Bloom Where You Are Planted

It is so easy to complain or become weary of being in a difficult situation we do not want to be in. We can think of all the reasons we “can’t wait to get out of this dead-end job,” for example. I have been there more than once, so I know how hard it is to see the light of day when in a job or a particular church, for example, where I don’t really want to be and I can list all the reasons why I would rather be anywhere else. When things get overwhelmingly difficult, we humans tend to want to escape to something better. “If only I could get a better paying job, if only I wasn’t an outcast at this school or if only I was married to a good man, then…”  Yes, then I would be happy, because in my mind, anything else has to be better than this situation. But then again, I have been on the flip side too and I have learned that no matter what difficult place we find ourselves at physically, there are places that could be (and are) even worse! The best story I can use to illustrate this is that of the frog who found himself in a frying pan with the stove turned on and it was very hot, so he jumped into the pot of water next to it which slowly boiled him to death. Because the frog’s surroundings seemed better temporarily he did not even realize this too was a dangerous predicament until it was too late.

How many people jump from one bad relationship to another or leave a good spouse for “something better” because they are not happy enough where they are? Or how about the guy I know who quit his job because he was miserable where he was working only to find himself unemployed for a few years afterwards. Sometimes, we fail to look at the blessings right where we are because the difficulties seem to outweigh the blessings.

About six years ago, I was in a job that I felt was a terrible fit for me. Every day I would go in, more and more stressed as the day went on, only to end up leaving in tears. One part of the job came very easy to me and I did quite well at, but the other part of the job was just not clicking with me and I felt like I was a square peg being forced into a round hole. Not only that, but I was transferred to another office that had a lot less traffic and was in a part of town less desirable than the one I was transferred from. Grumble, grumble was my new mantra. Now my commission would nose-dive and I would have to drive twice the distance to work! I found out quickly this office had less than half the traffic of the first location I worked, which meant “good bye, commission.” However, I tried hard to stick it out even though I left most days very frustrated!

I am a single parent, so I really depended on the income and commission. I was willing to do what it took to learn the job completely to no avail. I did my very best, which was still not enough. It was like telling a fish to walk in the shallow water like a duck. Impossible. Finally, the manager called me a few weeks into the job out at the new location and dropped the bomb, which was actually a relief, and told me that she did not think this job was a good fit for me (I totally agreed). I do not give up easily; I am very persistent and stubborn, which I have had to be because of all the great difficulties I have been through that would have destroyed almost any normal person with average strength and resiliency. Although most people see these traits as a negative (which they can be sometimes), I believe God gifted me with them so that I could survive all I have been through and I am thankful!

However, all of that being said, while I was at the undesirable job location I had time to minister to a young lady who had fallen far away from God and the church. Having just been through a divorce and all the struggles that come with that just a few years prior, I shared with her that without God and my church family and all that God has helped me through, I literally would have fallen apart after my divorce. We had many great conversations about that sort of thing and I just tried loving on her and showing her Jesus’ love. In that short time I was there, the Lord spoke to this young lady through me and my difficulties to bring her back to Him. She was very thankful and told me directly that, “I feel that God led you here specifically to help me see that I need to come back to him,” which she did as a result. I think she felt she had fallen too far away to come back with all the things she had done and the fact that she was very young and pregnant out of wedlock. That alone made EVERY difficult day there worth it! Sometimes we do not see the whole picture until the very end of a situation or maybe even months or years later, but every situation we are in is for a reason whether we see it or not at the time.

The two things I learned through that experience was: 1) Don’t complain about where the Lord has me because in some way He has a purpose for me being where I am, and 2) Bloom right where I am planted and make the best out of a difficult situation. I have carried those lessons with me ever since then. Another valuable lesson I learned was that I can find things to be happy about no matter where I am because I now realize that God has me placed there for someone or something and He is using me…right where I am planted.