Sylvia: I think of family, I think of home, especially my home growing up. I think of Korean food. What about spiritually, what do you think about when you think “spiritually rooted?”

Lynn: A lot of things, like when God says, “Out of the mouth your heart will flow.” I feel like there is this nature between the things that are rooted in our hearts becoming alive, or coming into being, in our words, and in our actions, and in our beings. But we have to constantly kind of do our due diligence in saying, “seek my heart, search my heart, oh God; see if there are any wicked ways in me.” Because these things that are unseen—they have a way of coming forth and kind of coming into light, right? That things that are rooted in us, whether it’s bitterness, or love, or insecurities, or fears.

I think of, like, the image of God that’s really the Imago Dei, that’s rooted in all of us. Our shared humanity, and how within that, we find an essence of who God is, and what God is.

Sylvia: So where are we going?

[scene change]

Lynn: What do you think it means to be rooted?

Person 1: To be down to earth. And to be, like, humbled, I guess.

Person 2: Somebody who’s down to earth, somebody who’s level-headed.

Person 3: I would say, probably, to be grounded, know what you want, know what you want to do.

Person 4: Very, like, in the same…kind of stuck in the same motions, that kind of thing.

Person 5: Well, when you root a phone, we unlock it so that we can activate service. You could use it internationally, you could use it with different carriers, such as T-Mobile or Staten Island.

Person 6: For me, I think it’s more like, you have a good way of living in life. And you’re able to, like, go about your daily life fine, you know?

Person 7: To feel involved in your community. To feel like the things you do, both good and bad, have an effect. So that if you’re doing bad things, the people around you, the things around you, can let you know.

[scene change]

Sylvia: So, Lynn, what did you think of those responses back there? I really liked that one T-Mobile guy’s answer about how for him, rooting means just to root your phone. Kind of erasing everything on your phone and putting in something new.

Lynn: But it’s kind of like, let’s uproot everything that is not the true root. Don’t you think it was interesting that a lot of people had just about the same thing to say? Everybody kind of repeated that it was about being grounded. Trees came up a lot. Going back to, like, the Mother Nature kind of idea.

For me, that just tells me that there is this truth that hums in the collective human consciousness. Like we just all know this. We don’t have to say, “God,” but we just all know this. We’re all kind of trying to be—When we say “rooted,” we’re trying to be the best versions of ourselves, the most, truest, forms of ourselves. And I think we become the best versions, the truest forms of ourselves, when we root—just like our phones, right?—we kind of uproot everything that is not essential and not what God had in mind. And I think the truth is that we’re the truest versions of ourselves when we reflect God the best. When we reflect that Imago Dei best.