A picture of growth

The idea of thriving is defined as the ability to grow or develop well. I like to add to that it’s about doing so through all the phases and stages of life. When life is going well and everything is up and to the right, as well as when everything is going wrong and you don’t know what will come next. The hope is that through it all you and I may develop well and grow.

The trick with that hope is that it requires a picture or an image that one can hold in mind through it all. The image of what it looks like to have been through all that life may throw at you and continue to develop well. To not be resentful, to not give up but to maintain a course towards maturity and ultimately completeness. This image can be and has been many things for me over the years. When I started out my faith journey, it was particular people—members of the same faith as me and often even the same congregation. It then moved to a look at the biblical texts and those stories that I really resonate with. It has now moved to the image of a tree with leaves and fruit on it.

This is inspired by two key passages lately—Psalm 1 and Galatians 5.In Psalm 1, the writer describes the person who delights in God’s word as “like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither.” That picture of rootedness and resilience captures what I hope thriving truly means: not a life without struggle, but a life nourished by something deeper than circumstance. Nourished in a way that occurs throughout the seasons. The choice to continue to dig into the very challenge and beautiful texts collated in the bible. The continued pursuit of the loving guidance and instructions found in them and the ability to see their formative applications in my life.

In Galatians 5, Paul speaks about the fruit of the Spirit—love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. These are the signs of a life that is alive and growing well. They are not manufactured by effort and work alone but produced by staying connected to the Spirit—just as a tree bears fruit when rooted in good soil. The fruit comes from a deep abiding with the only one who can make the fruit possible. There is an ability to remain upright even in the most pressing times of life.

Thriving, then, is not about having everything together. It’s about staying planted. It’s about being nourished in soul, even when the seasons change. It’s about trusting that if the roots go deep, the fruit will come—in time, in season, and often in ways we could not have planned.

May the image of the tree be one that is helpful to you and what your journey holds going forward so that you may thrive in life and in faith.