Surrendered Silence: Your Season of Refinement
Returning from a very well-rested vacation, I arrived home and stepped into a garden desperate for love. The sun had taken its toll on the small but boastful collection of flowers in my backyard garden, and it seemed at first that the sun’s bullying had had the last word.
Barely settled in the house, I gave my husband a grimace of sadness and commented I’d be outside a while assessing the heat’s damage. As I watered infusing needed nutrients into the grass and letting my eyes inventory the malnourished friends I had been cherishing so closely, I kept steady, allowing the immense landscape to drink in my hope and persistence. I prayed for the greenery to breathe life again and receive my enduring thoughts of invigoration.
Time was accumulating and I decided to settle in, continuing to moisten the lawn and let the vital refreshment soak in. I started to prune the plants, clearing the soil of dried dead leaves. I was reflecting on how much I loved the relationship that the garden variety and I had begun during the Pandemic. The memory of the online foundational classes I took for many weeks to understand the soil, sun, and PH levels was forever etched in my mind. The learning made me consider strategic long-term planning and whether I wanted to spend days bending over while watering or sitting with ground plants. Would my captive audience appreciate that my knees and back might hate me later? Would it be more practical to start with potted plants that I could bring inside during those small but powerful bursts of the arctic blast we receive when Spring begins to feel cheated of its seasonal grand entrance?
No matter, it would all work out because I initiated this adventure to understand God more clearly. I desired to see and hear in a similar space where his relationship with humanity all began.
I really think he wanted to humble me a bit more and help reframe my perspective.
As I mothered my patch of green peace and continued inspecting the plant roots and branches, I heard the Lord whisper as if kneeling down with me, “You must push on and prune with hope as you endure the heat of this season.”
I realized his words were for all of us.
Pruning is a process where branches are selected purposefully to cut away any dead, dying, or diseased plant parts. Scratching the bark will tell us if there is green underneath. And it’s possible that old stems should be cut to encourage new shoots to take their place. This process promotes vigorous growth.
However, pruning during extreme heat is discouraged. It can place stress on already dehydrated plants and make the new growth susceptible to damage. So I asked the Lord what to do. I wasn’t sure how to help restore what I was seeing and encourage the recovery process.
We’ve all been greatly impacted by the stress of the past two years. Indirectly or directly, our plans have shifted or been upended by uncontrollable events. I understand you’re looking for situations or circumstances when things aren’t a struggle. Making decisions amid chaos has become your newest soft skill. You look around and quietly ask yourself, “What am I doing?” “How can I make sense of my “Why?” “How will I make sense of the choices currently in front of me?”
This is your season of refinement.
It’s time for you to settle from within to endure with hope. In this new season, you will overcome the inevitable struggles with a new strength from surrendered silence.
It may seem as though your plans are off. You’re just not sure if things are back on track. Is there even a “back on track” in the dizzying life you’re encountering daily? Choices seem similar but the roads are vastly different and will take you on two entirely different paths. The days of believing it will all come together somehow are long gone. Your choices matter greatly in this season. One cut could damage a potentially wonderful harvest that would carry you with joy for many years ahead.
In my season before the Pandemic, I shared a monumental Selah Moment with my readers. Some might even describe it as prophetic. I discovered that ravens can become providence in a season filled with drought and famine. If you read that earlier post, you’ll see that I was given an unsettling mind’s eye image to express publicly. However, if I had chosen to miss describing how the future season was unfolding by refusing to surrender in silence and release what God was saying, the raven could have turned on me and represented itself as a part of the noisy distractions soon to fill the world. I would’ve misrepresented the revelation.
If I had chosen not to obey and surrender my perspective, the sound would have been out of season. It wouldn’t have fed me but served to harass and annoy my emotions. If I had allowed my new work status to harass me, would I have the strength of balance in my emotions that I have now? What if I’d let the new opportunities to innovate and create slip away quietly? Would I become stuck in the past holding on to past victories?
What if I had imagined the ravens as punishment and not watered the dry and scorched soil? How would my relationships and work have arrived at their fullness if I stopped watering because I couldn’t fully understand?
