I dearly enjoy studying and learning and my closest friends have rightly assessed, I have a thirst for knowledge and growth.
This rapacious yen for enlightenment is not for the express purpose of gathering intelligence. No, there is a greater purpose for my seeking beyond simply attaining knowledge.
Visualize pure, fresh, clear water flowing down a mountainside into a pool. Hear the gurgling as it splashes over the rocks making its descent from the top. This brisk flow plunges into the basin at full speed. Yet, this estuary falls into a reservoir with no outlet. It is trapped. It ripples a bit after impact only to be pushed to the other side, then stops.
The lack of movement creates a different environment. Over a period of time, the water becomes stagnate. Harmful bacteria and other troublesome organisms grow, transforming what was once crystalline into a murky bog.
Our lives are much the same.
When we grow into a place and get comfortable, we can become complacent and choose to stop. Stop growing. Stop learning. Stop stretching ourselves. Stop moving forward.
Trapped.
Like sweet water becoming bitter, we are trapped in the mire of stagnation.
Stagnate. STAGnate. StagNATE. STAGNATE. The word even sounds distasteful.
We are fresh and clear upon arrival but ceasing to learn, grow, and stretch our skills, flow of creativity stops. Bogged down in the mud of complacency. Undesirable things sprout. Unsavory attitudes begin to taint our words and blemish our character with apathy, bitterness and negativity. Frustration arises and takes aim at those who are flourishing and overshadowing those who are stagnating.
No stretching means no movement. Stagnation is the result. Allowing ourselves to pool and simply hold on to what we already have and choose not to move forward, we withhold from and negatively effect those whom we might otherwise positively influence. May we never become stagnate!
The apostle Peter compared our desire for growth to babies who crave milk (1 Peter 2:1-2). We should crave to grow. As we grow, we consume the meat of the Word so our walk with the Lord will flourish (1 Corinthians 3:2; Hebrews 5:12). The same applies to growing in every aspect of life. We envision our desire and take in the heartier nutrients of learning new things, honing our skills, enhancing our abilities. With this we build strength to tackle tasks and pursue our dreams.
My desire is to grow from where I am today into someone better tomorrow.
We can all seek to know and grow.
Knowing more, we can apply more, to effectively influence the world around us.
Stretching ourselves, we choose to move forward, increase our own value and enable ourselves to add value to others.
Every day is an opportunity for us to Wake Up, Stretch Out, Move Forward, and Flow in Creativity!
CONNECT.
DREAM.
GROW.
FLOW.
MAKE SOMETHING HAPPEN!
–Leah
So true!