One of the thoughts I’ve had going through my head this week has been on Flourishing.
Flourish – “to grow well; to be healthy; to grow luxuriantly. To achieve success. To be in a state of activity or production. To reach a height of development or influence.” – Merriam-Webster.
A cactus will not flourish in a rainforest, nor will a watermelon flourish in a desert. Why? Is it design or environment? Probably a little bit of both. At CGA there’s a major focus on knowing how you’re designed, or “wired” as we say. Are you an ESFJ? An INTP? What’s your enneagram number? 4 with a wing of 7? What does that even mean? It’s a journey of discovery. Very rarely are we given an opportunity to really get to know ourselves. More often than not we just try to put band-aids on our gaping wounds because we don’t know how we work, why we do/say/act the way we do. I’ve learned that I react to events in my life by taking time to observe, take in the facts, and process things. This takes a little more time than someone who wears their emotions on their sleeves, and for a long time I thought that it was just that I didn’t feel, but I definitely feel I just process emotions differently than other people, we all do, and that’s OKAY. We all take in and contribute to life in different ways based on how we’re designed. And there are certain environments in which the way we are designed is able to flourish us. Let’s take a tomato plant for example. If the tomato plant has ample water and great fertile soil it will produce less fruit than if you made it think it didn’t have an ample water supply. Interesting. If you provide ample water and great soil conditions to watermelons they will produce amazing fruits. Those are just two examples, but think about in your own life. In times of abundance, whatever that might look like for you, do you produce lots of the fruit of the Spirit in your life? Or is it in times of desperation or lacking that you see more of the fruit of Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness, and Self-Control in your life? For some it can be both. For some it can be in times of lack. For others when they are in abundance. It all depends on how you’re wired.
So, are we designed for a particular environment or is the environment designed for us? I have no idea, but to me it makes sense that God designed me to flourish in a particular environment. The process of discovering that particular environment has been challenging, and I’m left with more of an understanding of where I don’t flourish than where I do. From my experiences so far I can say that an environment that will allow me to flourish the most has these elements in the mix: a community that is focused on pursuing Jesus with everything that they are. A community that loves me, encourages me, and challenges me to become more like Christ daily. A job that I feel has a long lasting purpose in giving myself toward…there’s probably more, but that’s all I’ve got right now.
What makes you flourish?
