Once upon a time, my brother-in-law Jim introduced me to an interesting and relevant word: taproot. A taproot is the primary root from which all other roots grow. It's the key invisible ingredient to plant growth. No sustainable improvement is possible without this one root being healthy.

Many might suggest the taproot of all personal growth and performance advancement is work ethic and/or passion. A winning effort and winning attitude surely seem like the cornerstones.

But Scripture points to one thing more fundamental, more powerful and eternal: love.

To be specific, Ephesians 3 defines this love as deeper and more cosmic than we think; a love found outside oneself and defined and authored by Another.

Paul prays for folks everywhere that they would be rooted and established in a specific kind of love, the love of Christ. When people are entrenched in this kind of love-living, they will experience love that surpasses knowledge and fills them with all the fullness of God.

The most powerful living is rooted in Jesus-loving … loving through Him. Let's not settle for cheap imitations and cheaper definitions. They limit our true understanding of life, hinder our growth and render us powerless, not powerful.

Christ's love is selfless, sacrificial, unexpiring, unconditional. That's the love to shoot for, imitate, fix as the cornerstone of our lives and taproot of our growth. No other love definition can do.

So choose this growth model. Be rooted and established in this. Make the love OF Jesus and love FOR Jesus the taproot.

Reflect: How's your internal root system? Is it time to dig it up and take a good, fresh look? How much is Christ's love at the heart of it all for you? Are you experiencing surpassing knowledge, filling and power that comes when the love of Christ dominates your personal growth journey?