Confused about where you’re going? Look to where you’ve been!
I once coached a middle aged woman who was depressed and felt she had no purpose in life. We began a journey to find “significance” in her life. We started this journey many years prior and identified the “Stepping Stones” in her life. Some were joyous times, some were sad, some were worthy of reflection while others she wanted to forget completely. As we went down this path of her past one thing was certain. Every one of those stepping stones were abundantly rich with one thing! Experience! Each brought with it things she had learned and was able to implement in the next stone of her life. We were able to identify a pattern unfolding in her life as she became aware of her Divine design. God had created her with a purpose and she now knew what that was as she saw her story unfold.
Oswald Chambers was an early twentieth-century Scottish Baptist, Holiness evangelist and teacher. He was best known for the devotional My Utmost for His Highest. This is what he once said “In the beginning we do not train for God, we train for work, for our own aims; but as we go on with God we lose all our own aims and are trained into God’s purpose. Unless practical work is appointed by God, it will prove a curse.”
Okay so your past is filled with stepping stones that brought you to where you are. What do you do now when you question, “Why? Why am I here?” Grow where you are planted! Then wait for God to provide opportunity for you to use those stones to direct your future!
So how do you grow where you’re planted? I can think of no better way than to take Paul’s advice to the Colossians. “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving” (Colossians 3:23-24). He goes on to say in Colossians 4:2 Devote yourselves to prayer, keeping alert in it with an attitude of thanksgiving;
Joseph was a great example of growing where he had been planted! If you look at the stepping stones in his life the road wasn’t always rosy! He was rejected by his brothers, sold into slavery, lied about, thrown into prison. He could have chosen to be bitter and unforgiving but rather he chose “to grow where he was planted” each stone of the way. While God was preparing him to be head of the nation Israel he worked with all his heart as for the Lord, not for man. He worked hard and diligently whether in Potiphar’s house or interpreting dreams in prison.
Moses and Jesus were other examples. Moses served in Pharaoh’s house and then watched over sheep for forty years. While he probably questioned more than once his calling and thought “at least the sheep did what I asked” he had been prepared to lead the Exodus of the Israelite nation out of slavery!
The bible mentions little to nothing of Jesus’ life between the ages of 12 and 30. What we do know is that he worked as a carpenter in his father’s carpentry shop. Those stepping stone years led to Jesus ultimate calling. We can probably guess most assuredly that it was during those years Jesus learned about relationships as he encountered various customers. Having a restaurant I can attest to the magnitude of personalities one encounters. Over 50% of Jesus’ teaching addressed issues experienced in every day life by a vast array of personalities!
So the next time you may be tempted to whine and complain, curse and quit, know that God has a purpose and a plan for your future. He is preparing you, right here, right now, for something much greater if you grow where you’ve been planted and don’t give up!
I leave you with a favorite passage of scripture! Jeremiah 29:11-15
11 For I know the plans that I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope. 12 Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. 13 You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart. 14 I will be found by you,’ declares the Lord, ‘and I will restore your fortunes and will gather you from all the nations and from all the places where I have driven you,’ declares the Lord, ‘and I will bring you back to the place from where I sent you into exile.’
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