How to Transform Our Communities

Alright, it’s time for a thought exercise. I want you to play along for a few minutes, if for no other reason than to humor me. If this weren’t in written form, I would ask you to close your eyes and visualize what I’m about to describe. But alas, we’ll give a little grace if you refuse to close your eyes for this one…

Ready?

Here goes:

Imagine you’re standing on an overlook, staring across a vast desert valley. In the distance, rugged mountains cradle the valley with strong and dry arms.

As you look at the valley floor, you see it covered with desert chaparral – dry, brittle brush that thirsts for heaven’s rain. Swaths of the desert floor are bare, showing the evidence of rivers that once flowed many ages ago.

Can you see it?

Can you smell it?

Can you feel the warm breeze press against your face?

As you breathe the scene in, something catches your attention. Your eyes keep returning to it, first thinking it’s an illusion, but as you look closer, you notice something unique: Off in a far corner of the valley stands a single plant in full bloom.

Its stalks are so green, its flowers so beautiful; it stands in such stark contrast to the rest of the valley floor, and you can’t help but be drawn in.

Clearly it has found a source of water that the others have not.

This particular plant is so enticing, so inviting, that you can’t keep your eyes off it. And as you look closer and closer, it only gets more and more beautiful.

The blooms - can you see them?

And now here’s where our little thought exercise gets interesting: 

Suppose that plant begins to show other plants its water source. It begins to share about a deep well far beneath the dry desert floor – one that requires much effort to stretch its roots down to, but one that, once tapped in to, provides life through and through.

And suppose that, because that plant is so clearly fed by the water source, its very existence, its blooming stalks, act as an invitation to the other plants near it, to tap into the well. 

Now suppose they do…

What do you see? 

Can you see the single plant start to influence its corner of the valley? 

Can you see the plants near it begin to turn green, little buds sprouting on their leaves?

Can you see blooms starting to form in that far corner of the desert?

And now, those blooms start to influence those around them. Sure, not all plants decide it’s worth the effort to tap into the water source, but some do. And then that some turns into more.

And then the more turns into many.

Can you see it? 

Can you see the valley floor covered with flowers?

Can you smell the sweet aromas?

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In a world where widespread fear and division have rendered us dry and brittle, what would it look like to stand against? 

(Oh – and we’re all driven by fear right now, by the way. You’re either afraid that you’re going to get sick by all of the irresponsible people out there, or you’re afraid that the government is overstepping its bounds and we’re one step away from socialism. It’s still fear, regardless of what side you’re on…

And yep – we’re also all divided. I probably don’t need to spend a whole lot of time convincing you of that, do I?)

What would it look like to stand against fear?

What would it look like to stand against division?

Can you picture it?

Imagine our culture operating under a confident security instead of being driven by fear. Imagine a spirit of warmth and love instead of division.

Can you imagine it? 

The secret is in the bloom. 

And the secret to the bloom is in the Source. 

There is a deep well underneath the surface that is accessible if we allow it. There is Life to be found in our desert valley – Life that can transform each of us from a dry and brittle bush into a beautiful blooming stalk.

And the beauty of the bloom is that it’s not just so that the single plant can look good – no, the beauty of the bloom is that it invites others to join in. 

The bloom stands strong in the face of fear because its roots go down deep. And because it draws from the same well that feeds all the rest, it understands it is all about unity and not division.

Can you picture it?

You can’t control what the valley floor looks like. You can’t control which plants tap in and find nourishment. But you can control what your roots are tapped into.

And you want to know the secret to a vibrant and verdant valley?

Here’s the secret. It starts with you:

Be the bloom.