“Who dares despise the days of small things?..”
– Zechariah 4:10 (NLT)
Let’s start by visualizing a plant. A young seed falls in the dirt and over time sinks in the soil. At this point it’s at the mercy of nature and the messy ground it’s in; months of rain and sunshine and it finally lets itself grow from its shell. Soon enough it’s up and out of the dirt and spreads out to the loving warmth of the son, it prays and loves it when it rains but can’t care how much of a muddy fuss the soil under it makes because its focus is on touching the sun, literally. If you don’t know where I’m going let me break it down for you; Most of us have a lot of things in our past we really want to forget and move on from, some might be traumatizing while others not that bad; regardless everybody has faced something in their life they could definitely do without. But those things are for a reason, yeah you read me right; they are for a reason and that reason is you.
If you relate to this ‘you’ are that seed, thrown and stepped into the dirt. You were left at the mercy of that messy situation and the harsh circumstances, you’ve had worms and maggots crawl over you and you just couldn’t see the light. But look at where you are now! You probably have some finger gestures saved for your past that isn’t tutting, but what is a plant without the soil? The answer is in the same reason it needs its roots.
You see all that a plant could be is all that it can ‘take’ and ‘feed on’ from that dirt, matter fact if it can’t find anything to use to grow it will definitely die. Even when it’s getting all that love from a sky-high canopy staying sun-kissed and all, it still needs water to stay alive and it doesn’t drink with its leaves now does it? You gotta stay rooted! The wider or deeper a root is, the healthier the tree will be. Mark Schultz, the past CEO of coffee giant, Starbucks, said he sometimes used to go to the first flagship Starbucks store that opened in 1971 alone when he needs ‘centering’ as he puts it, which means tapping into the energy the company started with which definitely includes the struggles and challenges they had to overcome; he even held with him the key to the shop as a touchstone. Are you still hating on your small beginnings?
Don’t treat that past like a wound you refuse to touch else it’ll fester, take it and learn from it, use it to grow. When you’re out in the world and you feel like you’re losing touch with yourself take a trip back to when you were in that dirt, when the shell of your seed kept you intact and you learnt to accept your situation and grow regardless – those days when you learnt to live above your situation, bud and blossom. You’ll get better for it, there’ll be few things you’ll be faced with in the world that’ll sway you easily because of how well grounded you are and the degree of grit you have built at your core.
And when you pray for showers of blessing, don’t use your leaves to shield the floor from the rain because it’ll help you and those in the same situation you once were in to grow. By the way, you shame that past when the rain gets down there, a blow from every rain drop for every pain (Rom. 12:12; Prov. 25:21-22) – no wonder the soil gets all mooddy.
If you are presently still living in those tough days, hang in there! Don’t let the negatives in, guard your heart like the shell of a seed (Prov. 4:23). Learn who you are and you will grow despite of everything, and when you do, the Son will be there to show you the way to go. You can reach out to us if you need someone to talk to.
“… having been deeply rooted [in Him] and now being continually built up in Him and [becoming increasingly more] established in your faith, just as you were taught, and overflowing in it with gratitude”
– Colossians 2:7 (AMP)
Stay rooted!
Superman
