the story

There’s a Bible study that I’ve done a couple times: once in the midst of my worst anxiety in 2020 and again recently with a group of my best friends. Both times, there was one particular lesson that stood out to me-the lessons from the olive.

The author talks about visiting the holy land and praying in the same place they believe Jesus prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane before being crucified and how it’s no accident that Jesus was surrounded by olive trees in that moment. She claims that possibly, they were created FOR that moment and to teach us these lessons thousands of years later.

🌿In order for an olive tree to be fruitful, it has to have the dry, harsh wind from the east, AND the west wind that brings rain and life.

🟤We need the winds of hardship as well as the winds of relief if we are going to be truly fruitful.

🌿An olive right from the tree is very bitter. To become edible, it must go through a lengthy process of washing, breaking, soaking, and waiting.

🟤To escape the natural bitterness of the human heart, we have to go through the sometimes lengthy process of being cured.

🌿The best way to preserve the olive for the long run is to crush it and extract oil. It’s not the olive’s end-it’s a way of preservation and the way to get what’s most valuable out of the olive.

🟤The true is same for us. “We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed. We are perplexed, but not in despair. Persecuted, but not forsaken, cast down, but not destroyed.” (2 Corinthians 4:8)

You might be in the midst of the one of these lessons right now - I have no doubt many of us are. Even when there are beautiful pictures being taken of our big events, amazing accomplishments, and bountiful blessings, our lives are not perfect.

If I’m the one behind the camera for these beautiful moments for you, I hope you know that I see you. I pray that you can look back at the moments and remember where God brought you from, where He was leading you, how He was molding you. I pray that you stick with Him long enough to see the resurrection that always comes from hardship.