“I planted, Apollos watered, but God kept everything growing.” 1 Corinthians 3:6
You know what is annoying? Pollen!
I had a great day yesterday, productive. Accomplished a lot. By the time I went to teach a tennis lesson, my last job of the day, I was ready for a relaxing evening. Weather was good, not too hot, not too cold. There was pollen EVERYWHERE. Those long spindly looking things from the trees. It wasn’t until after I’d finished teaching that it really started to affect me. By the time we arrived at our small group my eyes had started to water, I was sneezing and the misery had started.
All because of pollen. Something so tiny had such a large affect on my evening. I went from feeling great to feeling lousy in an hour. But we need the pollen to fertilize the plants. Eventually, they become the trees and flowers we love. They go from ugly little spindly things, or the infamous yellow dusting which covers cars in VA, to a variety of beautiful vegetation in a wonderful array of colors. It is just part of the growing process.
You know what else is annoying? Those little grains of truth we receive at unexpected times which cause us to stop and examine ourselves, our relationship with others and with God.
For instance, yesterday, in the midst of a conversation a trusted friend told me I’m too hard on myself. It was a random comment which I have been thinking about ever since. He’s not wrong, I am too hard on myself. It’s something I’ve struggled with my entire life. I was surprised he had noticed.
For me, it’s a great reminder. One of the fall outs of me being hard on myself is I can be hard on others. I struggle with grace, I tend to fall more on the truth side of life. I’m grateful for the comment, it’s already started to help me not only let myself off the hook, but extend grace to others.
It was the seed I needed to create a larger change. Something which will result in a beautiful outcome somewhere else down the line. God’s word often works for us in the same manner. We’ll read a verse which resonates with us, it strikes a chord. Hopefully, we’ll pause and think about it. We’ll pray about it and ask God what He’s telling us through it. Then as we begin to understand it, we start to apply it to our lives. Hopefully this begins to bring about a change we didn’t even realize we needed.
Just as pollen is needed to fertilize the plants, we need the truths of God’s people and His word to fertilize our growth. To spur us on to all God wants and means for us to be.
Growing can be difficult, but it is necessary. It isn’t always an easy process. It can be annoying. It definitely takes time. But the end result is worth it. God can do miracles with a tiny seed!
Unfortunately though, we have to endure the pollen to spur on the growth!
Pollen!
