Let’s talk about growing.
On the World Race you hear people constantly talking about “growing.” No, we are not planting crops here. At least, not in the literal farming sense. Growing means spiritual growth or maturity. This week we are doing an all-squad month, so there are lots of different personalities, different spiritual growth levels, and general differences trying to make one unified group of Believers who are doing work for the Kingdom and glory of our Father.
I grow more like a carrot, not a tomato plant. It’s easy to look at a tract of land with carrots planted that are growing and think it is simply weeds. They kind of look like weeds, unless you know what you are looking at. You can always see that a tomato plant is a plant bearing fruit because it’s just hanging there for all to watch ripen, out in the open.
As a carrot, I grow on the inside. If you want to see that, it will be your job to dig below the surface. I don’t like to just hang my stuff out for all to see. I like to grow in a quiet place and invite others in only if they are willing to make the effort of digging in. Oh but how bright the color of a carrot once you dig it up!
A lot of times in Christian communities we carrots can be made to feel like we should be more like the tomatoes. It takes more time to be able to see the fruit of a carrot plant than of a tomato. It takes more investing. It’s more difficult. But to all of you carrots out there: it’s okay to be a carrot. God didn’t want only tomatoes in the world. He made the carrots, too. He wants the carrots, too.
In closing, I just wanted to remind you all to not judge fruit by it’s appearance. Dig deep. Invest time in people. Trudge through the mess to get to the heart, to the fruit. Don’t discount a growing plant as a stubborn weed. If you do, you are missing the point and degrading a handicraft of God.
God made each of us special and unique. He loves you so much more than anything else. He loves seeing you enjoy being the person He created you as.
“For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.” -Psalm 139:13-16
P.S. I love each one of you, tomato or carrot!
