Uncomfortable

Greatness lies on the outside of your comfort zone. You have to be uncomfortable to do great things. You have to step into the unfamiliar. You have to do a new thing. You have to be open- minded. You have to be uncomfortable. I know it doesn’t feel good. You are all by yourself. It’s lonely. It’s different, but it’s good.

“Life begins at the end of your comfort zone.”

- Neale Donald Walsch

Pearls

I grew up wanting to wear my grandmother's pearls. I loved how beautiful and shiny they were against her brown skin. I knew it was a special occasion if my grandmother was wearing her pearls. Ironically, "pearl" was one of her nicknames. My grandmother valued her pearls, maybe because she knew what it cost her or maybe because wearing her pearls made her forget momentarily that she was a Black woman raised in the segregated South.

The bible speaks about not throwing your pearls to swine. Simply put, don't give what you value away. Some species of oysters die when a pearl is harvested. Are you willing to die for what you produced? Are you willing to die for your purpose to be accomplished? Your life's work is your pearl. 

Pearls are produced by irritation. The defense mechanism of the oyster is to isolate the irritant. What's irritating you? It's producing your pearls. Every layer you use to isolate the irritation is adding dimension, color, and value to your pearls. 

Pressed

Pressed is a word that is thrown around a lot in our society. “Cold-Pressed” in particular garners a more expensive price tag. Cold-pressed juices and oils retain more of their nutrients and aromas. Whereas, some of these benefits are lost when exposed to heat. Imagine, if we could choose the process by which God gets our gifts out of us. What method would we choose? Would we choose to be pressed?

In order to get olive oil or grape juice, one has to cultivate the vine or tree. We have to be planted in good soil, then we have to grow. Planting is very similar to the burial process. We are covered and left in dark places to grow. Most of us don’t want to be covered, let alone left in a dark place alone under the guise of growth.

Then, after all that we are expected to produce fruit. Not just any fruit, but fruit after our own kind, and good fruit. Then, our good fruit is plucked. Our fruit is taken for us to benefit others. If that isn’t enough, our fruit has to undergo a process of being pressed.

The real treasure of the fruit is on the inside. God is always calling what’s on the inside. How does God get those things he put in us out? Pressure. Uncomfortable situations. People. Tragedy. Loss. Setbacks. Unexpected Encounters. Detours. Divorce. Change. Basically, all the things we try to avoid. We don’t want to be planted. Growth comes with pain. It hurts to bear fruit and though pressure produces, it seems like more than we can bear. Oh, but the end result justifies the process. The juice. The oil. The gift. The lesson. The blessing.

Planted

The process of being planted and being buried are very similar, but have completely different purposes. You plant something that has the ability to live, while you bury something that has died. Both require being put in the ground and covered with dirt. However, the end result is quite different. How can you determine if you are being planted or buried? You are still alive. There is still life in you. There is still purpose in you. There is still the ability to produce. You are being planted. Though it may seem alone and dark, these are the optimal conditions for your growth. This is what you need to produce what's inside of you. The better question is what kind of seed are you? When this process is over what will you produce?