It’s hard to believe that we’re already nearly a month and a half into 2023, isn’t it? A new year can be a great opportunity to make some positive changes in your life. Whether it’s getting more active, eating healthier, learning a new skill, or looking into ways to reduce stress, setting goals and working towards them can bring a great sense of accomplishment.
With this in mind, I’ve been taking time to reflect on how Roots & Light can better serve you on your journey of growth in the Gospel.
A New Series
For 2023, I will be exploring some of the habits of Christian faith. This came about as a subject I wanted to dig into in my own story of growth in the Gospel because I have noticed myself “rubber-banding” (Any gamers out there?) in my relationship with God.
If you’re not familiar, “rubber-banding” is a term used in the online gaming world when your gameplay glitches and your character suddenly jumps back to a previous location, much like a rubber band that has been stretched and released. It happens when there’s a faulty or interrupted connection.
That’s how my growth with God had been for a while, faulty and interrupted, and I didn’t want it to continue being that way.
In my young adult years in the Church, I had heard the term “spiritual disciplines” thrown around (like I was already supposed to know what they were), but had never really investigated them for myself. When I recently began to dig, I discovered there are many historical habits of Christian faith and discipleship that are tremendously useful practices to use as tools in maintaining a strong connection in our relationship with God.
From liturgy and sabbath, to prayer and fasting, to meditation and service and more, I’m looking forward to exploring these habits with you.
As we go, I will be reading some of the existing resources available on the subject, studying the habits we see in scripture, and thinking, feeling, and growing in these areas, with God’s help. All the while, I’ll be sharing my findings, questions, and conclusions with you and providing useful tools to aid you in your own discovery of the habits of the Christian faith.
Read the first article in the series here – Habits of the Christian Faith: Liturgy and Sabbath.
A New Community
If this sounds like a journey you’d like to join me on, I am launching a free private group on Facebook and would love for you to be a part of it. It is called The Gospel Garden and is a place where we can meet up virtually with those who want to have ongoing discussion and community support while we pursue growing in the Gospel. It’s just launching today and the available content will continue to grow as the activity in the group grows and we cover more topics at Roots & Light.
Click here to request to join The Gospel Garden.
A Revised Newsletter
Roughly each month for the last year, I’ve been sending out an email newsletter to those who’ve expressed interest in R&L and growing in the Gospel. Those emails have been long and loaded and in need of some streamlining.
Going forward, Planted. will be more like a digest of recent goings on in the R&L community. This will provide you with an easy way to find what new articles have been published at rootsandlight.com, give you a sneak peek into what discussions are getting traction in The Gospel Garden, keep you informed about pre-order announcements for new paid resources, and include a little personal update from me letting you in on my real life story of Gospel growth.
The frequency of these emails will depend on what’s going on. Some seasons will be slower and you’ll get your issue once in two months. In busier seasons you may get them more frequently for a little while.
If you subscribe and then change your mind later, it is easy to unsubscribe by clicking the link at the bottom of the email you receive, or by sending a message to angela@rootsandlight.com with the subject of “unsubscribe.”
Click here to get your first issue of Planted.
A New Website Design
If you’re new at rootsandlight.com, you can just scroll on past this section. But if you’ve been here before, you’ve already noticed some changes to the website design. These changes are meant to serve you better as you navigate the resources here.
Easier Article Access
I wanted it to be as easy as possible for you to find the Gospel growth articles you need, so now the home page lists the articles we have from newest to oldest and you get a bit of a preview of the content so you can see what’s meeting you where you are today. You can also get to the list of articles from anywhere on the website by clicking the “Articles” link in the top or side menu (depending on your device).
You’ll also see the list of words on the top/side menu that are in different sizes. These are tags. You can use them like a little file system. The larger the text size, the more articles that cover that topic. For example, if you want to see a list of all R&L articles that reference the book of Matthew, click “Matthew” and you’ll get what you’re looking for.
Free Resources
I’ve added a section to the website where you can easily find a list of all the free downloadable resources referenced in the articles you read. You can get to these resources either through the specific article that references them, or through the “Free Resources” link on the side or top menu. When future articles are posted with practical tools for you to implement on your journey of growth, the selection of these free downloads will grow as well.
Easy Shopping
If you are interested in purchasing one of the R&L paid resources (such as Ephesians: A Guided Reading Plan released in 2022), you will find a link to available product categories (Such as Guided Reading Plans) on the top/side menu as well which will take you directly to the store where you can purchase what you need.
If you’ve previously made a purchase and created a R&L account, your digital downloads are still available under the “My Account” link. If you ever have any trouble reaching your resources, send an email to angela@rootsandlight.com and I’ll get you sorted out ASAP.
A Word of Growth
It seems like the right thing to close out this guide to R&L for 2023 with the passage of scripture that inspired the whole Roots & Light idea in the first place. May you be blessed by the words of God.
“The person who trusts in the LORD, whose confidence indeed is the LORD, is blessed.
He will be like a tree planted by water: it sends its roots out toward a stream, it doesn’t fear when heat comes, and its foliage remains green. It will not worry in a year of drought or cease producing fruit.“
Jeremiah 17:7-8 CSB
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