Although the smallest of all the seeds, it eventually grows into the greatest of garden plants, becoming a tree for birds to come and build their nests in its branches. Matt 13:32 (TPT)
Growth – The Seed Series – Part 5
Go to PART 1 | PART 2 | PART 3 | PART 4 | PART 5 | PART 6 | PART 7
I’ve always had trouble keeping plants alive. Part of my problem is that I’m a meddler. I just can’t leave anything well enough alone. I over water, I poke around in the dirt if I can’t see any growth. I constantly move potted plants to find the optimal spot. I’m not good at the whole “burying and planting” aspect of growth.
We like to see results, and in our culture, we like to see them straight away. We want instant change, rapid growth and sudden transformation. One of the hardest things to do is plant something and then wait to see if it will grow.
For fifteen years, and from a very young age, I preached around the place and loved it. And with humility, I was good at it (You’d want to be after fifteen years!). I know it was something I was born to do, and it felt like LIFE to do it. But then, a couple of years ago, my husband and I decided that we didn’t want to be Pastors anymore. There was a lot of heartache around that decision for us, and for a time, we kind-of came undone. We were recalibrating and figuring out where we fit in this big beautiful crazy world. During that time, one of my friends asked, “What about preaching? You were born to do it. How are you going to live out your dream now?”
I had this sense of faith that if I buried my dream and my gift like I believed God was asking me too; if I planted it in the cold dark dirt, not to be seen or heard from for a while, that it might come back to me in organic and new ways. It might grow into something more helpful and whole and beautiful. In a way, it was a plant that was dying and gone to seed… and the only thing left to do was replant.
Its a few years on, and a lot of that dream is still buried, waiting for resurrection. But slowly, and wonderfully, little shoots of growth are showing. This Pocket Fuel project is one of them. And if I continue to let the soil do its work, back off a little, and let the warmth of grace and wisdom soak through, something new will grow.
Same for you.
We have to learn to give ourselves, and others, space, and time to grow.
Time in the dirt. This can be seasons of rest, seasons of anonymity, seasons of tragedy or heartache. Sometimes planting a seed can be fun and daring and exciting. The beginning of a new project, the start of a new relationship, the plans for a dream to become a reality. And other times, planting our seeds in the ground can feel more like a death, a burial, a letting go and trusting that there is something more going on than meets the eye.
In her book Anonymous, Alicia Britt Chole wrote, “Father God is neither care-less nor cause-less with how he spends our lives. When he calls a soul simultaneously to greatness and obscurity, the fruit — if we wait for it — can change the world.”
That's the hard thing about growth. It starts off as a seed. It needs to be planted, and then we wait. By faith, we wait and believe that what is happening just beneath the surface is divine and holy and will one day grow into something that will help not only ourselves but others too.
The great temptation of our culture is to want to be the grandest and the tallest and the most famous and the richest and the best… But Jesus needs mustard trees. Just normal everyday seeds, planted not on street corners and stages, but in backyards and gardens. Seeds that are willing to wait, to let God work within them, so that what grows from them will bring healing and vitality to the world around them. The backyard, every day lived in worlds. Martin Sheen says, “The genius of God is to dwell where we would least likely look…”
Like a scrambling mustard tree, in a backyard.
Over to you… What needs to rest in order to grow in your life? Leave us a comment below.
Go to Part 6 – Birds and Branches »
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