A Flower in the Desert

There is a point of intense growth that is incredibly uncomfortable. It feels awkward. It feels like being stretched. It feels like being tempered, toward both beauty and strength.  Iron is tempered for strength and chocolate is tempered for a smooth creamy texture that just melts.  Oh forget it, chocolate is tempered to be eaten with a glass of red wine in hand.... 

Growth is hard, and maturity comes through being tempered. Most people I meet never guess that I am as old as I am (41) by the way I look and generally the guesses are nearly a decade younger (33). However when I recently met up with a woman I first met in high school, she remarked about how much I have lived and the extent to which I have endured challenges. Those experiences have given me a great deal of wisdom, and through those challenges I have walked beside others as they traversed similar circumstances. 

Growth is messy. The outside of a seed has to soften and, in some cases, disintegrate in order for it to germinate a new plant. Sometimes they end up growing in the most unexpected places. I've seen pansies grow from fallen seed in the cracks of pavement in the city, and trees grow wrapped around boulders or in the crack in the side of a cliff while I have been rock climbing.  Growth doesn't have a prescribed method, it can happen when and where we least expect it. We may not even see ourselves grow, but it is evident to those around us.

For you know that when your faith is tested it stirs up power within you to endure all things. And then as your endurance grows even stronger it will release perfection into every part of your being until there is nothing missing and nothing lacking. 

~ James 1:3-4, The Passion Translation ~

Growth can take over things that were meant to keep it from growing at all. How many brick or stone walkways have been overtaken by plants? Many. 

Grow in defiance of your environment; grow in beauty, and in strength. Grow because He makes the conditions right for your growth even when it feels like you can't.  Be the flower in the desert. 

Stirred above, 

Ruth