S3 E21 - Magnolia Bloom

4 years ago we planted a little southern magnolia tree in our front yard, and since then it seems like it has done just about nothing but hang on and survive. No blooms. Very little growth. I was just about to rip it up until the most amazing thing happened...a single bloom appeared on our little tree. This whole time I thought it was doing nothing, but as it turns out it just needed a little more time. Well...how often is this the exact lesson we need to remember when it comes to our other relationships? We often have wrong expectations of others or even ourselves...our children, prospective Christians, other Christians, etc. We assume that they aren't growing or won't bear fruit, when in reality, we just need to give it a little more time. 

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Transcript

What if I told you that God could be seen in the most ordinary things every day? 

What if I told you that every day, ordinary events could teach us extraordinary eternal truths?

Would you believe me? 
 Hi, I’m BJ Sipe – and you’re listening to the Set Your Mind Above Podcast. 

I am a Christian, a preacher, a husband, and a father.

Thanks for tuning in!

In April of 2019, Kylie and I purchased our first home in our marriage – and it is the home that we have lived in for the past 4 ½ years to the present day. We have loved making our home our own, and Kylie especially is very good at projects! We’ve painted walls, we’ve redone countertops, changed light fixtures, put up shiplap and board and batten in multiple rooms, and the list goes on. We’ve done a lot of work outside too, from putting a patio & campfire in our back yard to landscaping, from a raised bed garden to a fence. With so many of these projects that we have done, you can see the result pretty much instantly. However, of all the things that we have done to our home, there has been one thing that we put in around 4 years ago that has done pretty much nothing – and that is our little southern magnolia tree. All the way back when we were still just a one child household, we purchased a tiny little southern magnolia tree from a local nursery and planted it in our front yard. It maybe stood two feet tall when we bought it and planted it, and we just prayed that it would survive through the rocky ground, rough winters, and torrential summer storms. Much to our amazement, it survived it all over the past 4 years – but that seems to have been all it has done. It has inched along these past 4 years, and it maybe now stands at just over 4 feet tall. Nearly every time that I mow, I look at this pitiful little tree and have thought to myself, “I’m just gonna need to rip this thing out of the ground one of these days – it’s doing nothing.” And that’s exactly what I had planned to do at some point in the near future, that was until Kylie texted me Tuesday morning while I was off at work. “Did you see the Magnolia tree on your way out?” she asked. “No, why?” My phone pinged again and I saw it was an image. I opened our text thread and was greeted with the most beautiful, vibrant picture of a large white flower. I couldn’t believe it – our magnolia had finally bloomed! I sat there studying the picture and thinking to myself how sad I would have been if I had ripped it out of the ground like I had been already planning to do. As it turns out, I had some pretty unrealistic expectations for our little magnolia tree. In my mind, it was doing nothing, but in reality it was slowly growing and laying a foundation to start producing its fruit of a beautiful bloom in due time. Lesson learned, BJ, I need to be much more patient and trust the process – even if it takes a little longer than I had originally anticipated. 

I believe there is a very important lesson for all of us that can be found in this single bloom of our magnolia tree. Normally in this podcast, I try to focus in on one specific application and develop it, but I want to take a slightly different approach today. This lesson can be applicable in so many different ways, that I want to just kind of shotgun as many as I can back to back in the allotted time that we have today. In all of these areas, the lesson will be the same – sometimes we have unrealistic expectations for others. We need to be patient, because all the while we think that they are doing nothing, in reality they are slowly growing and laying a proper foundation for bearing fruit in the years to come. 

We can be impatient with our children, thinking that they simply don’t listen or are not grasping the lessons that we are teaching them. But they are – and sometimes it just takes a little bit more time than we would like to show. God is calling us as parents to be patient, be diligent, and trust the process as we raise our children. Proverbs 22:6 says, “Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.” Just give it time…and watch your child bloom.

We can be impatient with others we are witnessing the gospel to. We assume that the word is not taking root in their heart, and perhaps call off a study after a long while – thinking that we are simply wasting our time. Never do this. As long as someone is willing to open up the Bible with us, we should never stop sowing the seed. Remember, we are called to plant and water, it is God who gives the increase. Sometimes this takes longer for some than others, or have we forgotten the words of Paul before King Agrippa when he said, “I would wish to God, that whether in a short or long time, not only you, but also all who hear me this day, might become such as I am, except for these chains.” (Acts 26:29) Just give it time…and watch the transformative power of the gospel in the hearts of others. 

We can be impatient with other Christians in not growing to maturity and bearing fruit at the rate we would expect for them to. And while it is certainly true that sometimes we simply are not growing or bearing fruit like we should (see Hebrews 5:11-14), sometimes the problem is not the rate of someone’s growth, but my false expectations and wrong assumptions. Because I don’t see certain kinds of fruit, or because they are not doing the things that I am doing, I can falsely assume they just are not growing or not bearing fruit. But we must remember, absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. Much of the fruit others bear is private in nature, and while I may never know, the Lord does. Remember the admonition of Paul in 2 Corinthians 10:18, “For it is not the one commending himself who is approved, but the one the Lord commends.” We are not the standard. We must stop seeking to make people like us, and remember to encourage others to look like Jesus in due time. 

We can be impatient with ourselves, expecting exponential growth or change in a very short period of time. We struggle and wonder, “Why am I still struggling with this?” or “Why is this still a temptation?” As the old expression goes – “Be patient, God’s not finished with me yet.” To be perfectly honest the one who has needed that reminder about my growth the most in my life has not been others, but myself. Hebrews 12:9-11 reminds us, “Furthermore, we had human fathers discipline us, and we respected them. Shouldn’t we submit even more to the Father of spirits and live? For they disciplined us for a short time based on what seemed good to them, but he does it for our benefit, so that we can share his holiness. No discipline seems enjoyable at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.” Fruit is coming. So long as you don’t give up and continue to submit to the will of God and let him mold and shape you bit by bit, later on you will blossom in ways that only God can bring out through his Holy Spirit. 

My friends, there are many more applications of this lesson, and I would encourage you to make and apply them. Regardless of where that might be, may God teach us to wait, be patient, and trust the process while we wait for others to bloom. 

Thank you for tuning in for this week’s episode, and I would invite you back every Thursday for a brand-new episode each week. If you haven’t already, be sure to find us on Facebook for future announcements or even some special video sessions. If you have benefited from this podcast, share it with someone else that you think would benefit from it also. Until next time, know that I love you, that God loves you, and may we all each & every day set our minds above.