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You know the popular saying: “When one door closes, another one opens.” Yes, that can be true. But sometimes reality feels more like: “When one door slams shut in your face, you are then shoved or forced through another one …whether you like it or not.”
That’s the funny thing about change: sometimes we welcome it, embrace it, and even seek it. Yet other times it’s the last thing we want, especially in the midst of enjoying such stable lives. That’s when change becomes disorienting, catching us off-guard and forcing us to cope with the unexpected.
It’s like the seasons. One moment we enjoy the sunshine of summer, next moment we’re caught off-guard by the yellowing leaves and cold weather. It’s as if autumn has crept in too soon. But no matter how much we wish for summer to extend, September will bring the inevitable: back to school, back to busyness, back to dreary weather & dying leaves. We must comply.
Life’s movements, especially when we don’t want to move, can make us feel uprooted.
What do we do?
TRUST …
Just as nature brings its own cycle of change for life to flourish, we must also trust that when God allows change to happen in our lives, there is also a bigger picture to it. Yes, we may feel uprooted when we’re taken away from our familiar surroundings and lifestyles, but ultimately we must let go and allow ourselves to grow where we are planted. If God plants you somewhere, it’s because you need to be there. For your benefit, for the benefit of others, or for both.
Maybe you need to be in a new ‘climate’ where you can flourish more, where your gifts and talents can be put to better use, or where you can meet people who’ll have a positive impact on you. Or maybe you were planted in this new place so that others could enjoy the ‘fruits’ that you bring, which they have never had before and would have otherwise never been exposed to. Or perhaps you’re there to receive ‘fruits’ from others. No matter where you are, one fact remains the same: as long as you remain rooted in God, you can grow in any place, even the seemingly desolate. Life finds a way.
So yes, it can be tempting to want to hold onto the ‘lush leaves’ of our security. But when life calls for changing, we must take courage and let our ‘leaves’ fall. We may not know where they’ll land, and we may feel as if we’re wilting and dying sometimes, but trust that even ‘dying leaves’ provide nutrients for soil so that new life can grow once more.
“God usually begins to work in a way that feels like undoing.”
John 15 // Luke 5:10-11 // Ecclesiastes 3:1
WHERE ‘YOU’ COME IN …
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