Bloom where you are planted

Bloom where you are planted.
That's really easy to do when your resting in good soil, with a lot of nutritious food giving you energy, the sun is shining not too brightly but enough for you to appreciate the rays, allowing you to grow in a bountiful and prosperous way. You blooming in that place feels not only right but really really good. But what about when you're planted in something that soil is a bit more rough, we squirm uncomfortably and it seems as if a lot of hard things are trying to do everything they can to make sure you're not rooted. There is no sun, just a lot of rain and it makes our leaves and spirit really heavy.
So instead of it feeling right or any type of good, we feel wrong, insecure, and incapable of blooming. That's when we start to uproot ourselves and attempt to messily plant ourselves in whatever else feels comfortable or better. 
I am a huge believer in blooming where you are planted, however I am also starting to realize that blooming where we are planted can be 1. A process 2. Not always an easy process and 3. Sometimes uncomfortable. I believe that sometimes we are put in places where we are planted in that tough soil just so that God can show us that even in the midst of that, we can bloom prosperously because of his watering. But then we turn around and say that in reality we're just "not being where we should be" and so we okay maybe just I, uproot myself somewhere else that feels "better" or "right" aka "comfortable". 

Blooming where we are planted doesn't mean just stay stuck where you are because you're rooted there, so you have to. No, it means being present where we are, in that rooted season waiting to bloom.
It means snuggling into where we are and resting there. It means maybe letting the discomfort and the challenges rest with us, until we overcome them and we will.  It doesn't mean focus on the next place we're going to be planted in, or the next person or conversation. It means in this moment, right now, to sit in our soil and let God do whatever it is he has planned. It will be a process, that's not always easy, we will second guess if that's even where were supposed to be because its not comfortable but usually that means its exactly where we should be. And that God is moving around us, through us and with us, that's why we feel so swayed, discombobulated and "un-rootable" (that's not a word but it is in this blog). When we are rooted, God is moving around us through that good or rough soil, so be present there, wait in that season of blooming and see what he creates.

Bloom where you are planted, not where you feel like you grow best.

Bloom where you are planted, not just in good soil.

Bloom where you are planted, even if its uncomfortable.

Bloom where you are planted, just bloom. 

And be proof that we are being saturated with the waters of Christ.

New Senior. Old Tricks.

Its Sunday and today marks the second week of school starting.
Last week, I found myself starting to get overwhelmed when my schedule began to unfold before my eyes. Classes, work, extra circulars, RA...did I really say yes to all these things?
During my first one on one with my RD, he asked me how I was doing and the first words out of my mouth were, "Slightly overwhelmed." Its so hard coming back early from summer for RA training and really engaging in those moments with your Walkabout Team and your staff and other Ra's and then the summer camp euphoria somewhat slips away when you realize, "Oh, wait...I'm here to be a student." RA training comes to a close and then it just becomes being an RA and then work is added to that and then your 10am-5pm class schedule and weekend commitments, club meetings etc etc. And then you slowly start to find yourself forgetting how to breath easily, everything is tense and stressed because you're just trying to fit everything in your schedule.
This was very much so my entire year last year. Now don't get me wrong, it was absolutely, hands down the most life-giving, purpose filled year I have yet to experience. However at the end of it, I had lost weight I didn't intend too because I just wasn't eating properly, I'm anemic and my blood count was dangerously low, I spent the summer sleeping a little bit more than is healthy and I felt like I at least  needed a few weeks to "get back to myself again."
We live this fast-paced, no sleep, whats-next-on-the-schedule type life style so well that its dangerous.
The mentor type people in my life have both consistently asked me, "What do you want to change this year?" See, as we all know... going into your Senior year means adjustments, growth, and lots of changes. There are new things happening and we have to live according to them. Looking back on what a beautiful blur last year was, I realize that in this last year, I want to do life slower. I want to be really intentional with every little moment. I also want to take care of myself. We need to take care of ourselves. 
I have been a "believer" or involved with Christianity all of my life, I know what that seventh day of rest is supposed to look like. Do I follow it? Most times... actually no, not at all. Do I want to? most definitely.
My answer to the "What do you want to change this year?" was that I really want to learn what a Sabbath looks like. Today, was my first attempt of that. I and another RA had "Weekend Duty", where on Friday and Saturday evening from 7:30pm-1:00am we are in the Rec Room, going on rounds and basically being present for residents who may come around. Most of you who know me, know that I am a grandma when it comes to late nights, anything past about 10pm is rough for me. Which is why when today rolled around I decided before I went to bed (at around 1:30 this morning) that when I woke up without an alarm, is when my day would start. For me that was at about 12:30 in the afternoon ah yes, sweet sweet beautiful rest I have yearned for you.
Having a Dad as a pastor, and being a  ministry family makes it really hard for Sundays to be a Sabbath because its sort of a work day. My Dad preaches, my Mom and Sister work on the PowerPoint's, my other sister and I usually did worship. Coming home from church meant that my parents would come home and KNOCK OUT on the couch, usually they were next to each other, both of them with glasses on, maybe my moms phone in her hand and my dads tablet on his lap (its always really cute). But for us, going to church was apart of that Sabbath, in college I've slowly come to realize that even going to church is sometimes more exhausting than it is life giving. I find myself sometimes sitting in church dozing off and being elbowed by whoever I was sitting next to or staring at the Pastor, not really listening but wondering how many points he was going to talk about until he said "and Lastly..." so that I could come back to school and take a nap. And so I learned last year, that sometimes waking up at 11 am and watching Church online while still in bed, is not a bad thing. That waking up at 12am and then doing YouTube video workouts while watching 13 Going on 30 because your roommate left it on, is not a bad thing. We need rest. We need to be rejuvenated. If we continue to rush into each week, each year, without spending sometime practicing rest, we're really never going to know what living really means, just know how to do and not be. 

So here I am, new Senior with the old tricks... learning what a Sabbath looks like. And for each of us, it looks differently but for me today, it looked like watching 13 Going on 30 , YouTube work outs and writing this blog.
Today, I am rested and rejuvenated. Thank God for Sabbaths.

"By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work." Genesis 2:2