Evolve U

Grow Through It

17th July, 2009 - Posted by Shaunice Hawkins - No Comments

These are exceptionally challenging times.  Perhaps the most difficult we’ve faced in recent years.   Unemployment, foreclosure, bankruptcy…it doesn’t seem like there’s an end in sight.  The stresses of today are sure to have a reverberating effect on us tomorrow unless we learn to “grow through” our trials and tribulations rather than “go through” them. 

I love the word, “grow” (as anyone can tell from my posts).  Unlike the word, “go” (an action verb that implies forward movement usually in a  unidirectional, plane-like, manner),  “grow” (also an action verb) spurs increase and enlargement and provokes progress. When growth takes place there is a certainty of metamorphic transformation.  If we plant an orange seed, it will grow into an orange tree. While the metaphysical properties of the orange has changed (from seed to tree), the essence (or, for students of philosophy, the quiddity or “whatness” ) of the orange remains the same.  In any event, the orange seed cannot become an orange tree without soil, sunlight, warm weather and water.  Therefore, in order for growth to catalyze, the right conditions must first be realized.

Abolitionist, orator, author, and statesman, Frederick Douglass, is often quoted as saying, “If there is no struggle, there is no progress”.  He couldn’t have spoken truer words.  In order for the orange seed to mature into an orange plant, that seed must frequently endure unseasonal temperatures, droughts, floods and pests.  However, after bearing a brutally cold winter and scorching summer that, now orange tree, has produced big, plump, sweet and juicy oranges.  The orange seed grew through unimaginable obstacles to become a fruit-bearing orange tree.

Think about your own circumstances.  Have you been going through the motions of “holding on” or “hanging in” to “just get by” until the unseasonable, unimaginable, perhaps unforeseen obstacles you face go away?  If so, I have some unfortunate news for you.  Adversity doesn’t become less adverse because you will it so.  Neither does it disappear because you ignore it.  Nor will it relent because you can’t “take it anymore.”

Challenges come to test your mettle. Brutal and scorching, they force you to be strong so that you can bear fruit.  You can’t wallow in self pity and aggrandize about the emotional strain you feel.  You haven’t time.  The orange seed has timeframe for which it must grow into an orange tree and a season in which it must produce fruit.  You, too, have a timeframe for which you must grow and develop and a season in which you must bear fruit.

Take this opportunity to study your situation. 

• Consider your obstacle your professor. Let it teach you what to do, what not to do, how to prepare for future challenges as well as  manage others. 

 

• Adopt a birthing attitude.  Sure, it’s tough right now but make time to identify ways to be mentally, spiritually and/or occupationally entrepreneurial so that you can turn today’s adversity into tomorrow’s reward.

 

• Be fruitful and multiply. As an orange tree doesn’t produce one orange neither should your efforts produce one opportunity or reward.  Think bigger, grander and larger so that your fruit can be plumper, juicier and sweeter.

 

• Grow through it.  You are never faced with a situation that you haven’t the strength to endure.  You are smarter, wiser and stronger than you could ever know.  Believe in yourself, your talent, your skills and ability.  You can and will get through this and will emerge better for it.  Remember, you are more than a survivor…you’re an orange tree.

 

FINAL THOUGHT
Healthy things grow, growing things change; change brings challenge; challenge brings about trust in God; trust in God demands obedience; obedience results in health; and healthy things grow. ~R.C. Ryle