Bloom Where You’re Planted
“I am God’s Project.” This was the title of one of my siblings and my favorite cassette tapes when I was a little . We referred to it lovingly as ‘the yellow tape.’ My mom told me that she just saw that tape out the other day in my dad’s study! One of our favorite songs on the tape was Bloom Where You’re Planted. My sister and I even sang the song in church for ‘special music’ one Sunday. The words have become so much a part of me that, 20 years later, they were readily available at the hospital bedside of a woman I ministered to as a student chaplain a few summers ago. I still remember the words now:
Bloom where you’re planted;
Show what you’re worth.
God has his flowers all over the earth.
Bloom where you’re planted and if you’re sincere,
You can get anywhere on earth from here.Bloom where you’re planted
And become a part
Of God’s lovely garden – the pride of his heart.
Bloom where you’re planted and if you’re sincere,
You can get anywhere on earth from here.
Bloom where you’re planted. What does this mean?
I’ve been meeting with a woman in her early fifties. She is sensing that God might be calling her to seminary. She’s had conversations with a few people and some have encouraged her to ‘bloom where she’s planted.’
She thought she’d come to some peace about staying right where she’s at – following God’s will in the little things of life and ministering quietly by writing prayer newsletters, mentoring a woman, and correcting Bible lessons for a prison ministry.
But then, one evening, she read Romans 10 as a part of her daily devotional and her eye fell on these verses:
“‘Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.’ How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!’”
She can’t shake her sense that God is calling her to preach. And so she continues to wonder. Is God calling her to stay in one garden, or to move to another?
What are your thoughts about blooming where one is planted? Your questions? Your experiences?
What if we have some choice as to where we’re planted in the first place?
Two years ago I entered into my undergraduate degree in a biological and medical sciences program with the intent to go on to medical school. After my first year, I felt God calling me to pursue a career in ministry, which is what I’m doing today. So, I was planted and partially blooming in this garden of “medical school dreams” and I guess we could say that God uprooted me and now I’m planted in this garden of “seminary dreams”. However, had I not listened to God’s call in my life, I would still be in that first garden; but, how well would I have thrived there? My flower may have been weak, tired and scorched by the sun and the soil may have been poor. Isn’t that what a garden looks like if we’re not supposed to be planted there? I could have chose to stay in that first garden, but how well would I be doing there if that’s not where I was supposed to be? What if there was “too much shade” or “not enough sunlight”?
I think to bloom where one is planted is ignorant. If we just look at the world which we stumble into without question or without acknowledging God’s plan, we enter into a sort of fatalism. I think that everyone, regardless of age or stage in life needs to take the time to discern what God wants for them in their life. If we are persistent and faithful to seeking out God, he will respond and our will for our lives will mold to his will for us. After all, what can be better than living in God’s will if he knows what’s best for us?
I wondered if this might strike some as ‘oppressive’ advice in some ways. I’m sure that there are contexts in which this little maxim might cause one to look around at their context and find ways to serve right under their noses instead of always assuming that ‘the call’ comes to go far and away and above and beyond. But there are other times in which this blooming advice serves as an inappropriate tether…
Funny but I think it’s all moot anyway. To bloom or not to bloom? That is not the question!
The question is how fast do we bloom? I always find it rather pompus to think that a simple decision we make can twart God’s plan. I have no say in the matter. If in His wisdom He wants to set me apart for some purpose I cannot say no. I can only make choices that speed or slow my route TO that purpose.
Sometimes we need to listen to others and be content where God has placed us. Others know us and know our strengths and weaknesses. They can steer us clear from taking on too much. And yet we need to explore ways that show us how God can be leading us in a new direction. We must be willing to submit to God’s will as He leads us down a different road. He may call us from our comfortable life. His will cannot lead us where His grace cannot keep us. Are we willing to follow Him as He leads us in a way we have never been before? May we listen to Him and be willing to be “transplanted” from the garden we are in
What do you do when you have an opportunity to bloom in another garden and there are weeds? Like doubt and worry. Wondering whether God may be calling one into a particular ministry and there are worries about the cost, both personally and financially. The cost of time and effort. What about when others seem to plant doubts in your mind. Is it called “common sense” or is it the enemy distracting you from what God’s purpose is? It is important to pray that God will make it clear and open the right doors and close the ones He doesn’t want you to go through. When God calls one to a ministry, he or she needs to be obedient. God will provide the way. He wants us to trust in Him.
I have been working on the Wikipedia page for “I am God’s Project” it is a great album (I grew up with it too…but my copy was Blue, not yellow).
Here is the address of the Wiki article.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Am_God%27s_Project
It is full of great messages.
I think that we must bloom right where we are planted and be faithful to God in every area of our lives, right where we are before we can get to where we are supposed to be. It takes being faithful with little before we can be trusted to be faithful with much.
I think sometimes right where we are now is where God wants us to be and if we’re always looking for something that’s someplace else then we may miss what God is calling us to do. It can sometimes be right where we are now, like in our own hometown (I know two people who have thriving ministries right in their hometown…one who has never left her hometown).
But, I also think that if we are too focused on blooming where we are then it may cause us to miss what God wants us to do. He may be calling us to go someplace else and if we’re set on being content with where we have been planted and blooming there, then we may not notice His call to go beyond that.
So, I think we need to be open to what God has for us to do. It may be right where we’re at, but it also may be someplace else. We need to seek out His will in our lives and then once we know what that is (and it’s not easy, believe me), then we must follow. We need to bloom right where we’re planted, but not get set into staying there. I think it’s once we have bloomed right where we’ve been planted and be faithful in our lives right were we are then doors of opportunity will be opened for us in what God is calling us to do.