How Does Breakthrough Come?
Dave Bos (a vinedresser friend) and I stood surrounded by budding vines in a vineyard he tends in Traverse City, Michigan. He began to enlighten me on the mysteries of the vine as he said,
“After the harvest, the leaves no longer channel their energy into producing grapes. They soak up the last rays of sunshine and push their energy inward and downward. In the spring, it’s not actively photosynthesizing yet because it doesn’t have leaves.”
He drew my attention to the little tiny buds that were beginning to break forth from the branches and gently lifted one under his thumb so I could look closely. He explained,
“It has what it needs to grow up and out because all winter, the energy has been stored in the roots.”
I took a deep breath.
It all made so much sense. All the power needed for bud break came not from an external source, but an internal one.
It erupted with the power hidden within what looks like death.
And so it is with you.
Bud Break
What if the breakthrough you seek doesn’t come from the right job or the right house or the right opportunity, but comes from within?
What if breakthrough comes even when everything on the outside looks lifeless?
The same power that raised Christ from the grave lives within you and within me. The life-giving, creative power of the God of the universe is at work through each of us.
And that is what causes the breakthrough.
It is the same creative power that awakened the dream. Stirred the hope. And lifted you up out of that grave.
It grew up out of the roots that dug deep in the chill of winter. The ones that stored the energy you were not yet ready for. So that when the time was right, it could burst forth with all the vigor and resilience needed to push through the ground.
We need seasons of dormancy to prepare us for bud break, because to channel that kind of power requires an undivided heart. A surrendered heart. A heart that trusts in the power of God alone. And it is from that place that the true self can emerge to shine for what it is.
Vulnerability and Breakthrough
But the truth is, while it takes incredible strength for a plant to push forth its leaves, when it arrives into the light, it is incredibly fragile.
The bud break is a symbol of courageous vulnerability.
Even a gentle push of the gardener’s thumb can cause the bud to fall off the vine. Those newly sprouting Daffodils can be easily crushed under the wild romp of a toddler.
And we get this, right? It is vulnerable to emerge into who you were made to be amidst the outside climate rife with criticism, differing viewpoints, and systems that may or may not be expecting you to show up in your full, beautiful self.
It’s the same fragile experience when we step into a new job, a new community, or take on a new role - like becoming a parent. We feel like a little five year old on her first day of Kindergarten.
Timid, insecure, and exposed.
Will we be able to yield the kind of fruit we believe we were called to yield?
Will there be room for it? For me?
Will people believe in this little dream we carry within our hearts that is so small and so precious we can barely utter it out in a whisper?
Unfolding into Our Calling
When I look back at those bud break moments in my past, I see how deeply fragile I was. And am. Yet, I know that this is one of the most beautiful phases of bringing something new into the world. Why?
Because while outwardly, it didn’t look like much - just a tender shoot of green, deep down I knew what it took to break through the ground. It took many months and years of going nowhere but down - into silence, into solitude, into dormancy, and into dying to self so something new could emerge.
Over time, something grew inside while I was desperately clinging to hope in the dark soil. And it took a kind of power I could not conjure up on my own to bring it into the world. While the last season may have left me barely breathing in the chill of winter, God lifted my head and called me to rise again in His time,
“Arise, shine, for your light has come,
and the glory of the Lord rises upon you.”
-Isaiah 60:1
The Beauty of Becoming
When our leaves start to unfold into the world, when we have passed through a season of suffering and darkness in the winter months, what comes forth is from an internal source stored in our roots.
That internal source that not only gives us the resurrection power to break forth, but gives us the courage to be who we are.
That inner source that we have been learning to listen to for months in the soil now needs to make its debut.
The plant needs to emerge into what it was designed to be. It needs to grow and shine in its full glory and yield the kind of fruit or fragrance or greenness it was made to yield no matter what ensues above the surface.
Because the reality is, the plant must become what it is whether or not the world above ground is waiting for it.
And so it is with you. Your true self, your dream may not be something the world is asking for right now. But when you have discovered it from the sacred source within,
when it bursts forth with only a kind of supernatural strength God provides,
you can be sure that it needs it.
Even if it doesn’t know it yet.
And when a plant commits to growing and blossoming and yielding the kind of fruit it was made to yield, it draws the creatures it was meant to serve simply by being itself. It spreads its fragrance and yields its fruit simply by being what it is.
And for miles around, the creatures know. They smell it and are drawn in. And when they do, they encounter beauty and are nourished by its fruit.
Reflection:
What signs of breakthrough are you seeing in your life or in the world around you? Where are you still waiting?
How does the idea of breakthrough coming from within challenge or inspire you?
What is emerging and unfolding in your life right now?
A Prayer:
To the One who makes all things grow,
Help me to break through the ground. May I unfold and unfurl into the world with Your wonder and splendor, radiating Your glory and beauty. May what has been stored up in the roots for this long winter emerge with courageous vulnerability to simply be who I am. And may Your fragrance and fruit spread abroad to serve and delight those around me.
Amen
