The Super Bloom
By Tanner Woolf --
Now that we’ve finally hit the end of May, is anyone else out of breath? Did you find yourself counting down the days until June? How many assignments, banquets, recitals, projects, tournaments, tests, deadlines, and trips did you have to get done this last month? If you’re anything like me, you might start to feel a little empty by the end of it all.
My wife and I absolutely love summer. It means May is finally over, we get to be outside again, we get to play, and we finally get to rest. However, we realized, as we were looking at our calendar for the next few months, that this summer wasn’t exactly going to be that. We have our mission trip to Agassiz, BC, several camps, Summer Wednesdays in Ignite, out-of-town friends and family coming to visit, softball, and several other activities planned. These are all incredibly good things, and I’m so grateful to have all these opportunities, but how am I supposed to do them all running on empty? How do I keep this from becoming another May? Maybe your summer is starting to look like this too. If we’re not careful, we’ll feel much more like a desert going into the summer; dried up and not a lot of life left.
On our mission trip to Agassiz, the theme is going to be “Go Do Good” which comes out of Titus 2:11-14.
“11 For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people,12 training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, 13 waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, 14 who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.”
This sounds incredible, but how exactly are we supposed to “Go Do Good” when we’re running on empty!?
Before I dig into this further, let’s talk about flowers.
Flowers? Yes, flowers. I know. I’m from the Midwest, so I might be the only one around here who didn’t know about this, but have you ever heard of the Super Bloom in California? In the deserts of Southern California, the land is usually barren and desolate for most of the year, but when the rain comes (this year especially) the desert floor explodes with a carpet of wildflowers. If you don’t know about it, Google it. It’s pretty incredible! Thousands of people come flocking to see the Super Bloom! Highways basically turn into parking lots as everyone stops and takes pictures and takes in all the beauty. The crazy part about it is that the flowers seem to come from nowhere! But from what I understand, the seeds were in the ground the whole time. They just needed some rain.
I realized that what I need isn’t necessarily a huge change in schedule, but to be completely saturated by all things Jesus in every part of my life. If we don’t take the time to be filled with the grace, truth and love of God, then we’ll end up more like the desert. But if we focus on letting Jesus become our source of life, energy, comfort, and rest, then a field of God’s love can bloom out of us all!
1 John 4:11-12 says, “7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. 10 In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.12 No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.”
The Super Bloom is amazing, but Jesus, and what he blooms in the heart of people, is even greater. I don’t know where you are with this right now, but I simply invite you into the Jesus saturated life that produces so much goodness within the desert. I know that when we are drenched in the love of God, we are more than ready to bloom and let the sweet fragrance of Christ pour out of as we head into the Summer.
Tanner Woolf