This image keeps coming up in my head. My mom drew this. She took some time to get away and she drew this picture. It has become very important to me. My sister has the original. I am considering getting it tattooed. Why? Its me. Its my theme. Its my word. It is my life.
Its is yours too, if you choose.
The theme just keeps coming up. Recently I got to meet Dave Gibbons when he talked about Isaiah 6 at Story conference. That was probably the most awesome thing for me. I love what Dave is doing with his church and- well his name is Dave so that automatically enters him in with the cool guys. I love how he talks about the pain principle. The pain principle simply states that people have a hard time relating to your successes, but they easily relate to your failures and your pain. A good leader knows this and uses it to their advantage.
I have been going through a lot of pain recently. I reaped much of what I sowed, I made bad decisions, I was naive. But much I didn't deserve. Much just was the way life is, a result of living in a fallen world. Lately, I have been feeling like more of a stump than a tree. Lately I have been feeling pretty low, hollow and empty.
Somehow, I got reminded today about the stump being a holy seed.
I know that God will make everything bad work out for good. I have seen it before, not just in the Bible, but in my life. I know that Joseph had to be in a pit, enslaved, and jailed before he got to meet Pharaoh and be second in charge of all Egypt. And Joseph was a spoiled brat who didn't know when to keep his mouth shut- which I can attest to easily being my story. In the end, he saved the lives of the very brothers who threw him in the pit. They feared retaliation. But oh no, Joseph had grown. See all those times his tree got chopped down to a small little stump, God was with him. He took what you and I,and likely Joseph, thought to be bad things, and turned them into something that blows our minds. Joseph's stump became a holy seed that saved thousands of people, and repaired his broken family. In Genesis 50:20 Joseph gives God all the glory for taking something downright evil and mean and turning it into something that SAVES.
God wants to use me. Somehow I have to remember through all the hard things I face, that God IS with me. God was always with Joseph. But this stump of mine will one day be a holy seed. God will use this pain to save many. I have to know this because it is true. God is teaching me what it means to be humble. God is breaking down all of the walls I put up.
God is blowing my mind.
Who knew that a braggart spoiled brat would one day save the world? God did. And he's gonna take this tree and keep chopping until its time. Because he desires me to bear much fruit. (John 15)
So what next... well John 15 tells me... remain in him. And I will go and bear much fruit - fruit that will last.
I like that, (although don't call me fruity) I like that my stump will be a holy seed. I like that that seed will bear much fruit. And right now, its okay to be a stump- because I know I am in the hands of the Master Gardener.
"Any fool can count the seeds in an apple. Only God can count all the apples in one seed."
Robert Schuller, evangelist (How to Be an Extraordinary Person in an Ordinary World)
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