Growth Takes Time
By Pastor Rachel White
Pastor of LifeGroups & Alpha
One of the many lessons I’ve learned from spending time growing a flower garden this year has been that growth takes time. As the cut flower season ends, I’m already planting seeds for next year, seeds that won’t look like flowers until maybe May! That’s a long time to wait! It’s hard to say goodbye to a season of fruitfulness as the flowers fade and hard to wait for that season to come around again. But it’s even harder to keep putting in the quiet diligent work of caring and nurturing in the midst of that waiting time! But there is one thing I have learned from the planning and preparation I did in the garden during the dark and dreary months last year: all that work pays off in the end.
For me, this is an image of the quiet faithfulness it takes to nurture your faith. Growing faith too can take time, and not every season of faith is going to look like fruitfulness. Some seasons are long and hard but are there is much needed behind the scenes work that leads to future fruitfulness. Just like the work of the garden, it’s easy to get frustrated, bored, or just give up being disciplined in those “in-between” times. But in the end they are the most crucial to success. I wonder what kind of faith season you are in right now? Are you in a waiting season or a fruitful season?
The change in the physical seasons signals a need for me to personally get a little more disciplined with my own spiritual growth. It’s easy to shrink from community when the days get darker. It’s easy for me to stay in bed longer instead of reading my Bible in the mornings when it’s cold outside. It’s easy to not send that text to check in on a friend when my own needs feel a little more overwhelming. I wonder what habits you would say you need to be a little bit more intentional with to keep on growing in this fall season? And I wonder with excitement about how that discipline will pay off for you in the long run!
If community is something you are needing right now, can I invite you to join either Alpha or LifeGroups this fall? People can make such a difference to how you experience faith, and both are great places to get connected to community. Whether you are just starting out on your faith journey or have been at this for years, we all need a little encouragement and support from others on the journey. People who are in it with us, people who can inspire us to keep on going in those in between times, people who keep us accountable for the disciplines we are trying to engage in as we seek Jesus and ask him to grow our faith!
You can check out LifeGroup options on the Chapel Hill website or reach out to me if you want to start your own. We have resources to support you! You can register for Alpha and find out more at gigharboralpha.com.
Pastor Rachel