When Life Looks and Feels Mundane - Brown and Bare - There Just May Be Life Within

 

I mentioned in my previous post how March can get a bad rap known to be...  Brown.  Drab.  Mud. Bare. 

Yes, it is all true and in this season, we long for warmth and color.

Let's continue on this journey to see what is within and the possibilities that lie within the soil and trees. I'm continuing to invite you to look beyond and maybe if you think of the tree for who and what it is - it just may shift your thoughts about this season of not yet - the in between of winter and the warm spring air.

You see, sometimes I find it quite real and true of myself and relate with the bare, brown, and mundane landscape of the March season. 

What you see across the landscape is the brown and bareness of the trees, as they stand in the mundane, common, and with vulnerability.  The trees and ground are void of the color of the sharp green grass, the yellow daffodils, the green that fills the branches of the trees, the various colors of the flowers that will eventually shoot forth and grace us with their beauty.

But let's stop for a moment and pause.  What you see of the tree and the ground is really what creates the space for all that beauty.  As the tree stands, stripped and bare of visible color and life, it stands vulnerable with life within.

I remember vividly a long season that I passed through the typical four seasons and stayed in the one that found me bare and void of visible productivity.  As I was taking a walk one afternoon and the sun was gracing the brown and the bare trees, the thought flashed through my mind - 'it's beautiful.'

Wait.  What?  Brown and bare = beautiful; no way!

Life is more than the fruit, the leaves, and the color.  Life is really what is within.  For the fruit, the leaves, and the color only happen as a result of what is within.  If the tree is dead within, no visible life will happen without or at least not for very long and most certainly won't withstand a wind storm.

This spoke to me and I saw the bare and brown of the landscape as beautiful in its own way for it truly holds the truest of life.

I, too, find myself in seasons and times that leave me stripped and bare.  But like the tree as it puts its roots down, resting and replenishing itself for the coming spring and summer's growth; I too, am called to put my roots down in Jesus, learning more of who He is.

He is Life and wants me to know Him as the Abundant Life.

Life within matters more than visible life without.  As the sun's rays warm the earth we see the stirrings of that life come to the surface.

The maple trees are tapped as the sun's warming rays stir the life within.  Sap is turned into syrup which we enjoy on our pancakes.  Grass starts to turn green.  The trees take on the hue of the emerging colour of leaves.  The new shoots of green that burst forth as spring daffodils, forsythia, lilacs, snowdrops and more start to color the landscape is invigorating.

In the mundane, the normal, the bareness creates a space to appreciate all this emerging life that laid silent within the earth and trees. 

To know color and the beauty of flowers we must know the season of rest and life within.  If there was always production, always a giving, when would we and nature ever rest and replenish?

So, as the white winter gives way to muddy March and the cold winds that still blow - stay.  Stay and remember the season of growth cannot be hurried and there is something right now that grows us, within, if we train our eyes to see life.  

Maybe God is inviting you to sit in this season of bare, mundane, and vulnerability to learn more of who are in Him without any external validation.

Maybe He is inviting you to understand the life within that is stirring, unseen but oh so alive, just waiting for the warmth of spring to stir it to something more - the birthing of life without.

The Space of In Between, Of Waiting For the Next Season

 

There's this space of waiting, anticipating the next season.  It's the in between.  In between brown branches bare and branches filled with green.  In between a resting, a waiting and bursting with the colours of life and fruit.  It's a mixture of sun, blue skies and bare branches awaiting life to burst from their arms.

Sometimes, I find myself in this space.  In between my dreams and the living them out.  In between my passion and seeing how they are used.

It's so easy to push through, to plow ahead; and there is a time to 'do' something, to make it happen.  But I am realizing anew that sometimes I need to wait.  The waiting isn't a season of doing nothing, but a time of being, of letting the life form and take shape.

This in between season of waiting for warm, of waiting for buds and full bloom; is a time no one can rush or push; it must happen.  And most times, it happens slowly.  

One morning I notice the greening of the woodlands, the trees take on a hue of colour.   How did this happen?  When did it take place?

I couldn't see it, but life was stirring within the trees, in the ground; and slowly life became visible.

In my own life, there is this same waiting, this same space of things that cannot be rushed, pushed, or maneuvered; they happen.

A dream and passion that you and I carry.  

Walking through seasons of hard that cannot be hurried or fixed right now.  The choosing of what a loved one may choose cannot be forced, it must be left to be wrestled through and bloom in its time.

