Growing within

            Our lives consist of many seasons, all of which makes us active participants to our own growth. The growth that I am referring to however, is the source off all growth that hinges from the core of our beings. The ability to recognise this, sets us on a journey of true self-discovery and enables us to transcend into complete, resourceful, loving and spirit-filled gifts to the world. True growth therefore begins in the soul of man; all other successes in life stems from this one divine truth. It is from this place within that true worship begins. Every man is born with an innate desire to worship, for it is throughout his life that he journeys to commune with his creator- to learn who he is, to understand him and seek wisdom. It is only from this union with his creator that he can truly develop purpose. Nature is the blueprint which teaches man how his own growth takes place. God in his divine wisdom, knew that we would not fully understand our own process for growth unless if He sets examples of this in our daily surroundings as a constant reminder to us that " You grow from the inside then the outside". We never see the process, yet we readily recognize the outcome of growth; flowers bloom in the secrecy of the dawn, seeds planted in the ground miraculously push forth above the surface as small sprouts and eventually into towering trees, eggs cover the secret lives of the animals within, until they emerge revealing its true identity after months in solitude, mystery and confinement. All these processes begin in the unknown where the unseen hands moulds, pushes, breaks, mixes the contents specific to that one creature- the hidden parts of a seed before it emerges from the ground requires a different type of  nurturing and a different internal structure to that of an egg. Hence, the time required for growth in each would also be different- the period for incubation for an egg cannot be applied to that for a seed because if it were measured in the same capacity, one of them would have been robbed of vital stages that needs to be carefully processed in time.
      In the human soul, it is the same. We cannot expect a God who carefully formed each one of us with different needs and internal structures to treat us using the same period for nurturing and growth. We are all different and that was His purpose- that from the fountain of our beings, regardless of how long the process may be, we are not robbed of being carefully shaped and nurtured- we are taken care of in the internal first, where the external is a mere reflection of the remarkable process that has been taking place within.
So hence, growth within our souls takes a longer time. Why? Because it is the most important part of us. We  should not stretch our minds too far to  fathom why this is the case. The strength of anything begins in the workmanship of its foundation. A house built quickly with poor planning for its foundation where nothing was given its appropriate time to dry, eventually falls apart- it was robbed of the necessary time to ensure a good foundation. The strength of man therefore is never found in his ability to make money from huge investments nor in his ownership of anything found in the external world- cars, houses, land. These are but a reflection of a soul that after much time of careful union with God, in the gestation period of time has accumulated the strength that can only come from the Divine, a wisdom that can only be given from the Divine that later manifests itself and guides the soul to true self-discovery, making him learn to be resourceful, loving and exercising the gifts that he was given.
     Once we begin to understand this principle, once we begin to trust in the growth that starts from within, we would know that it is a process that serves us and God to be active participants in this journey of life. We would no longer look at our exterior and believe that wealth starts from the physical, but in the spiritual. We would no longer look at others and their external successes with sadness or envy, but we will know that we are on a journey of growth that would one day manifest itself in the wealth that needs to begin the soul first then explode into our world. For in any case, those who have sort to maintain external wealth, like the house with a poor foundation, eventually crumbles- for it has not the Divinely built inner structure to guide him with wisdom, love and purpose.
Blessings!