Foundations for Flourishing
I wouldn't try it. Those root balls can weigh up to 2000 pounds.
This was the advice of the tree expert at the local garden centre last weekend when we asked if we could move and plant the tree ourselves. He strongly recommended delivery and professional planting for the size we were looking at but he shrugged and said, you can always try.
Last January, a friend of mine had determined it was going to be the best year ever. Not too long after, her family was hit with devastating news that made the best year ever seem doubtful even for a very distant someday.
How often do we think that a lack of favourable circumstances in our lives makes flourishing impossible?
Flourishing sounds nice— growing or developing in a healthy or vigorous way, especially as the result of a particularly favourable environment. But for those who live in the real world, with real struggles, facing real blindsides, trying relational issues and personal weaknesses, that necessary favourable environment may feel out of reach.
But is it true? Do we need favourable circumstances to have a favourable environment for flourishing?
In my aunt’s yard in beautiful British Columbia is a tree I take great delight in. It produces many pounds of cherries each year and, thankfully, we are among those who get to enjoy them.
I remember the year my aunt called to tell me there had been an abundance of spring sunshine and the cherries appeared to be a couple of weeks ahead of schedule. We circled the weekend on our calendar, counted down the days, packed up the van, and headed west prepared to pick the cherries that were supposedly days away from perfection.
However, there was an unexpected change in the weather, which meant that though the cherries were plenty in number, they weren’t ripe or ready for picking. The empty-handed drive home was disappointing.
While Matthew and Mark describe the seed sown in the thorny soil as unfruitful, Luke rounds out our understanding by describing it as producing no mature fruit.
The fruit of the Spirit gets a lot of press. And it should. According to Jesus, prolific fruit is proof we belong to Him. The presence of the fruit means connection to the presence of God.
For these reasons, fruit should be celebrated. But we cannot forget this simple truth: Fruit isn’t just for celebration; it’s also for reproduction. I wonder if Jesus’ statement that prolific fruit is the measure of a disciple and His command to make disciples is the spiritual version of the physical command given to Adam and Eve—be fruitful and multiply. While fruit is delicious and enjoyable, it also contains seed. And seed sown in good soil can produce more fruit.
The fruit of the Spirit manifested in and through your life could be the seed God uses to plant His love in someone else’s heart.
My first coffee-making contraption was a combination coffee/espresso maker. It was great until the best of both worlds turned out to be too large for my small kitchen. I opted for a simple 12-cup drip pot that satisfied my caffeine cravings in half the counter space. But then the Keurig appeared on the scene. Why brew a whole pot and reheat old coffee when you could have a single cup, hot and fresh, on demand?
I embraced my very own miniature Tim Hortons drive-through until the pods seemed wasteful, overpriced and, now that you mention it, watered down. The Keurig was out and the Aeropress was in. It alone would satisfy the void weak and wasteful coffee had left in my soul, until I was making coffee for a crowd. The Aeropress process felt unnecessarily long and drawn out, so naturally, I needed a French press.
Each contraption left me unsatisfied, worried that there was a better cup of coffee somewhere out there, and I was missing out on it.
One of the primary ways we are distracted from trusting God is worry. Jesus said the worries of this world—the cares and anxieties that distract us and draw us around in many different directions—suffocate seeds of truth in our hearts.
When I assign a task to my children, I can predict fairly accurately who will obey and who will delay. When I ask them to put on their coats and shoes, I know which child will need wrangling, which one will need constant reminders, and which one will be standing by the door ready to go.
Does this cause me to love one more than the others? No. My love for them is secured by the fact that they belong to me. Behaviour cannot undo their belonging. Yet the question lingers—what does obedience influence?
When we moved into our current home, a friend gave me a daylily as a housewarming gift. At that point, the only plant that had survived under my care was made of silk. Though I lacked confidence in my gardening skills, I was assured the daylily was hardy and forgiving. Sure enough, my nearly-withered plant was revived numerous times by simply watering it.
Withering doesn’t happen in an instant. It happens slowly and surely as a plant is deprived of moisture. The way to revive a thirsty, withered plant is to water it. The way to revive a thirsty, withered heart is to connect it with Living Water.
Jesus declared that Living Water—a well of water springing up within for eternal life—was available to those who asked Him for it. Later, He added that whoever believed in Him would have streams of water flow from within.
How do our thirsty hearts stay rooted in the love of Jesus and flow with Living Water?
We live under the pressure to “have it all together,” and sometimes we may even think it’s within our reach. This illusion takes just moments to be shattered. For me, that happened with a single phone call on May 5, 2008.
My dad called to tell me the neurologist had given him bad news. He had ALS, it was fatal, and at the time, they thought he had three to five years to live.
My dad’s illness revealed brokenness in the world and in my own heart that my patterns, protectiveness and pride could not fix. No amount of striving would change the prognosis, and no amount of hiding would make it go away.
Though we are all uncomfortable with feeling helpless, the most difficult seasons can be the most fertile soil if we are willing to meet Jesus in our weakness.
At the beginning of this pandemic season, it seemed like we could just push pause on our lives and it would be over soon enough. But as we’ve all learned, perhaps the hard way, is that 9+ months is a long time to pause living. It’s too long to leave your life in a box on the shelf waiting for better weather.
Through the amaryllis, God has been teaching me this: good things can still grow in this season.
We always hear, “bloom where you’re planted,” but perhaps we’d be wiser to begin here: plant something where you are.
Because nothing can grow that hasn’t been planted.