I have a room at the front of my house that is mostly windows. I treat this room like a greenhouse. I could probably call it my therapy room. I love plants. I love to see what I can get to grow. If I find seeds, I’ll put them aside so I can place them in some soil, water them, then put them in a sunny spot just to wait and see. Will it grow? If not, what did I do wrong? Start again. Try something different.
I have plants that look great. They are thriving. They are green and lush. Then there are the ones that don’t look so great. With life being busy, I sometimes try to give it some water. If that doesn’t work, maybe a little bit of food will help. If that doesn’t work, then it is time to investigate.
I’ll take the plant over to my cute little planting station that Kirk, my husband, built for me. I’ll trim back anything that looks dead or on its way out. Then I just look at it. I’ll be honest, I’ll talk to it. Sometimes, and this will not come as a surprise to some, I will sing to the plant. They really do like it. They do. I promise. They can’t tell me that, I just know.
At this point, if it looks like there is no reason for the plant to be unhappy, I’ll pull it out of the pot. Sometimes, the plant just doesn’t like where it lives. So just placing it in another room is all it needs. But sometimes, I pull it out of the pot and all I see are roots. They’re so knotted together and stiff, that they come out in the shape of the pot. This is a root bound plant. It can’t grow anymore because there is no room for it to grow.
You know what this means? You guessed it, it needs a bigger pot and new soil. This is my favorite part of having plants. This, to me, is evidence of having done something right. Sure the plant doesn’t look great on the outside, but it was telling me something. It was telling me that I did a good job. It was telling me that it liked where it lived. That it was fed there, that it grew there, that it was happy. It is also telling me that it needs more.
Don’t we all do this? We get so happy in a spot. We love our life there. We feel we have meaning and purpose. Then all of a sudden, we can’t move. We can’t go forward. We can’t and don’t want to go back. We also don’t want to leave. What we need is a bigger pot.
Guess who knows we need a bigger pot? Jesus! Guess who allowed us to get root bound? Me, myself, and I! The Lord never intends for us to stay in the same pot. He places us in a pot, surrounds us with fertile soil, and He gives us living water. He grows us for a purpose. If we feel stuck, it is most likely because we aren’t looking at the other pots that are available.
A bigger pot might look like teaching Sunday school. It might look like being a part of the worship team. It might look like becoming a greeter. It might even look like asking someone you don’t really know if they would like to meet for coffee or if you can pray for them. John 15:5 says, I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in Me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from Me you can do nothing. A green house has a lot of vines or plants. Outside of the soil and water, the plant will die. If you leave it in a pot that becomes too small, the same thing will happen. The plant will die.
People are the same. If I am not attached to the vine, my branch will wither and die. If I keep myself in the word and dependent on Jesus, my branch will grow and produce fruit. However, if I don’t allow my branch to be pruned, if I don’t allow Jesus to put me in a bigger pot, I’ll become root bound and fruitless.
Who is coming with me to shop for bigger pots?
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