Editorial May 31, 2021 ISSUE

Getting to the root of the problem

Jan Keeler Vincent

Every gardener knows that to remove a weed, you have to get to its root. Just cutting off the top doesn’t eliminate the weed or its damaging effects. So it is with any problem. In order to fully resolve the issue, you have to discern and extract the root—the problem behind the problem.

Case in point: Years ago, a roommate and I had lived in an apartment for a week or so without furniture. We both had entry-level positions with low salaries and were waiting for our first month’s paychecks just to buy beds. One Saturday morning, after another night sleeping on the floor, it dawned on me that turning to God might bring a solution. Was there something I could know about my creator, some spiritual truth I needed to understand, that would change my thinking and therefore my experience? Was this a financial problem or was it a metaphysical—a theological—one?

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