O1. Grow Where He Plants You

I once heard a preacher talk about the difference between being buried and being planted. During that message, I began to evaluate the steps that I had taken thus far and realized that I had failed to differentiate the difference between the two. Lamenting my situation and taking stock of all the wrong things going on around me became an Olympic sport, and I was on my way to winning gold.

I was guilty of looking at my surroundings as a place of death, where there was no light, no life, no growth, and no hope. I would often tell myself that I was remedial when it came to my progression. Every morning I’d think thoughts like “I should be farther in life by now” as I stood by the bus stop. I spent nights crying into my pillow because I was unhappy with my job, with school and with state of my finances. I would regularly beat myself up, and failing to give myself any credit became a secondary skill. Despite all of this, I still, in some small ways, held on to hope that things wouldn’t be so bad if I could just see the brighter side. Maybe it was wishful thinking, but in those quiet moments when I felt utterly overwhelmed and under pressure, I had to train myself on how to flip the script. Learning to recognize the difference between being buried and being planted began to change the trajectory of how I viewed my life. Call it my Aha! Moment if you will.  

Perception

The perception of being buried would have you believe that you are a forgotten vessel. While everyone else has “broken through the ground,” your surroundings are still reminiscent of an infant stage. Growth does not look like it’s happening, and what doesn’t grow eventually dies. When all you see is death in your circumstance, you stop trying to live. If all you see are failures, then you’ll stop trying to succeed. It’s hard to function in victory when you already feel defeated.

But if we change our perception, how we view our situation will begin to look different. Different perspectives bring different expectations. So if we look at our circumstance from the perspective of being planted, then our outlook drastically changes. We plant seeds with the anticipation of growth. With that growth comes fruit, and with fruit comes more seeds. In other words, the more you grow, the more you gain the ability to help others around you flourish. Everyone benefits when you produce seeds. You become that lifeline to somebody else in need.  Your seed is your responsibility, so treat your growing pains with care.

Roots

The funny thing about roots is that for something so essential, it is rarely ever seen and sometimes considered an annoyance. All plants, big and small, have roots.  I watch a lot of home improvement shows and remember seeing a few episodes where the design team had to pull out a tree, but the roots had permeated every part of the property. The roots grew underneath the foundation; it ruined underground piping systems and clogged sewage drains. Chopping down the tree was never enough because the roots still existed. Let’s imagine ourselves for a brief moment as one of those trees. A creation that has become so deeply rooted in the ground that it takes a whole lot of effort for us to move. Psalm 1:3 says, “He shall be like a tree Planted by the rivers of water, That brings forth its fruit in its season, Whose leaf also shall not wither; And whatever he does shall prosper.” Any gardener will tell you. Just because you cut something down from the top, doesn’t mean it isn’t growing down below. That should be us. A person who, no matter the hurt, the pain, the betrayal or the rejection, will stand rooted in the truth that God is still Good. Kind of like those annoying dandelions that seem to pop up in your garden every year despite how you pull them out of the ground. Yeah, like that. Our faith needs to be annoying to everyone else who stands against us.

The thing with roots, though, is that we don’t see them unless we dig them up. They don’t get glorified as the beautiful parts of the plant. They are underground, unseen and out of sight. In real life, you may not get likes on Instagram; you will not get props on social media; you will not get congratulations or a good job. Heck, you might not get recognized for your effort at all. Your roots are your work—the gifts that you have and the instructions that came with them to cultivate them. Your roots are the nights when you are required to play at a different church for free when you so rightly deserved to be paid. Roots are you doing twice the workload for half the pay even though you know you are better than everyone else in the office. Roots are you working a part-time retail job despite graduating with honours. Roots are you living at home and taking the bus even though all your friends have their own houses and cars. Roots are you biting your tongue and holding your peace in the face of that family member who is wrong. These roots are all the times a job, school or friends have rejected you. There will be no glory, and you will not receive recognition; it may cause you to cry and often have you questioning yourself, but as long as you recognize who your water source is, you will always grow because roots are strength.

This Is Life…

The reality is that our circumstance is not fair. The bible did not say that we would be trees planted by waters in perfect weather conditions 24/7. It did not say that as trees, we would experience tropical conditions, ideal soil or gardeners who tend to our specific needs at our beck and call. All the word said was that we would bear fruit in season; our leaves will never wither, and we will prosper IF we are by the river. In the bible, the water came first. Genesis 1:1-2 says, “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. ² Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.” Our source has been there physically and spiritually from the beginning of time. So it comes as no shock to me; that as Ezekiel 47:9 says “that every living thing that moves, wherever the rivers go, will live…” Our survival ultimately depends on where we are getting our water.

As it stands, I  am writing this while dealing with the reality of once again being unemployed. This time because of the Corona Virus. And while it is not fair, I have realized that these unforeseen circumstances aren’t here to bury me but to prove God. I am planted and rooted by a water source that can sustain me no matter what changes around me because that water source is God, and he doesn’t change. That is where my strength lies.

God is good. That’s the truth. He isn’t good because he heals, he isn’t good because he saves, he isn’t good because he delivers, he isn’t good by any definition of what he chooses to do or not do, or what he says. He isn’t good based on how we evaluate his actions towards us or others. His goodness isn’t defined by any metric that man in our limited imagination can design. He is good simply because he is God. Because of that, I have to believe that just because everything is happening around me doesn’t mean its happening to me.  God planted me with the expectation that I being a seed, will grow and become a tree that brings fruit, whose seeds will nourish and multiply,  whose roots are sustained by him, whose leaves will not wither,  and I will prosper. I will not allow pressure to bury me, nor will I let myself be overwhelmed by all that life throws at me. I will grow, and I will thrive right where he plants me. My prayer is that you will do the same.

Love Always,

AB