Articles
Grow Where You Are Planted
While traveling a couple of months ago through the rugged regions of the west, Melanie and I were amazed to see the occasional tree growing out of bare rock. I suppose at some point a seed wedged in a crack found just the right amount of water and nutrients washing through, gradually rooted itself in fissures in the stone and hung on for dear life in the decades to come.
There is a metaphor in this image, a lesson of toughness and tenacity that is needed by all to endure through life that can be, at times, harsh and demanding. God doesn’t shield us from the rigors of life; sometimes He actually increases those rigors through high expectations:
- Would you have wanted Noah’s assignment? A century of building by hand an immense craft that would preserve life amid a catastrophe of global proportions?
- Or how about Jeremiah’s charge to live without a family, preach to an obstinate people who would plot your death, beat and imprison you, and continually assault your loyalty?
- Or would you relish Paul’s life of travel, persecution, false accusations, controversy, prison and eventual execution?
Our own rocky terrain may be medical, marital, monetary or some other hardship, but the key is a tenacity of faith and dogged determination that refuses to waver:
- “Indeed, we count them blessed who endure” (James 5:11).
- “If we endure, we shall also reign with Him” (II Tim. 2:12).
- “You have need of endurance, so that after you have done the will of God, you may receive the promise” (Heb. 10:36).
