I thought my rose bushes were dead and gone. My trimming and pruning could be better described as a butchering. My thumbs are not green, they are black. And so the careful instructions I solicited from a gardening expert friend were fading in my memory and became unclear in my recollection. I was sure I had failed and killed the rose bushes.
The negative self-talk kicked in... “How can you lead a ministry about Iron ROSE Sisters if you can’t keep a single rose bush alive?”
Thankfully, I serve a Redeemer who is also a Master Gardener. He takes my meager attempts and blossoms them into a fruitful effort.
What I thought looked like a dead bush was merely in its process of rebuilding. What I had given up on within myself was just the beginning of the transformation He was bringing about.
One of my favorite phrases has always been, “If you aren’t growing, you’re dying.” I still believe that to be true. We cannot fall into the myth of stagnation and allow ourselves to wither away and backslide, neglecting our spiritual health.
However, I have recently come to realize that at times, when there is an apparent lack of growth, God is working behind the scenes to transform that time of death into an opportunity for rebirth.
My rosebushes are flourishing with new life. And my spiritual health is as well—grateful for the renewed transformation in the places I had formerly neglected, revived in the areas in which God Himself needed to do some pruning.
If you aren’t growing you’re dying. But are you allowing God to work as the Master Gardener to bring about the necessary growth?