Growing roots

 

Just under the surface,
just out of sight,
a treasure is being fashioned
beneath his glorious light.

Though no other man can see
the progress, the growing, the pain inside
it matters not, for it’s His love alone that carries me.

So I keep on, keep walking,
keep growing in his eyes:
ashes to beauty,
dead to life.

I’ll keep pressing on, keep pressing in,
as I grow to become more like him.

It’s  process, it’s progress, it’s labor, it’s pain.

It’s ashes to beauty, it’s dead to life.

For I am yet a treasure,
being fashioned in his light.
Refined by his love,
and chosen to glorify.

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I began this post with a wordy, confusing, introduction of what it meant to be refined. The more I typed, the more complicated it got, and I began to ask myself “Is this really even what I’m processing right now?” So I gave up and then the words began to flow.

“It’s process, it’s progress, it’s labor, it’s pain” that is what it means to me to be refined. The most important of things begin beneath the surface. That’s where foundations are laid, where roots go deep, in the things that aren’t visible. This is where depth of relationship with Christ has to begin.

I get so frustrated with myself sometimes. There is a longing in my soul to know God better, to understand the fullness of his character and who he is,  to see the results of this “season of waiting”, of “blooming” immediately. But then I have to remember, while this is not true in all cases, fast lessons don’t always stick. There is much more than meets the eye to this season. God’s not finished with me yet. This is just the beginning, I am choosing to see it more as training grounds for what is to come.

When I see monotony, He sees fresh soil.

When I see struggle, He sees places of growth.

And so, while in the midst of discontentment, in seeking satisfaction in him alone, I have to remember that he is refining me. That he is calling me to seek him out in deeper places and that it’s not always going to be comfortable, or fast. Instant gratification, gosh the 21st century has me ruined. Didn’t the tortoise win the race? Growing takes time, roots do not go deep immediately.

It’s a process.