Some say you should “bloom where you’re planted.”

You can get all manner of products printed with this slogan: T-shirts, mugs, posters, and notecards.

But is that always the best advice? Maybe not. There’s something to be said for not staying in the same place for too long.

Your garden will tell you that if you plant the same type of vegetable in the same plot year after year, you’ll notice that the health of the plant and the yield it produces will begin to suffer. The plant will be attacked by more diseases and pests, and the nutrients in the soil will have been depleted by past crops of the same type.

The answer to this problem? Crop rotation.

Don’t plant the same type of vegetable or crop in the same location several years running. Mix it up; plant something new in that spot.

What about in life?

Does God intend us to stay rooted to the same location for much of our lives?

If so, you wouldn’t know it from the Bible: there’s an awful lot of travel going on in Scripture.

Abram (later called Abraham) was told by God to leave his homeland and settle in a new territory. Jacob and his family left Israel due to a famine for what turned out to be a 400-year layover in Egypt. Mary and Joseph had to flee to Egypt for a time as well. And then there are the extensive missionary journeys of apostles like Paul.

Perhaps sometimes God wants us to do something new: strike out for different territory, take on fresh challenges, break new ground.

If we stay in one spot for too long, our growth may stagnate and come to a halt. The locale we’re in no longer sustains us. We’re seeing the same people month after month. We can fall into a rut, spiritually and emotionally.

But new growth is possible when we make a fresh start: we gain renewed confidence, our creativity can be invigorated, new ideas come to our minds, and we connect with new people.

“Remember not the former things,
nor consider the things of old.
Behold, I am doing a new thing;
now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?” (Isaiah 43:18-19 ESV)

Be open to suggestions from God about setting out for fresh territory. His plans for you might not require moving house physically, but may require a new mindset. He may want to do a new thing in your life, and that may require a change of “address.”

Mix things up a bit—try something new.

See where God takes you!

© 2020 Lori J. Cartmell. All rights reserved.