Tupac once wrote a poem about the Rose that grew from a crack in the concrete, proving nature’s laws all wrong. Who would’ve ever thought that same rose that grew would be you. A blessing and a curse but you didn’t let the curse define you. You glorified the blessings in the struggle instead and let them redefine you. What a rose you grew to be!
Why blend in when you were made to stand out? Why let people tell you you’ve changed when the plan was to grow? Why complain about having too much on your plate, when the plan was to eat the whole time? What a rose you grew to be!
What a rose you grew to be! They tell you to cherish the sunny days when it’s the rainy days that allow you to grow. They tell you that failure isn’t an option, when sometimes it is the only solution. They tell you that you can be anything you want to be; instead of telling you you’re perfectly fine being yourself. They tell you about the product but they fail to tell you the process is more important. What a rose you grew to be!
So dear old self, meet new self. Dear self of last year, meet self of this year. Dear self of yesterday, meet self of tomorrow. Dear self of a second ago, meet self of this very moment. So dear you, what a rose you grew to be!
I recently took a trip to Harmons, Jamaica. One of the poorest parts of Jamaica where there is no public transportation or running water. The plan was to go and give back as much as I can to these people in desperate need. But what I quickly learned while there was that I was the one in need. I went to donate clothes and help build houses, but I quickly learned that God had a different plan for me instead. The houses got built and lives got changed forever, but the most unexpected outcome was that mine changed forever also.
These Jamaican people didn’t have a dollar to their name. But they still had the faith as if everything in their life worked out perfectly. Wait a second; is that the costly mistake that we make in life? Thinking that we have to have things go perfectly right in order for us to have faith? What is faith? Faith is defined as the complete trust or confidence in someone or something.
I remember a time in my life where I didn’t have a pot to piss in or a window to throw it out of but inside I was complete. I couldn’t afford a meal from McDonalds but I woke up every morning like I owned a McDonalds. The joy inside trumped the suffering and lack of resources I had on the outside. Was it the faith in my heart that I had? Was it the faith of knowing that my situation was temporary and brighter days were sure to come? Was it the fact that when you don’t have the finer things in life you get the true meaning of life? Faith, family, friends, and relationships?
Faith is taking the first step before seeing the whole stairwell, correct? Many of us complain about our situation that we are in without understanding that we are in that certain situation because we are about to hit a whole new level of life we never even thought to be possible. We have to endure difficulty to build the strength of perseverance to stay there. We all want to be successful but nobody wants to fail. We all want the finished product but we don’t want to go through the process. I call it the elevator approach to life. We want to get to the top but rather take the elevator up. But if you take the stairwell, you get to see the challenges and obstacles of each floor before you reach the top.
I read in the bible this week that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Perseverance is defined as steadfastness in doing something despite difficulty or delay in achieving success. In order to produce perseverance, there must be a challenge that tests you and puts your faith to test. This is because the testing of faith and being low awakens strength within us we never thought to be possible. In order to grow, we must fail or we will always be comfortable. Challenges of faith and life give us the perseverance that we need to overcome any obstacle placed in our lives. That means we should dance in the rain and be humbled in the sunshine, right?
A wise man once told me, “If you aren’t failing hard enough, then you aren’t trying hard enough.”
I once heard a story about a single mother who walked 15 miles a day to and from work just to have the chance to be able to provide for her and her family. So every morning this lady would wake up, gather her kids, pray and then take off for her 15 mile walk to work. The lady continued this same routine for just about her entire life. Then one day on her walk home the story says that the lady stumbled upon this precious jewel. This jewel was the most beautiful thing the lady had seen and so precious that it could change her and her family’s life instantly.
She stopped and started to praise God for answering her and her kids’ prayers that they had been praying for years. In the middle of her praise the story says that a homeless man approached her and asked if she had anything that she could offer so that he could eat. She offered him her sack lunch that she had saved to take home to her kids. In the middle of reaching for the sack lunch the homeless man notices this precious jewel. In his mind he had nothing to lose so he asked the lady can he have this precious jewel. For some strange reason, the lady agreed to give the begging man this precious jewel. Immediately, he got to thinking about all the finer things in life he could buy with this precious jewel. He could buy a house, a car, start a company, and most importantly would never go hungry again, but in the middle of his thoughts he stopped and started to stare deeply at the lady.
He then told the woman that he didn’t want this precious jewel but instead he wanted something else in return. She then tells the man that she doesn’t have anything as valuable as the jewel. The man then replied, “I want whatever you have inside of you that allowed you to give me this precious jewel.” She sat there oddly looking at the man and asked him to repeat. The homeless man then repeated, “I want whatever you have inside of you that allowed you to give me this precious jewel.”
This brought me to James 1:9-11, “Believers in humble circumstances ought to take pride in their high position. But the rich should take pride in their humiliation-since they will pass away like a wild flower. For the sun rises with scorching heat and withers the plant; it blossom falls and its beauty is destroyed. In the same way, the rich will fade away even while they go about their business.”
Social prominence passes away, wealth withers away like a wild flower in the hot sun, and fame will fade. Hope in the eternal is evidence of believing faith. Amazing what the flower from the concrete grew to be. Proving nature laws all wrong and redefining what the word called rich. Taking on what man said was impossible and turned it into possible. That rose had perseverance because that rose had faith. That rose happens to be you! What a rose you grew to be!