What's your dirt look like?

I have been reading a book called Tired of Trying to Measure Up? by a guy named Jeff Van Vonderen. And it has been a revelation. He uses an example of the things in our lives that people see - good and bad things - as plants planted in dirt. And he asks an interesting question: what determines the life of the plant? Is it the plant? Nope, it's the dirt.

And if the soil of your life is shame or performance orientation or anything other than God, you are trying to get life out of a dead thing.

He also uses the example of his dad's funeral. People were saying "he looks so alive!" but his dad was as dead as a stone. And there are a lot of us who are masquerading as alive when we're not. Or those who call themselves Christians - people who are supposed to have the Life of God living in them - still act like dead folks.

I would definitely recommend adding it to the reading list.