Blossom in the Present

SheKnows.com

In this my new address, I am helping to care for a number of gardens ... weeding, planting, hauling, mulching, watering. I am truly thankful for this work ... I love gardening as a gift for time to pray and think  ... and see things grow. But, I confess that at the beginning of this new leg of my journey, my thoughts turned to questions of why I went to seminary in the first place if my work is going to be selling stuff or weeding gardens. What were all those years of study and pressing thru to ordination about? Hmmm. A little pity party going on. Then, I read this in Anne Long's book Listening:

It is not the particular ministry but our availability and readiness to respond which matter. Much of what we are called to will be humble, unacclaimed acts of service, a simple response to what God was bringing to our attention. ... It is not the place where you are that is the important thing. It is the intensity of your presence there. It is not the situation that counts ... [but] that you are fully alive in any situation. It is this that puts down roots and then flowers in your life. Availability: that is obedience. That and looking hard at the place where you are, instead of wanting to work wonders somewhere else. 

Wake up call! Bloom where you are planted! I don't know who the author is of that quote, but Jeremiah had something to say about it. In chapter 29 he speaks to the people in exile and tells them to be alive wherever they find themselves. Build houses and live in them, plant gardens and harvest the blessing ... and give that blessing to others. Stop looking to go somewhere else, for some future place or time or event that seems to be the perfect answer to your prayers. Live now. Be fully alive in the present now. Be available to all and everything around you. Be attentive and listen for the Lord's work around you now. And, be blessed and bless ... in His Name.

My Dad loved sunflowers, those blooms that follow the sun all day long and bow their heads of sunshiney petals to sleep at night. Even at night they prayerfully watch the sun to await the dawn and live the new day ... the new address ... fully present and available where they are planted. Be available to God's work in and thru you today and bloom where you are planted.