"I met with one of our young leaders and talked about the book "Nehemiah and the Dynamics of Effective Leadership". We had a good talk and I look forward to what this will end up being in the future."
When I went on missions trips overseas our training camp was in the middle of a cornfield. When we drove into the camp they would stop the bus in the middle of one of the cornfields and have someone run out into the middle of the field. They would turn around and look back at the bus and all the students on the bus would be staring back at them wondering what was going on. You could only see the person from their shoulders up. They would run back on the bus without a word and we would drive into the camp.
For the next two weeks we would learn about missions and what our purpose was. We would study, pray, practice, run drills and train for what we would be encountering when we traveled to our destinations all over the world.
When we left the training camp they would stop the bus at the same location in the corn field and the same person would run out into the field. This time they would disappear into the corn. It would be well over their head. At that point our team leader would explain that in just two weeks we had grown. If we were to stand at the corn field and watch the plants we would not have seen the growth. Stepping away and coming back however showed the growth.
When I look at the last year and the discipleship and mentoring that took place with that young leader I see tremendous growth. The questions he asks and the places his thinking is going shows that he is moving up.
You may have thought that you plateaued in your growth. First of all you have to remember that most healthy growth is slow growth. If the plant gets too top heavy and the roots and trunk can't support the weight of the growth it will eventually fall over. Slow growth is healthy and sustainable. If the root and trunk are strong then the branches can be heavy with fruit.
Second remember that not all growth is visible. I heard of a type of bamboo that would grow only a few inches above ground for the first five years. The underground growth was tremendous over those five years and on the sixth year it would shoot up many feet. Your growth may be deep under the surface in the depths of your heart. You are getting stronger so that eventually what is visible will shoot up.
How do you see seasons of growth? How can we be patient while the process of growth takes place?
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