A habit that I want broken now, a change of thoughts, lies, and wrong beliefs.  Sometimes I make the right choice and other times, well, it may feel more like a step backwards.

The warm sun, the days that tantalize us with promise of summer and the cold winds of spring can cause an angst, an impatience in this in between season, this waiting for life to unfold.

Waiting is hard.  But waiting is a needed season.

I'm a bit of 'fixer' or should I say, I have a heart and passion to walk with others and offer encouragement.  When something is broken or hurts, I like to find ways to mend.  But in all reality, it's not always possible and it really is not my workings because I am not the Saviour; it is the workings of the Holy Spirit.  I can speak words of life, but the workings of that is still a process and I can't hurry it along or make it bloom and bring forth fruit in my life or yours.  It's a waiting, a continuing to be and to allow space for the inner working of life, of the Spirit.  Just like it was and continues to be done in my own heart and mind.

Growth happens slowly, but it happens.

The growth in our lives, often happens more slowly than in leaps and bounds. We wait after we plant seeds.  We wait for nine months after an egg is fertilized and a baby begins.  Growth happens slowly but surely.

If you find yourself in this space, turn your gaze towards Jesus, soak in the 'Son' and let the growth take root, grow and bloom in the right time.

A season of waiting is a time of growing roots, of letting the little moments form you, the sun and the rain are all a part of the process of growth.

Maybe you have a dream and it feels like you get more roadblocks and detours than you do green lights.  Maybe the no's are all you hear and you wonder if this dream is even of God.

I don't know.  I wonder this myself.  But I do know God wants me and you to remember there is always a time for blooming and the process before, the in between space of slow growth, is necessary and a way of life and to life. 

The life stirring within, the workings of slow growth, are the workings of resilience, endurance, patience and really for me, I see, it reminds me that it's not in my strength, my navigatings that make it possible, but it is the Spirit of God and His timing of when blooming, of dreams and passions finding their way to full blooming, happens.

It's about Him and not me.

And in a small way I realize that dreams and passions can happen in ways that are different than how I would imagine them to be.  I think this is how I want it to look like or be and God says, "No, this is the way I want to use it."  Sometimes I believe, that the slow workings of growth happen so that I can adjust to the ways of God.

Also, as I reread the writings of my journals, I see this slow growth unfolding and I marvel at it all.  I marvel at my God who works within and in slow and sure ways.  He works in good ways and I'm learning to trust Him.  There are still moments, I wait with impatience, I may dig up the dirt a bit to 'help' it grow; but really, that only leads to stress and anxiety. 

Slow growth is a learning to rest, to trust the heart of God in my story and the chapters I find myself in.  It's enjoying the 'boring' sentences, the ones that help to understand and make the story more full.

God is good.  His workings of growth are good.

Life stirs within, that's where life really happens and what we see is only a result of this truest form of life within.

Winter is where something waits beneath - the whole story does not show.

In spring, the unseen, what was waiting beneath, becomes visible and bears fruit.

And what is unseen, the life within, determines what becomes visible.

I don't know where this finds you today?  Maybe you're in a season of 'summer' where dreams and passions are a reality.  But maybe, just maybe you are 'stomping' with impatience at the closed doors, the roadblocks.  I want to say, "It's okay.  Let's take a deep breath together and remember God.  Together let's remind each other that it is about God and He sees the right time, He's doing the good work of slow growth in our hearts; and it is good."

The reality is, even in the 'blooming' of our dreams and passions; there are times we wonder if we heard right?  Is this really what I am to be doing?  John the Baptist had a moment like that as he sat in prison.  He was given a specific calling, a definite ministry and still, as he sat there, he wondered if Jesus really is the Son of God, the One they were waiting for, the One he had been declaring about and preparing the way for.

Satan, the enemy of our souls, delights in getting us derailed from God; from seeing Him and staying with Him.

So, go outside and look up.  Look up and smile and offer your worship of thanks to God who loves us deeply and wants us to know that it is because of Him.  Soak in the sun and the Son.

This morning I read some words written long ago, words given to Zechariah about Zerubbabel, who was helping to rebuild the house of God.  God told him, "Tell Zerubbabel, 'It' not by might or power, but by My Spirit."  So they MAY KNOW that I, the LORD OF HOSTS has sent me to you.'  (Zechariah 4:6,9)

This season of waiting, of in between is a season to KNOW more of God.  It's not about your blooming and producing, but about letting the truest form of life stir and happen within.