Of Seeds and Boulders

If you had told me ten years ago that I was going to be cutting hair for money I would have told you to go wash your filthy mouth. And then I probably would have hit you with a throw pillow as a reminder that I paint houses not hair.

Ten year old Kayla was really feisty.

Twenty year old Kayla is still pretty feisty too actually.

Sometimes I still can't believe I have a license to do hair. Not because thats such an unbelievable thing, but rather because its just never where I thought I would be.

And on that first day of cosmetology school I never thought that by the end of it I would be preparing to move to an almost a 3rd world country for a year to cut hair and share the gospel.

But its been a good reminder of the seeds God plants in our lives. Seemingly insignificant occurrences that eventually lead to drastic changes. And its good for me to look back on the fruit of those seeds when it seems like I'm just stuck in the dirt for no reason.

Today I had three short text conversations with three different people all of whom were essentially having the same problem but each coming at it from different avenues. They just couldn't see around the thing that was obstructing their vision and sucking their joy. And I could only recognize it because I've walked in it often. I've been there where I've allowed even the smallest of things to so become my focus that eventually I could see nothing else and it was as if I had no future outside those things.

I read an incredible quote this week that said "Nothing is as big as God. But even little things can block out the sun if held too close to the eye."

So heres my tie-in: Its human nature to assume that whatever situation we're in now is the same situation we're gonna be in years from now. Like we know thats not really the truth, but it doesn't stop us from getting frustrated and acting like it is. And if we're honest we don't really consider our lives to be short until we're nearing the end of them. But the reality is God sees our lives as a vapor. Short. Here today and gone today.

And in light of eternity, which is what our souls have actually been designed for, thats an exact accurate view of things even though we almost never see it that way.

But the comfort is that God still moves in our lives. Just because we're experiencing something now doesn't mean God's left us there and forgotten about us. He's got a plan. And sometimes all we can see is the seed of that plan. And sometimes we're so smothered by it that we cant even recognize its a seed but instead it just looks like a huge boulder in our way.

But slowly, eventually, in his perfect and loving timing the seed starts to grow and the stem pokes its head out from the soil and there is light. The same light that was always there helping us grow but that has just now been made visible.

Don't make the mistake of viewing your present circumstances as bigger and more lasting than they are. And especially don't make the mistake of viewing God as fleeting and smaller than He is.

"O LORD, make me know my end and what is the measure of my days; let me know how fleeting I am

Psalm 39:4