Tuesday, January 5, 2016

A Hungry Soul


The little soul lived for many years in the same woods. The sun shone on her leafy branches and she produced much fruit. After many years the trees around this soul grew and their branches met above her head. Those branches provided comfortable shade. She was content in the place she’d always grown. She knew every plant in the woods.

After a time the little soul felt discontent. When a storm raged overhead, the towering branches swayed and clashed together. Sometimes huge branches broke off the trees and crashed to the forest floor, clipping her own branches. On sunny days, she never saw the sun, for the shade had grown too deep. After a time, the little soul realized she was not being fed; she was no longer growing. She no longer felt the sun’s rays stimulating growth. Even though she was content in her comfortable shady woods, she was hungry. Her leaves drooped. Her fruit dried up and dropped to the ground. She no longer produced new fruit. She had become stagnant.

She pondered her situation. The woods were dark, deep, and comfortable. She wanted to stay, but she longed to grow and once again bear fruit.


After much thought, she made her decision. With great effort and great sadness, she pulled her roots out of the familiar soil and moved from her shady spot. She traveled to another, less familiar location. Here she lived with strangers. Here she was the outsider. Here the summer was harsh and hot with the unfamiliar and the new. But she planted her roots in the sunny spot where she knew she’d appease her hunger. She longed for the challenge of new growth. She looked up at the sun, lifted her branches heavenward, sighed as the breeze rustled through her leaves, and grew once again. 

4 comments:

  1. Sometimes, the change is so very hard, yet necessary. I have made many in my life and not all were good changes, but God used them each to grow me in ways I could not have imagined. Tough lessons bring hard-learned, hard-earned wisdom, if we would only pay attention and learn (oh, that I would have at every turn!).
    Visiting from Laura's.
    Caring through Christ, ~ linda

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  2. Thank you, Linda, for your wise words of encouragement. I'm eagerly anticipating a time of growth.

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  3. Ouch. Oh, how I love the comfortable! But I know that this story is true in my life. It's when I get out among the different and "others" that I experience the most growth. Usually God has to precipitate the change for me until I have no other choice. But looking backwards, I can see how good He was to do so. Looking forwards? I can be fearful. Thanks for sharing this, Nancy.

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  4. Yes, He sometimes nudges us ahead into the unknown, and we go kicking and screaming. Only in hindsight to we glimpse his wisdom in moving us forward. Thanks for stopping by, Lisa.

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