Get Comfortable With the Uncomfortable: That’s How We Grow
Get Comfortable With the Uncomfortable: That’s How We Grow by Tiffany Ward
Giving Up:
My fight for my own timetable (impatience)
My despair
My fear
My anger
My confused way of thinking
My demand to be loved in a certain way
Accepting & Receiving:
God’s love
God’s friendship
God’s comfort
God’s affection
God’s faithfulness
God’s timing
God’s care and gifts
God’s presence
God’s strength
The pain we experience in our human bodies is uncomfortable. One truth I’ve often heard is that hurting people hurt others. But the greater truth I want to highlight is this: broken people can be fully redeemed.
When we know our redemption story, we can move beyond our brokenness into the flourishing that God is already working in us. Like seeds germinating beneath the soil, roots grow deep before anything is visible. Eventually, something breaks through the hard ground and pushes upward, showing signs of life—maybe a beautiful white flower, like the ones now covering my yard.
The heat might try to scorch this new growth. Weeds might propagate freely, threatening to choke it out. Storms may come, overwatering and drowning the fragile plant. Yet spiritually, our God is here, tending to us, giving us all we need. He allows us to be in the season we’re in and propagates us where He wills.
We may be the flower that fades at the end of its season. But while we are alive in that season, we can stand confident—growing upward, downward, and outward. We unfold, beautiful to behold, because God made us that way. And when we fade, that version of us still carries beauty in its time and place.
We keep growing and changing, and those changes can be hard to experience or even to see in ourselves. Yet it is all necessary. The hard things are lesser than the gain that comes from them. As we die away, our seeds of life spread by the grace of God’s created wind—something we cannot see but can feel.
In a new season, we might be carried to another area. How beautiful! We begin to burrow down where we land, embracing the stillness for a moment. Then the working begins again. We rise, unfolding in a new place, a God-ordained place, where we can be nurtured and nurture others.
Maybe you’re impatient like me, longing for a transplant into a garden where there’s more tending and care than what a wildflower gets along the roadside. Or maybe you’re like a rosebush, surrounded by thorns. The thorns may be part of who you are, and you can’t seem to stop them from pricking others, even as they reach for your beauty and delight in your fragrance. God tends to each of us uniquely, whether we are wildflowers, roses, or something else entirely.
Those white flowers popping up across my yard remind me that God meets us wherever we are—garden, field, or path. Each season has its purpose. Each fading blossom leaves behind the promise of new life. And every scattering of seed is another chance for His beauty to unfold again.
That person is like a tree planted by streams of water,
which yields its fruit in season
and whose leaf does not wither—
whatever they do prospers.
— Psalm 1:3
The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me,
because the Lord has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim freedom for the captives
and release from darkness for the prisoners,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor
and the day of vengeance of our God,
to comfort all who mourn,
and provide for those who grieve in Zion—
to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes,
the oil of joy instead of mourning,
and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair.
They will be called oaks of righteousness,
a planting of the Lord for the display of his splendor.
They will rebuild the ancient ruins
and restore the places long devastated;
they will renew the ruined cities
that have been devastated for generations.
— Isaiah 61:1–4
Prayer
Lord, we know that we are here for a purpose larger than ourselves. Our desire to grow and mature is given to us by you. Anything good we long for comes from you. May we fully rely on you, knowing you are our master gardener in this big garden of life. As we move through this life would we lean into our redemption rather than staying stuck or focused on our brokenness. May our message to ourselves and others be one of fullness of joy. Hoping in you and your plans because we know we have been made right by your son Jesus. Would we remember your word is Psalm 34:4 that says we sought you and you answered us. We need your answers. We are desperate for your truth. The world we live in is messy and chaotic. Your love is safe and trustworthy. Show us we can fully rely on you despite the wind, the scorching heat, or the hard circumstances that we face daily, weekly, monthly, and annually. Our true hope is YOU. Nothing can stand against that kind of power.
In Jesus name,
Amen
—Be Treasured