If you’ve got something good going on, you’ll want to make more of it, right? Look at the very screen on which these words are “printed,” and you will see a prime example of something good: technology. Digital, mechanical, whatever — technology is one of the greatest things we have. It makes life simpler, faster, more efficient. We spend less time in the means and more time in the end — well, I suppose this wouldn’t be true for Facebook junkies like myself… ANYWAYS.

The point is just that technology has been something that has grown since day one. We’ve always looked for an easier, more efficient way of doing things, and that’s okay. In fact, it’s great. Instead of setting aside weeks to travel on foot, the world can be crossed in a day. Awesome? I think so. Less wasted time doing the intermediate stuff? Fantastic! Taking airplanes, cars, and bicycles to your destination has caught on with such force. Rarely in our corner of the world do you see horse and buggy traveling interstate distances. Why? Because it made sense to use new technology instead, so they rolled with it. They made more, the demand went up, and both the supply and demand have fed each other ever since.

So when you start growing in your life, what happens? Well, you see the benefit. A new way of life, some kind of change, may give you a new perspective, a different level of appreciation for what you have and what you don’t, and whom. No longer are you a dormant seed, but you’ve sprouted into something different, bigger, changing, branching out, integrating into the world around you, and even shaping it. You provide shade from the sun, security for the ground, and food for wildlife… and you bear fruit.

What is fruit? Seeds buried in nutrients. Think of an apple. It’s meat and core, right? And when the seeds finally hit the ground and become buried, once they’ve received warmth and nourishment, BAM! Up springs new life where once there was none. Is it not a miracle?

The Bible has numerous passages about the “fruit of the Spirit,” lists of different things that indicate genuine spiritual growth. “Love, joy, peace, patience,” are among these. One of the passages (Galatians 5) also lists “works of the flesh.” Why? Because when we’re trying to grow spiritually, we are also at war with the impulses of our flesh. One part of us only is sensitive to what we crave, and that’s what we call the flesh. When we begin thinking spiritually, though, things start to change. You start to see what comes from you rather than only what you want to consume. And why is this so? Because God doesn’t want us to hurt ourselves, nor each other. He gave us life, and it wasn’t meant to end.

We were made good, and we were commanded to be fruitful and multiply, and I have a feeling that purpose may have been in a spiritual sense, even though His immediate command was more literal. The Scriptures say that God “withholds no good thing from us,” so He’s not going to hold us back if we’re trying to grow. He will be that “river of water” that David talks about in Psalm 1, that feeds us and makes us grow. Sure, along the way, weeds might grow up around us, we might run into rocks, and birds might circle to try to eat us up, all of which happens to ensure that we don’t grow.

A lot of times, our growth is hindered. It can be by the environment around us or the sinful nature within us. Regardless of which is true, if stagnancy is propagating, don’t be afraid to check your source. See where your water is coming from. Is it clean water, or is it polluted? In today’s society, people tend to act as though social, psychological, and behavioral pollution does not exist, but they are just as dangerous and real as polluted water, and we’re all victims of it. The question is: when we see it, how can we not do something about it, let alone deny the reality of it?

The great thing is that a lack of growth, nor a difficult circumstance, isn’t powerful enough to altogether stop growth from happening, and it definitely cannot stop God from giving you strength to grow more! Remember the parable of the sower? I mentioned it in PROLOGUE. I’ve been wondering if it ties into another parable, about the wheat and the weeds (see Matthew 13.) In fact, these two parables are in the exact same passage. In short, weeds begin infesting a crop of wheat, and the harvesters want to uproot the weeds so that they don’t hinder the growth of the weeds, but the master (hint, hint, Jesus) says not to uproot them so that the wheat is not uprooted with the weeds. The heart of this parable is: He’s watching over you.

He’s got a plan, and He’s not going to let weeds win out over what He’s sown in the end. They won’t stop your growth, and they won’t get in the way of the end result. They may wrap around you, and they may crowd you, and they may even sap strength from the soil that surrounds you, but they cannot stop you because the sower is watching over you, and He is faithful.