Wow ~ I would’ve missed the awesome benefits and growth I’m now reaping.
It really wasn’t long ago that I was sitting in my car in the driveway and saw three ravens in my yard. My reflex and instinct were to shoo them away, but God prompted me to imagine Elijah and how the raven provided food in his time of extreme need. He told me, like Elijah and the raven, He would provide what I needed for my next season. And during the pandemic, he did just that! My trials during that time were stepping stones to the remarkable goals I’m achieving at this moment.
Fully coming out of the trauma and grief of all that the Pandemic dished out, I believe the surrender of Stillness kept me.
Stillness helps to fine-tune what you’re hearing.
Surrender humbles your heart to hear the sound frequency more clearly.
Today, your present season of refinement can be likened to pruning in extreme heat. All around you, the volatility of your industry, technological learning endeavors, or economic landscape can make you feel like a withering plant in sun-scorched situations. However, it is more prudent or proverbial to see the cutting back as an opportunity to look more closely at where and how the ultimate blooms can occur.
Just because God told me the pruning had to occur, it didn’t mean I had to listen. In fact, it didn’t mean I had to respond with faith. And even if he had the fullness of faith for me as I worked out any unbelief, it didn’t mean I would seek his wisdom and understanding before chopping off the buds of possible future growth.
But I surrendered and listened.
Will you?
I knocked down my natural presumptions and sought the hope of his glory, which can outshine any famine or drought.
How do you seek higher insight to better strategize the next step and avoid missing the growth of what you planted sometimes many seasons ago? Have you disregarded seeds sown in relationships or in your work because the landscape has scorched your vision of life?
Are you looking in months, years, or even decades to see God as the ultimate refiner of your destiny?
In this season of refinement, pruning must be handled with extreme care in late summer when the heat is the most oppressive. It’s always best to apply nutrients and liberal moisture before pruning during this time. Some may advise against it and tell you to ignore the signs ~ and possibly walk away.
I believe it’s wise to make sure you’ve set your heart and mind on the watering process. Look circumspectly for areas where there is potential life.
Let Christ help you with any cuts so they’re done judiciously. By taking your attention off the heat of the situation and others’ noise, you will be better able to focus and hear his whisper. By making room for options in my earlier garden planning, I had the flexibility to move the potted plants to a shadier location. By surrendering in silence, you’ll see the personal signs he’s uniquely showing you!
This can be a scary moment removing others’ opinions and pruning within the narrative of your own healing and revelatory discoveries. But long-term growth to do or be is your choice.
You have more power than you think to see a new way to interact with an old issue that seems dead. It may appear lifeless but maybe there’s growth and blooming underway.
Your hope and faith are required at this time. Settle this notion. Believing is transforming!
Here are some refining virtues and activities to make you well-equipped while handling the heat of this season:
Fear can be cut off, and time is better-served watering for calm and confidence.
Rejection can be cut off and replaced with a renewal of identity acceptance.
Abandonment of self or vision can be pulled off and replaced with the adoption of support from God and others.
Jealousy can be replaced with a better course of action in pure admiration and joy.
Perversion can be cut off and replaced with a pure, ethical, and moral compass.
Pride and arrogance can be stripped and replaced with holistic healthy thinking and humility.
Shame and guilt can be cut off and renewed with distinguishing dignity.
Double-minded thinking can be plucked off and replaced with a pure heart and clarity.
I see green under the bark.
There’s a revival awaiting you after the refinement.
Dead stems can be pruned to refresh your appearance and stimulate new growth for the destined journey.
Let God remove the dead weight because your view of alarm is different from his. It’s easy to want everything to look fabulous (especially to others) but whose viewpoint will you take on?
Yes, you will notice things that aren’t wonderful looking right now. How is your patience when projects need to be trimmed back and sit on the shelf for a time? Can you endure and see it through?
Do you believe there’s still time for wonderful possibilities to leap out? Remind yourself to take note of what is surviving through the heat, maybe even thriving.
Appreciate this season of refinement and regrowth. Endure the dryness with bravery, using surrendered silence to savor the well-done!
Believing is transforming!
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