The Rose Bush

I shared this story at She Speaks in my message to the Women's Ministry Leaders. It was the last point about trusting God's plans and not our own in my message, The Heart of a Leader. I promised my freind Mary Ann that I'd write it for her, so here it is friend. You are a radiant reflection of God's glory and I love you!

I needed yard therapy. Something about being outside calms my heart and soothes my soul. Maybe pulling weeds and taking care of my spring flowers would distract me, or help me deal with the weeds in my heart. I just knew I needed to get some fresh air and get away from the reminders of what was happening in my life. My dear friend and mentor was moving. My women's ministry leader, the one who had believed in me, invested in me, helped me step out in faith and obey God's calling on my life to write and speak. The one I had plans to serve alongside until she retired. The one who had built one of the most amazing women's ministries in the country. What was God thinking?

I sorted through the clutter in our shed trying to recover some topsoil that was buried under rusty shovels and tangled rakes. As I came out of the shed I noticed our rose bush, planted in the center of our split rail fence, expressing her glory through the display of her pink blossoms across four feet of the fence.

How did that happen? I haven't done anything to care for that bush. I wonder if I should find some rose fertilizer and help her sustain those buds. We had some in the shed that I had never used. I knelt before the blossoming beauty and pulled weeds from her base, clearing the way for plant food to sink into the soil. As I pulled the weeds back, I noticed the base of the bush was divided into four sections. Should I leave them all together? Or should I pull them apart and place them at different posts on the fence. If I seperated them and planted them in fertile soil, and took care of them, eventually their vines would connect and create a blanket of beauty draped across the whole fence. This rosebush would be even more glorious than the current display. I decided that is what I needed to do.

As I pressed my hands into the dirt to find the right places to seperate the root ball, God whispered to my heart.

Renee, do you see this plant? Like the women's ministry, this plant has reached the fullness of it's glory. Each of you has been carefully planted in your giftedness, nurtured and encouraged through prayer, equipped through training, fertilized by opportunities to serve and you have produced fruit...fruit that will last! Now you are ready to divided into seperate plants so that MY glory in each of you will be more fully displayed as you are uniquely and individually planted in new places of ministry.

Is that what God was doing? You mean MaryAnn leaving wasn't the only uprooting I was about to experience? Was there more pruning? I couldn't bear the thought. And yet I knew we had come to place where our Women's ministry was healthy and truly amazing in its impact. Some of the programs were being shared on a national level so that others could benefit from what God had entrusted to us. But I did NOT like this new plan. It was no where in the dreams I had pondered in my heart. I had finally come to a place where I was comfortable and felt the courage to do more in ministry. I was surrounded by women who loved me. We were a team and I just couldn't do it without them.

Yet, as I imagined God's glory like that of the rose bush being more fully displayed, my heart settled into a place that felt very right. That day I knelt on Holy ground in front of my rose bush and surrendered the broken dreams in my heart. Even if it meant letting go of what I loved so deeply, it would be worth it if others would see HIM more clearly. Somehow I knew that with God's care, our vines would cross again in the Kingdom, and His beauty would be more gloriously seen in these new places where He was about to plant each of us.