Bloom Where You are Planted; Living Your Best Life Now

“These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.”

John 15:11

He keeps shaping and reshaping us from glory to glory, and when living becomes nearly the death of us, He leans over our clay bodies and breathes fresh life into our lungs.

Sometimes I can reason like this – peacefully, sensibly, with wonder and awe and even tearful gratitude that God would be kind to entrust me with difficulties. Other times all I can say is “What the heck?”

Beth Moore – Chasing Vines

What the heck?

We’ve all been there. Planted firmly in an extended season of “I don’t want to be here”. Yet planted, nonetheless.

Have you considered that perhaps Jesus, the Prince of Heaven, ever wondered, “What the heck?” Imagine his dirty, dusty, tired, human feet, His familiarity with thirst, hunger and fatigue, wrapped in unimaginable limitations, set strategically to live His earthly years confined by how far He could walk. God incarnate planted in the dirt.

What the heck?

In our boredom, our restlessness we often take in the familiarity of our landscape and question “what’s next?” Maybe it is not boredom, perhaps it is legitimate difficulty – real life hard stuff. And we are waiting for God to make His grand entrance and move something, change something, bless something. This a God who makes His grand entrance as an infant in the dirt of an obscure city on an obscure night to an obscure set of parents. Perhaps our eyes need adjusted in order to experience the wonder of a God who moves only in deliberate purpose.

It has been my experience that God does not move quickly. Not that He cannot move in an instant, He can. It just does not appear to be His way. At least not His way with humans (this may be related to the whole, God is love, love is patient thing…). How do we adapt to His pace, as it appears He has no intention of adapting to ours? And how do we adapt to it joyfully? How do we look at our grimy feet, thirsty, hungry, fatigued and live our best life in this moment, planted in the dirt?

There is no indication that our Jesus, this King of Glory, lived a crotchety life, not even with dirty feet. He was the guest at a wedding (turns out an important one at that), engaged in dinner parties, invited little children to come close, was highly sought after to the point He often escaped to a solitude place. In John 15 we find Jesus speaking to His disciples just prior to His sleepless night in the garden. In verse 11 He says, “These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full”. Jesus was speaking of the fullness of joy hours before He would be betrayed, arrested, unfairly tried, beaten and hung cursed on a cross. Fullness of joy in the dirtiest, most undesirable garden.

How do we follow Jesus in living our best life wherever we have been planted? I offer a few starters to encourage your appetite for this King of Glory and His plan for your life.

• Grab your Bible and write down a few verses to keep with you, to memorize, that remind you of God’s sovereignty and goodness. (Psalm 138:8, Psalm 27:13-14, Jeremiah 29:11, Psalm 139:16, Hebrews 10:23, Psalm 5:11-12, Psalm 37:4, Psalm 145:15-16…there are many, many more, go digging on a treasure hunt!)
• Know that God has not forgotten you and He sees you, right where He has planted you. (Genesis 16:7, Psalm 139:7-10, Isaiah 41:10)
• Practice gratitude (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18, Philippians 4:5-7), always! If you are not able to conjure a thankful list in the immediate moment, begin to thank God for who He is! This is a powerful beginning to adjusting your mindset.
• Pray, ask hard questions, angry questions, confused questions (1 Thessalonians 5:17). He doesn’t mind and He wants all of you, even the less than perfect parts. He wants your honest, authentic questions to be laid at His feet.
• Read the Gospel of John, the entire thing. This gospel speaks repeatedly of Jesus’s love, it is a standout theme. Let this be your wrap-around, cozy up to truth, He loves you!
• Begin to ask Him what His purpose is in this season, what He is trying to teach you, show you. From my experience, He is asking you to trust Him to be your provision, your abundance and your joy. This takes time, hence the painstakingly deliberate moves on His part. He is slowly wooing you allowing you (yes, you!) to set the pace (Hosea 2:14). He will not take you far to leave you, He is relentless in the pursuit of your entire heart.
• Everyday, without pride or an ounce of self-sufficiency, ask Him to pour out His grace and provision. Everyday. You were not designed to walk without it. (Lamentations 3:22-23)
• Somedays, just stand where you are and remind yourself that God has perfectly planted you in this time and season for your good and His glory. (Romans 8:28)

The moments of our lives run fast, even the long ones. Joy that comes through acquisition is fleeting and our eyes quickly move to the next. Joy that comes from the One who pours out living water bubbles over and drowns our waiting minutes, adjusts our eye sight, our mindset and sets our dirty feet to dancing.

---

He is always doing something–the very best thing, the thing we ourselves would certainly choose if we knew the end from the beginning. He is at work to bring us to our full glory.

Elisabeth Elliot