It Can’t Be Perfect

No body likes the storms of life that come our way. No body likes hardship and struggle. There’s not a single soul who woke up this morning saying, “gosh, I hope everything is ridiculously hard today!”

And yet, the storms of life come, don’t they? We all face those ridiculously hard days with circumstances we would prefer to avoid. Even those of us that love God and seek him daily are not immune to these storms. Why is that? Why wouldn’t God protect his girls from the harshness of life sometimes?

Here’s why … he doesn’t want us to fall.

What if these storms aren’t here to destroy you, they’re here to grow you? What if this isn’t to knock you down, but to keep you from falling down? I know it doesn’t feel like it when you’re going through it, but sometimes we can’t see the forest for the trees in our own life, so today, we’re going to look at the trees.

Yes, trees. That’s our topic today.

There was a study done in the perfect conditions of a bidome on the growth of trees. It was always sunny, yet there was always ample water. These trees shot up in record speed. Oh how they grew in such a perfect environment. But soon, there was an irreversible problem with all the trees. They began to fall over. One by one, these seemingly healthy, beautiful trees that had grown so quickly in their little sheltered paradise, just fell.

Why? Their roots were tiny. Why would their roots be so small in such perfect growing conditions? One reason … it was perfect … perfectly still. There was no wind in the biodome. No storms. And without those winds, the tree was never signaled to grow deeper roots. Trees actually NEED wind to blow against them, causing resistance, creating a struggle, because this struggle causes their root systems to grow.

And could God, in all of his infinite wisdom, know something about us that we overlook here? As we’re wishing away our problems and asking why we have to continually struggle, our good good Father allows the wind to blow on us with absolute love as he says, “because, my girl, I don’t want you to fall.”

If you’ve never gone through anything hard in your life, you only know God as a provider in theory. You don’t know him as your personal provider. You’ve only heard about that through others, or read it in the stories in your bible that don’t seem applicable to you today because they’re thousands of years old.

But I remember the time in our lives when a coupon for a free Chick-fil-A sandwich was handed to us by a cow on the road. (Yes, for real, a black and white cow at the intersection just handed us this coupon.) But this coupon, unlike any other that I’ve ever seen from a cow, was literally a free sandwich. You didn’t have to buy fries to get it. You didn’t have to even buy a small drink. It was just a free sandwich, no purchase required. That day, tere were 2 of us with that one free sandwich. No fries, we couldn’t afford that. No drink, we didn’t have the money. Just this one, small, free sandwich. My son would take a bite, then I would take a bite. His bite, my bite. Both of us hungry. One coupon, one sandwich. And that day, I personally saw God provide in the sweetest most precious way. That chicken sandwich just kept on giving. We kept on eating, and there kept on being more. We both ate absolutely as much as we could eat, and there was sandwich left.

I wouldn’t have known God can really provide like that if we wouldn’t have been going through that financial hardship. My roots grew that day.

I had heard stories of God being a healer. I have read about Jesus making the blind to see and the lame to walk. But it wasn’t until I personally laid in a hospital bed unable to walk or talk after a massive stroke, that I came to know God as MY personal healer. It wasn’t just a story. It was my life, and God was all over it. That day, my roots grew.

I would love to have a big, beautiful, flourishing life without problems, but I now understand it would just come crashing down. Problems cause my roots to grow. Hardships create deeper growth which I cannot see. I don’t enjoy that kind of growth, but it’s the kind I most need. And it’s the kind you most need to.

Are you currently in a season of root growing? Oh honey, you’re not being punished, you’re being prepared. Prepared for beautiful new branches and flourishing fruits in your life. God is going to do great things in you and through you, but first these storms are here to grow your roots in him so you can handle the upward and outward growth to come.

God doesn’t let his girls live in a perfect bidome. Not because he doesn’t want good things for us. Not because he wants us to suffer. But because he wants us to last! He wants us grounded in him with deep and strong roots so our lives can grow to become all he planned for us to be. So he removes the shelter and he lets the storms roll in. He allows the wind to blow and bend us a bit. With every bend, we grow stronger. With every struggle we shoot out roots to Him.

Jeremiah 17: 7-8, “But blessed are those who trust in the Lord and have made the Lord their hope and confidence. They are like trees planted along a riverbank, with roots that reach deep into the water. Such trees are not bothered by the heat or worried by long months of drought. Their leaves stay green, and they never stop producing fruit.”

Does it say our trust in God has dismissed us from scorching heat? No, it says we are not bothered by it. Does it say seasons of drought will never touch us because of our hope and confidence in God? No, it says we won’t be worried by it. How is that possible? Because we have roots that reach deep into the water.

What water? Jesus … the living water!

What caused those roots to grow to Jesus? Storms, winds, problems, hardships, struggle. That’s real life outside of a biodome! Not because we are being punished, but because we are blessed. Blessed to not just fall over one day. Blessed to keep growing and produce fruit in our lives.

Girls, without roots don’t get to produce fruit. And girls, without the struggles of real life don’t have roots.

How would you ever know God is your true hope, if you always had a hundred other things to place your hope in? You wouldn’t. So, God allows those other things to fall away so you see he is what is left, and he is more than enough. How would your confidence ever be rooted in God if all these other sources of confidence were guaranteed? You wouldn’t. So, the storms come and confidence is left in one thing. The only sure thing left standing. God.

I’m sorry you’re going through this storm, my sister. I’m so sorry these winds have hurt you and you’re bending with all that’s coming against you. I’m so sorry you’re in that drought season where everything seems ridiculously hard. I don’t wish this for you. I don’t want you to hurt. I don’t want you to struggle. I don’t want that for any of us. But even more than that, I don’t want you to be without roots. I don’t want you to just fall over because you never grew where you really needed to grow.

Can’t you see that’s why God hasn’t just come in a stopped all of this like you want? He knows how your roots are growing. And he holds great plans for your future that will requires those deep roots.

Hey mamas, stop being the freaking biodome for your kids. Let the wind touch them. If you’re always shielding them and hiding them away from real life, they miss the opportunity to grow their roots. Jesus is waiting for them in the deep, but you’ve got to let them struggle a bit so they reach for him. That’s what a good parent does. A good parent removes the pacifier. A good parent takes off the training wheels. A good parent lets those knees get skinned up.

And guess what … you and I have a good, good Father. No more pacifier for me and you. No more training wheels. Those knees, well they’re not going to be pretty. Why? Because these real life storms are here to grow our roots! Roots that reach for the waters of Jesus. Roots that support the branches we will grow and the fruit we will bare.

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