Grow what you’ve been entrusted with…bloom.

I don’t know about you, but I have a black thumb.  I need plants you can just drop in the ground…and off they go.  I was, however, trying to be a little more intentional with my gardening this past fall, and went to trim these rose bushes in anticipation of winter.  These three bushes came with the house two years ago. At first all three thrived, but last summer I noticed that one (the one in the middle) no longer bloomed.  I watched it for weeks.  It showed no signs of distress; it just wouldn’t bloom.  It had all the same advantages of the others flanking it to the right and left.  It had the same soil, it received the same amount of water, it was on the same trimming schedule, under the same amount of sun.  Same everything!  So why wouldn’t it bloom?

I couldn’t help but notice the parallel to life.  Why do some people thrive and others just get by?  Same circumstances, same opportunities and tools, but not the same outcome.  I think it comes from within.  I know that as far as my art career, I don’t want to be the rose bush in the middle with green leaves and no flowers.  I’m not sure what takes a person to the next level, but we have all met people like that.  People that make an impact.  People you remember.  I think it is more than luck but the willingness to use the tools and talents we have been given.  It takes courage to do that, and the willingness to fail in the process of learning to bloom.  

In the Bible there’s a story about a man who entrusts his property to three servants, giving each an amount based on their ability.  Two invest the money, one hides it.  In the end the master takes it back and gives it to the one who grew his the most.  The idea is that we need to grow what we have been entrusted with, not just sit stagnant, because success is a product of our work.  This can apply to almost any area in our lives where we have been entrusted with a gift.  For me, that is teaching and painting.  The question is, as I was reminded by that flowerless rose bush, “what am I doing with what I have been entrusted with?”  Now, I am simply pressing into the abilities I have been given to see where they take me and how they can be used.  After all, a blooming rose bush fills the world with beautiful color and smell, and wouldn’t we all agree that the world is better in color?  

So go bloom, and be about all the colors!

****See Mathew 25:14-30 for the full story.