I’ve shifted one of the sprouting tulip bulbs from the windowsill to the desk where I’m writing. I need the reminder that God’s life-giving work in us is a process. God doesn’t expect me to bloom before my roots have gone deep and my shoots stretched up green, slowly unfurling toward His light.
I need this reminder over and over, especially when I find myself wrestling once more with old patterns, or wondering again about old beliefs.
At our church, the sermons these months have been from Mark, repeating again and again Jesus’ call to servanthood and sacrifice. And honestly? I’m finding that hard. I know it’s true, and I want to keep being called deeper into faithful living. But another part of me—the part that is tired—wants to curl up and cry. That part easily slips into the shame that comes with feeling I should do more, be more, be better. And then it feels guilty about feeling ashamed.
It’s that part that needs the tulip’s many reminders: first, that life and its growth is a process; second, that the outward work must always rise from what is unseen. Blooms don’t come without roots; servanthood, to be both true and sustainable, must always arise from making my home in Christ’s love.
That part needs this reminder too: discipleship is not one-size-fits-all, but uniquely tailored to our own particular life stories, personalities, weaknesses, and strengths. We’re all called to make our home in God’s love, and to live out that love in service to others. But the details of the call vary from person to person and from one life stage to another.
God has spent over a decade calling me, through my limitations and Scripture and prayer as well as guidance from trusted fellow pilgrims, to rest in his love. He has showed me again and again that as I do that I’m enabled to love and serve others in ways I couldn’t otherwise do.
My pastor’s vocation, at least right now, seems to involve summoning us back to an awareness that discipleship involves sacrifice, and a willingness to pick up our cross and follow.
Both of these messages—resting, and stepping out; making my home in Christ’s love, and living that love out to others—are true, and both are important parts of discipleship. But this is what my heart needs to hear today: Just because someone else is receiving and proclaiming a complementary aspect of the truth doesn’t mean that what I’m hearing from God is wrong. It might simply mean that I’m focussing on the roots while someone else is showing the curled crimson edges of the fully open bloom.
The question to guide my life is how God is showing himself to me today. What is he calling me to, on this day, in this stage of my life?
As I listen and follow one step at a time, my eyes on Christ’s face and my home more and more in God’s love, I can be sure that the flower and fruit will come:
“And so we are transfigured much like the Messiah, our lives gradually becoming brighter and more beautiful as God enters our lives and we become like him.” (2 Cor 3:18,The Message, c.f. John 15:4-5)
Very insightful and helpful for all the times I find myself in a similar place. Thank you!
This reminds me of some verses in Ephesians that keep standing out to me.
“…and I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s hold 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 3:17b-19
Just what I needed to hear. Thank you for sharing this wisdom from the Lord.
Thank you for sharing. Are these sermons on line? I would appreciate hearing them.
Hi Linda, Yes, you can find the sermons at https://www.firstbc.org/sermons/
Thank you for speaking these words at just the right time. They resonate deeply.
Goodness, it’s uncanny how often your posts speak directly to where my soul is at that day. I’ve been in missions for 14 years with never more than 2 months “off” for support raising, and I’m sensing God doing a deep work calling me to release all the things/people I feel responsible for to Him and learn to receive His rest. BUT, the years and years of serving and giving and all the accompanying scriptural mandates are loud. Discerning what He is calling me to in this season is key, and accepting that, as you said, there are often two sides of the same truth is so helpful. Thank you.
I agree that God calls each of us to service in different ways as each of us are unique. My calling to help my family and others as I am able may not seems as important as another who may be called to be a pastor or a missionary but to God each calling is special. There are times that God calls us to rest. He cares deeply for each of us and knows when we need time to care for ourselves. May we be aware of his love each day and be kind to ourselves as well as others.
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