I saw a meme a few weeks ago that read, “If you don’t bloom where you are planted God can’t trust you with any other land”**. Immediately I thought, well, that’s a good word. Ha!
But since then I’ve been ruminating on a particular piece of that statement, “bloom where you are planted”. What in the world does that mean in the context of my life?
I have to say that for me that means growth. The being willing to grow in and through my circumstances. To be continually teachable. To be facing the glow of the Son or the sun (however you wish to read this). To rehab, if you will.
Sometimes life kicks us around and we find ourselves lost. Sometimes we deal with uncertainty and insecurity and feel defeated.
And sometimes we feel invisible.
But what if being invisible was actually a good thing?
What if being invisible was honestly translated to the term rehab?
What if the rehab you need is related to drugs or alcohol? Or even a physical therapy rehab? Or what if the rehab you need is only emotional? What if the time you needed to rest and recover meant you were a bit invisible to others?
Years ago, our family left a church we loved. Like really loved. We had volunteered in that church for a long time. We poured all the “extra” time we had into the lives of young people. We deeply loved these people, still love them. And then we left. We left that church in the midst of conflict with one particular leader.
We found ourselves in a “megachurch” — and we still attend there today. But in that megachurch environment we found anonymity and invisibility. And at least for a short season we needed to not be known. We needed to rehab, if you will. We needed a place to worship and grow, but we needed to be one of many in a field of bluebonnets. This was so helpful to us to be hidden away in a church that large. No one asked us questions about what happened with our old church. No one seemed to even care at all that we found our way to this new church outside of welcoming us and showing us kindness. It was refreshing. And without pressure. And it helped us rehab spiritually in ways that are almost impossible to express.
This morning I was again reminded of this bloom where you are planted idea. I believe sometimes we get caught up in begrudging the very place we’ve been hidden in order to rehab. We resent the safe place we’ve found ourselves in because rehab is just plain hard.
I’m reminded of my mom when rehab came to see her during her chemo. She really didn’t need or want “rehab”. I needed another set of eyes on her. She quickly dismissed the “rehab” piece of home health. Then my dad had open heart surgery two months later and “rehab” returned…welcomed by my mom who rejected it because by the time he was home we had already seen how difficult getting up and down off the couch or out of bed was for him. He had just turned 81 years old and let’s face it open heart surgery is not for the weak.
I think of people who have to go through drug or alcohol rehab and I wonder from day to day with all the therapies and withdrawals is it difficult to participate in your own rehab process? Probably, yes. Because just like my dad, after his surgery struggled physically to get up and down off the couch I would imagine that walking out of your addictions and the things that occurred in the midst of the addiction is just as impossible some days. Shame is a prison.
But to bloom where we are planted says something so good about us. It says we can always bloom. Planted things bloom. I get it, there’s the occasional dud that has a good root ball and gets planted in the ground and just won’t grow — trust me, no green thumb here, so I’ve seen this happen before. But what I’ve learned is that sometimes you plant a root in the ground in a shady place and it just won’t bloom because it’s not exposed to the right environment.
I liken those plants to the people who are trying to hide — trying to evade being known. Those who are “running”, if you will, from life’s challenges.
But then, there are those things you plant in the shade and they flourish because they need that covering from the harshness of the sun and the heat. And when they bloom they bloom big and marvelous because they’ve been sheltered by the shade and planted in the perfect environment.
That’s what life is like for me. I bet it’s what life is like for you also. Sometimes I find myself needing time to rest and recover from life. But because I’m a verbal processor, rest, rehab and being hidden is so very hard. So most of the time when life hits me I will confide in close relationships and verbally process it over and over and over again until I’ve made sense of it. I don’t hide very well. 😉
But for those of you who are NOT verbal processors the act of being hidden creates a safe place for you to bloom in the shade. Being invisible gives you license to work through the stress and insecurity that life often brings. It gives you time to rehab. Be present in that. It might be painful but be still. Be in the middle of it. And rest.
I hope if you are someone who needs to be hidden and invisible to rehab life that you do so without hating the shade. Maybe you need to rest a bit but still have contact with the minerals in the ground. And maybe soon you will be uprooted and replanted in the sun and there you will bloom big. Or maybe your first season of being planted in the shade (the proper environment) makes you feel dormant but still nourishes your root with the soil that surrounds you. And then the Spring comes and you bloom right where you are. And you bloom big.
It’s okay to be hidden for a while. Use that to rehab from life.
And then bloom.
Bloom where you are planted.
And bloom big.
Psalm 27:5-6 The Passion Translation (TPT)
In his shelter in the day of trouble, that’s where you’ll find me, for he hides me there in his holiness. He has smuggled me into his secret place, where I’m kept safe and secure — out of reach from all my enemies. Triumphant now, I’ll bring him my offerings of praise, singing and shouting with ecstatic joy! Yes, listen and you can hear the fanfare of my shouts of praise to the Lord!
** Shawn Bolz
Shawna Rollins 