YOU HAVE TO KEEP IT CULTIVATED
Have you ever hoped to achieve results without doing the necessary work to create them? Like expecting to get leaner without eating cleaner. Hoping to get stronger without exercising. Hoping to make progress on a project without working on it. Hoping to create new relationships without meeting new people.
Or sometimes we hope that the work we have done in the past will still be able to sustain current and future growth. If two years ago I ate really clean but in the last 6 months I eat a donut at every breakfast and ice cream after every dinner, the reality is that I will be reaping very different results from two years ago. If a year ago I was exercising 5 times a week and I could bench 400 lbs and run a mile in 6 minutes, but in the last 6 months I exercised sporadically at best, I probably wouldn’t be able to lift as much or run as fast. The reality is if you don’t use it you lose it.
It seems like life doesn’t want us to be lazy. Because everything requires upkeep, there is no growth that is maintenance free. Progress doesn’t care what you did yesterday. It only asks, “What are you going to do today?”.
In 2 Timothy 1:6-7 Paul wrote, “Therefore I remind you to stir up the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands. For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.”
Paul said that Timothy needed to stir up his gift. That’s like making a glass of lemonade. You add a few ingredients to a glass of water and then stir it all together which suspends all the flavors throughout the whole glass. But if after you mix it, you put the glass in the fridge for a day you will find that when you come back to it, all the ingredients that were once mixed together have now separated and are sitting at the bottom of the glass. Now you haven’t lost any of the ingredients but they do require a little attention to get mixed together again.
It’s like a fire, once you get it going it takes up keep to keep it going. You have to tend it, when the fire starts to die down you have to rotate the logs, when the logs burn down you need to add more. When you stop tending the fire and stop paying attention to it, it will eventually burn out. That is the same thing with the gift that God gave you. It requires attention. It requires cultivation. You have to use it. You have to develop it. And just like the glass of lemonade or the fire it is easy to stop doing the things you once did that kept it alive. It’s easy to get distracted by circumstances, conflict, peoples options, your negative speculation of peoples options, transitions and changes in life. And sometimes you can even get distracted by becoming comfortable with the way things are and with the work you have previously done.
But in the midst of the distractions you will find your gift calls out to you saying, “You’re not done. You haven’t even barely begun. It’s time to get back to work.” God gave you that gift on purpose, with the expectation that you would use it. Not just a little or half heartedly, but like a master, skillfully, purposely wielding that gift, demonstrating the reality of the kingdom.
It’s times like these that we have to get back to the root of it all. We have to remember who we are and why we are. We have to remember and reflect on what God has said to us, and what he has called us to. We have to remember that our gift isn’t just for us, but for the benefit of others. Your gift is a solution to a problem, a problem that people have. And they might not know it, but they are waiting and longing for you to cultivate, develop and serve that solution. We have to get back in touch with the need for what we have to offer. We need to get reconnected to the vision. Because in that vision is insight into what we need to do to keep that gift cultivated.
So what is it? What are the couple things that you are going to start doing to cultivate your gift? Because of this you can be sure, there will be no growth, no change, no impact, without effort. Take time to do a few rounds of “12 Minutes”. Because those who seek are those who find. Those who ask are those who receive.
“He who would accomplish little must sacrifice little; he who would achieve much must sacrifice much; he who would attain highly must sacrifice greatly” – James Allen
My good peoples, as long as it’s called today we are going to keep it cultivated. We are Be Transformed. We have a mission and we will not be found slacking. Let’s get to work.