six weeks of the only probably ten, eleven, twelve weeks they were gonna play together. It's gonna be an incredible story in the back of The Perfect Laws chapter eight. Phenomenal story. It really happened. But we pulled in the driveway. We've been in the youth group, and he said, dad, all I ever hear is it's gonna be okay. God knows God's doing this or this is why God's doing that, and God's doing this for this. And he said, dad, look. If God did this to me if God did this to me, then he's bad. He's cruel. If God couldn't stop it from happening to his week. If the devil did this to me, then God didn't even matter. Like, okay. One, two, three. I think I'm out of stuff. You covered it all. I said, I didn't have an answer. We pulled in the driveway, and he was like, you know, just really letting it letting it out. And I remember we got out of my truck and, hip hop truck. And, it's he went to his car. They called his car the Beagle. It's a Buick Regal, and he went and locked it. I'm like, you're locking that that 1991 Buick Regal. There's nothing in it, and I wish somebody take it. I mean, it was just a bad car. I had two by four holding up the front seat. He loved it. But he locked his car, and I was getting out of the truck. And he walked from the darkness into the edge of a light that we had right outside our garage. And I walked from the darkness fully into the light to the edge where he was standing. Isn't that a metaphor? I just remember that so distinctly. He was on the edge of the light. I walked through the light to go to him. And that's when he said, hey, dad. And he had his heads just shaved for baseball. I said, dad, look. Listen. I don't really mean what I'm saying, but I know you can I know you can take it? And I said, look, son, I don't have all the answers. I just know I'm with you in them. I'm just with you in them all the way, no matter what it takes. I don't care what it takes. That's our God. I don't think he can give us all the answers, but he's with us in him. That's what that Emmanuel thing didn't seem like enough. God with us, like, it's pretty good because we're relationally based creatures. Alright. So God speaks to us in circumstances we need to ask him about with our heart. God speaks to us through, the Bible, the the the big, big book. He actually talks to us through his word. God speaks to us through other people. Serious information to us through other people, but we're not paying attention to him because we're waiting for direct verbal revelation from him. You know? I can't listen to you. I'm waiting to hear from God. Voice. Not just his hands and feet, his voice. I literally God had experienced a relationship with God back through other people. They showed me a God that they could be with. And I'm like, this is really good. I learned God from people. It was really beautiful, wonderful. I didn't say those people were God. I learned God again from people. I watched them trust and care and give their hearts and so on. So well, the people and then we also learned from I was told not to say this word, but I I write it, and then I write the word I was told to say. We also learned from God, hear from God through revelation. But I was told I need to use the word illumination, so I'll put that down too. Okay? I'm not sure how come, but I'll do it. Okay? Because I'm obedient. K? So in other words, God will enlighten us. He will he will give us an intuitional recognition of what to do and where to go. And I believe in that with all my heart. K? I believe I found an illumination revelation and finally recognizing what I've been doing all these years was helping people do what they're made to do so they see what to see who they're made to be, so they can do what they're made to do. It's like, I've been doing that my whole life kind of thing. So well, now there's a name for it. Alright. So God speaks to us as we show up. K? This is how God's gonna talk to to you when you bring your heart to God. So the truth is the feelings, which Jeff showed you, okay, upon the doorway of the human heart are written eight words. Here's your doorway. Alright? Now the eight feelings are passwords. What's a password? Jeff asked those cool questions. Y'all get what's a password? Thank you. It's like, oh, I thought it was like, okay, it's not a good question. Okay. So anyway, so password is a word that allows you to gain access. And you can't get in unless you have the word. Alright? So your heart and this is bizarre. I don't know how come it works. I don't know why it works this way. I've watched it now for twenty six years. And we have worked with the best and the brightest human beings who have ever walked upon the face of the earth. I'm talking about, yes, Yale graduates. And anyway, but we've worked with people from Oxford and Duke and, Stanford and, like, they died just the same, just looking as stupid as a rock, because your intellect will not cure our ailment nor will your willpower or your sense of moral concepts. It's like like you got all the intellect, you got all the willpower, you got all the morality, and you morality, and you look stupid, you look weak, and you look dumb. I mean, and you you look bad. This guy's got a heart problem. Doesn't have access into himself or herself. No access. So what are the words of access? God has given us eight feelings that allow us access into ourselves. It's wild. The eight feelings allow you access into yourself. Those are the words that we have. Now, people don't argue about three primary colors. Oh, no. No. No. There's not three. There's seven. There's No. No. There's not three. But look, I'm just talking about they're eight. I'm sorry. It really kind of God being elegant makes it kind of simple. There aren't 48. There are eight. There are three primary colors. That's pretty simple too. There are only a certain number of musical notes, and it doesn't restrict us. Do you understand that with the musical notes we have, what are they, eight? Do, re, mi, fa, so, ti, da, so, so, la, la. Right? Just so those eight. Right? Yeah. I've I've got into the Spanish part. I'm sorry. I just I don't know if y'all bilingual or not. I don't know what those musical notes are, but there are certain number of musical notes from what I understand. Some 12 or eight or something. Alright. Do you understand with just those small number of notes that the symphonies haven't been finished yet? The combinations haven't been put together where they have to repeat. Guys, with just these eight, you got infinity at your fingertips, the symphony of your own life. But you got to know how to use the tools, the primary colors, to be able to paint, to be able to take the notes and combine them, conduct them, work them into weave them into the story, the symphony of your life. Alright? And also, I want you to hear that these these feelings, they're just like organs of the body. Your feelings aren't moral. Convention. That sadness is weakness, anger is badness, loneliness is your ineptitude. For relationships. Sadness is the capacity to grieve loss because you were attached to something that's gone. And anger is a desire to live. But see, rage is what we've seen most of our lives represented as anger. And rage has nothing to do with anger because rage is nothing but somebody being terrified of caring about something. Rage is I'm gonna kill you if I have to feel this. Anger is I'll feel whatever I have to feel to go get this. So I want God to be angry for me. And that would make Jesus the angriest person we've ever met. He'll go to any length, do what he's got to do to get to the one he says he wants. I'm like, okay. Passion, willingness to be in pain for something that matters more than pain. And most have been taught by our people that anger is a sign of weakness, when actually it's a sign of something mattering.