Bloom where you are planted is something we hear often, but what happens when we don’t bloom as expected?
REFLECTION
The tree outside my house blooms too early, in my opinion, every year. In April it decides it’s spring and blooms. Unfortunately the days of a warm April spring have long since passed and it blooms only to find its blossoms to be tossed to the ground by the spring winds and rain. More often than not I can only enjoy them for one or two days top. This year it didn’t follow its normal patter. Much like everything else these days, I guess. It started to bloom on the tips of the branches and then stopped. Day after cold day it showed no progress. It reminded me of so much of what is going on during this quarantine. Life was progressing and then it stopped. Like the tree we are frozen in time.
I started to wonder if it would bloom. Would I get to actually enjoy it longer this year? Will the blossoms still be on the tree only a day or two? Would more people get to enjoy it now that so many are out walking? Would people miss the chance to see it in full bloom if they skipped walking one day? As I was pondering the growth of the tree I realized that what I was wondering about, the tree wasn’t. In fact, nobody was wondering, but me. The tree didn’t focus on anything other than glorifying God. It would bloom when God said it was time to and God would be glorified by it whether one person saw it or many. Nobody needed to plan to see the tree. The gift was there and those who were open to seeing it and those God needed to see it, would see. The truth is that God is in control and all the tree needs to do is be the tree it is meant to be,
APPLYING IT TO LIFE
- How many times do we worry about the outcome and forget to enjoy the process?
- How often do we decide that success is determined by how many see our efforts?
- How often do we take inventory of our needs, determine what we need to do in order to have our needs met and then get upset when things do not go as planned?
Unplanned circumstances that cause us to freeze in time, while at the same time, fill our heads with questions is not something limited to a health quarantine. In fact, whenever circumstances are difficult, we often give ourselves a self-imposed quarantine as we feel stuck and don’t know which way to turn. Currently, because of the quarantine, I am trying to decide if this is the right time for me to retire. I saw this as happening in a year or two so the suddenness and uncertainty are real. Through it I know who has the answers and I am trying to follow God’s lead, while at the same time, trying to enjoy the journey.
Trying to enjoy the journey when it’s difficult requires some daily reflection on where we are interiorly. Some reflections that may be pondered for all of us in times such as these may be:
- Am I experiencing peace or anxiety?
- Am I trusting or trying to control?
- Am I listening in silence?
- In spite of all the difficulties, am I trying to enjoy this time in my life that will never come again?
Hidden within the moments that are difficult or unplanned are opportunities to grow and trust in God. In each of us He is writing a Gospel story. We need not worry about what is ahead. We need only seek Him in the now.
How we will proceed will depend on our trust in God. He invites us to be totally emptied so He can fill us with His divinity. Part of that means giving Him the wheel in the midst of our circumstances. While God is always with us, we have the free will to decide if we want His help and to what degree we want it. Oftentimes we play tug-of war in that we want it and then we act like we are in control and don’t want the help. The choice is ours.
SEVEN REFLECTIONS FOR PRAYERFUL PONDERING
- Read and reflect on Matthew 6:24-34
- Is there something in your life that is not blooming as you had planned or that you had planned on and yet is far more difficult than you had thought?
- Can you find gifts hidden for you within these circumstances that you had not planned on?
- Are you acting as if you are the only one who can solve the problem? Or are you giving it to God and staying open to how He is directing you through prayer, others and the circumstances?
- Are you looking for the love, peace and joy during this time?
- Are you trusting that step by step God is there?
- Talk to God about all this. You are on the cross in the suffering that the uncertainty brings. On this cross, can you see that by your very life you are an unceasing prayer? Who can you offer the prayer of this part of your life up for?