The process of growing

By Jeff Becraft

Two weeks ago, I talked about the plants at work and the variety of plants and how them blending together really brought out a great sense of beauty. Well, I use the plants on a regular basis as an object lesson for life lessons that affect us in our daily lives.

We have a great team as part of our Building & Maintenance work unit at Our Place of Hope. Because of their hard work, the flower beds are getting weeded almost every day and the flowers are getting watered every single day… and they look stunning.

I find great excitement in this, because just as I walk up to the door in the morning, there is this sense of beauty that is greeting me. And that is the whole point – that sometimes in life we get so overwhelmed and so burdened down that it just weighs on us. But to see that beauty… to see that order… can give us hope. It can be a vision for us that, “Hey, my life can reflect that… there is beauty in my life,” and that is absolutely true.

It comes down to this: we are out there pulling weeds on a regular basis… which translates into we need to get rid of the negative stuff in our life, that which is actually drawing the life out of our life. Some things (like weeds), we have just gotten used to it being there… and so we let it hang around… and it just gets more deeply and deeply rooted. We have all kinds of lies that we have listened to our entire lives, things we have told ourselves, things other people have said to us, etc., and that is sucking the life out of us.

So, what we do with the weeds is, we yank the weeds out. We get them out of there. And that gives room for the true roots of the plants to grow and thrive.

But not only that, we are putting in… every single day… what gives life, what brings life. And that is what we should be doing in our lives.

It is pretty simple. Get rid of what is inhibiting life in us and put in what gives life.

Sometimes the weeds are bright and green (and that is a whole other email all by itself) but that is a facade. There are things that might look nice but they are actually hindering our lives. And some weeds are small… so we might think, “Ahh, we can just let them hang around.” But small weeds grow into bigger weeds.

We need to get rid of that which does not bring life and put in that which does. Then the true beauty comes through.

Jeff Becraft is the Director of Our Place of Hope located in Columbia, South Carolina, where people find encouragement to regain meaning, purpose, and hope for their lives. Jeff has dedicated much of his life to helping shift the vision of people’s lives. If you would like Jeff to speak to your group or event, you can connect with him at  [email protected].