Grow Where You are Planted

My current season is interesting. I’ve been thrust back into the fast paced, stressful and chaotic world of freight forwarding. It wasn’t exactly what I would’ve chosen, yet I felt God’s hand in the circumstances leading up to my return here. So, what’s a girl to do? Learning to grow where she is planted….

I wonder how many of you find yourself in a season in which you weren’t quite sure how you got there. Or maybe you were suddenly thrust into something you felt like you had no control over. What I want to talk about today is how God uses these seasons for our growth, even when we feel distant.

A couple weeks ago at church, I felt the Father reveal something to me in the form of a picture and I knew He was speaking to my heart. He brought to mind an old book titled “Hinds Feet on High Places.” It’s an allegory about a deer who follows the good Shepherd to the “Kingdom of Love”.

Much Afraid encounters many troubles on her journey but she keeps going despite wanting to turn back to her old ways down in the valley. The Father gives her two companions to help her and eventually she begins to transform, both literally and figuratively.

The thing that struck me is that while the path does appear long and winding, it proves to be much more circuitous than Much Afraid could have imagined. The Father begins leading her in what appears to be further and further from the final destination. At one point Much Afraid finds herself in a literal desert. This place, of course, really tests her as nothing seems to be growing here. However, at every “turn” the Father always allows her to find a literal token that she can collect as a reminder of what He has brought her through.

God showed me that’s exactly where I am with this job. I feel like I’m off the grid doing something completely unrelated to my calling and destiny but yet He is showing me that this is exactly where He wants me to be. That assured me that He has a plan and I can trust him because He is a good Father. He has good plans for us and He wants us to succeed but we have to trust Him.

I just want to encourage you as we are all going through something. Enjoy where you are. Bloom where you are planted. And remember the place you loathe might be the very place He wants you. Ask Him to reveal the purpose in the current season. And above all else, remember to be thankful.

Until next time,
Mara