 Three summers ago, someone I know said I could have some of their flowers. So, with gratitude, I dug several of them up in their yard and transplanted them here to mine. After three years of waiting, they began showing signs of life a few days ago and then suddenly bloomed here for the first time! A few years isn't very long to wait, but it was long enough for me to start wondering why they weren't blooming. What happened? Should I have prepared the soil better? Was it the environment that I brought them into? Can they just not thrive and flourish here? And, the biggest question, would I not get to experience the fullness that its life was meant to display? I wondered. I love how God lets us see connections through His creation in our personal life with Him. Simply waiting in the questions became important to me. I didn't make any rash judgments or movements to remove them. Instead, through the last several seasons, I kept trusting they would do what they were created to do when they were ready. I had to trust that there was life left, still a purpose for these beautiful gifts, without a glimpse of a blossom, until now. I chose to believe the assurance of the Holy Spirit, who I sensed was leading me to trust they would be able to do what they were created to one day fully. Discernment is one of the most challenging tasks we have as human beings. It's easier to sense when something is wrong. It's much harder to hold some waiting space for what to do (if anything). Plant life exists through God's creatively designed rhythms, intricate connection, and power. We are more complex. We can sin and confuse ourselves. We're capable of doubting God's promises. We all have things about us that can get in the way of our growth. God knows us intimately and knows we have our whole story inside us. All the way from Adam and Eve up to the brokenness found throughout our own stories, He knows we hold some significant tensions from our life experiences. He knows what can hold us back and also understands what can propel us forward too soon. He is also very aware of the gifts and call He placed inside us. He doesn't lose sight of any of this. How do we know when to remain in the waiting and when to take action? How do we listen to hear the quietness of our Shepherd's voice? How do we discover our questions and allow the intensity of them to settle in for the journey of learning discernment, which gives Him space to love us in more profound ways? As I slowly dug deeper into this, I learned scientists have a name for the part of the plant that protects the bud before it opens up. They call them "Sepals." It's good to know who our people, our "sepals" are. As I continue to learn about life, I'm developing a larger capacity to understand and appreciate the different phases of growth. I admit I still enjoy the phase of life when the flower blooms producing the fruit it was made for the best. The beautiful flowering blossom itself is the reproductive part. Imagine how God's Kingdom can grow if we submit ourselves to the process together. The possibilities for us are magnificent, if we allow Him time and space to ready us and open us up fully to His plans! Look for signs of life emerging. Lean in and watch how Jesus helps our lives blossom to fulfill the unique beauty of Christ's purposes for us. He will continue to show us the way... Who supports you spiritually while you go through your process? Who helps you hear the Shepherd's Voice when yours becomes louder? What could be possible to experience with Jesus together if we relinquish our control and embrace discernment instead? Praying with you, soul friend...   “Small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.”
- Matthew 7:14 As human beings in a world that is still hurting itself, trying to figure out it’s problems in its own ways, Jesus is the only One who knows the true way forward. Jesus gave us a way to enter in. He gives us a way to become the human being He designed and created us to be. But, healing and transformation happen gradually and slowly because the mess that is in us is layered. Over time, through the gift of time, we start recognizing how far and wide and deep this relationship with our Creator really is capable of going. God doesn’t force love. It's us who decide how close we actually want to be with Him. Throughout stages of life, we’re gifted with moments and reflective seasons where we begin growing in recognition and awareness. It is us who decide just how much of our pride we're willing to let go of to experience His goodness and life healing love. I've been in a personal relationship with Jesus for a while now. I've done a lot of reflecting on some significant parts of my history. My joys, pain, gifts, and my own ego that can get in the way. I’ve seen and experienced how my Christianity can easily stay self-focused. I can be tempted to function out of my own brokenness, instead of belief in God's presence right here with me. As I’ve continued to submit to knowing Jesus, what He’s like and how He shows me the way into life, a hunger for His righteousness instead of my own has increased in my soul. But, this has been a gradual journey. It's as if we get to experience a few spiritual wake up moments and recognize our own journey. We start seeing reality more clearly. It's up to us to decide how much intimacy we actually want with Jesus and just how close we’re willing to let Him be with us and help us. Many may say “yes” at some point but, few will continue on and know for themselves the fullness of what He has actually given us access to through a personal, life-long, deepening relationship with Him. Sister, Joan Chittister reflects on how we can all get stuck in our human development. She writes, “The only problem is that if and when we don’t grow out of it, as we should, it renders us bereft of an adult spiritual life. We become, instead, spiritual infants, adolescents suspended halfway between maturity and self-indulgence." As we grow up and start becoming adults in our personal Christian practice we become aware of the reality that we actually cannot reach full maturity and know the fullness of life in Christ through ourselves and our way. The Holy Spirit is so ready, available, and not only willing, but in fact delighted to help us change and grow into who we are really meant to be! How close do you want to be to Jesus? "I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. Ephesians 3:16-19 |
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