Recently, my family and I took a trip to far west Texas. We explored Alpine, Fort Davis, and Balmorhea. If you’ve never been to that part of the state, I would highly recommend it. It’s absolutely beautiful, although, maybe not in the sense that most people think of beauty. It is extremely rugged country. Mountains and canyons. Vast desert landscapes. Like many parts of Texas, you will find cactus. A lot of cactus. Different types of cactus. Cactus has the amazing ability to be able to grow in places that would appear to be completely desolate. Cactus will grow in a large rock outcropping. You’ll find cactus in gravel. If you’ve ever driven the Colony loop towards the Bend, you may have seen the old Parks mill next to the road. The last time I made the loop, I noticed a prickly pear growing in the window sill of this old abandoned mill. Cacti are amazing. They can flourish wherever they find themselves.
Christians should live like cacti. I don’t mean that we should be prickly and unapproachable (although unfortunately we sometimes act that way.) We should learn to bloom wherever we are planted. This was a phrase my pastor in college used often. He meant that we should be content in whatever station God has placed us in. We should “grow” in godliness wherever we are. This would include physical locations e.g. towns and cities, but also the different stations of life. Adolescence, adulthood, singleness, married life, parenting, empty nest. This would also include our jobs, our hobbies, our friend circles. To put it simply, be content, obey God, and see the fruit of the Spirit develop in your life, in any and every situation of life.
Paul reminded the Corinthian church of this; “Only let each person lead the life that the Lord has assigned to him, and to which God has called him. . . . In whatever condition each was called, there let him remain with God.” (1 Corinthians 7:17, 24) Similarly to the cactus, we must also learn to find true spiritual nourishment. If you are going to live in a desert (physical or spiritual) you have to be able to find water. For followers of Jesus, He is the source of true everlasting water. To be spiritually nourished is to be founded upon the word of the Lord. Jeremiah talks about this idea: “But blessed is the one who trusts in the LORD, whose confidence is in him. They will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit.”
(Jeremiah 17:7-8) If you have trusted Jesus for salvation and the Holy Spirit resides inside of you, then you must be producing good “fruit” in your life. This fruit is not the cause of your salvation, but the result of salvation. Learn to be like the cactus, established on the word of God, living out your life in daily obedience to the Lord, bearing spiritual fruit, even in the midst of the harsh landscape of life.