Many of us have experienced severe challenges; in this column, let’s think about how deep we find ourselves in the troubles of this world. We lose our jobs, and suddenly everything is different now. Every waking moment you have, you’re thinking about how happy you will be again once you get that job.
I remember when I was married, and my husband moved our family from the Bay Area of California down to the Los Angeles area. It was truly a hard time for us. He got a downgraded job as a security officer until he could get back to his real work. For me, it looked like I would never get another job!
Interview after interview, still no callbacks. I felt stuck in the thickest of mud. At my previous job back in the Bay Area, I was a supervisor in the Nursing Administration Office of Children’s Hospital Medical Center and had a great work history. They loved me there and gave me promotion after promotion, and I was featured in the hospital magazine as employee of the month. Yet now in my new current situation, having given interviews at so many companies, including several interviews at University of Southern California and Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles, with no job offers, was difficult.
Nothing came through for me, and that’s when I heard from the Holy Spirit. One day, after weeks of praying and asking God for advice, I did what he said to do: I packed up my children and put what I could in the car and moved back to Washington, D.C., to make a brand-new start. It worked very well for me.
Like the lotus flower, my inner flower began to bloom! What is the lotus flower, you ask? Let me tell you a bit about it so you can see why my circumstances did not destroy me. Each and every day, I found myself getting stronger and stronger.
The lotus is a colorful blooming flower that has a life cycle unlike any other. With its roots based in mud, it submerges every night into murky river water, and, undeterred by its dirty environment, it miraculously re-blooms the next morning without residue on its petals.
The lotus continues to stun people with its ability to dip into the grime and revive itself unscathed, an incredible daily cycle of life, death, and a sudden immaculate rebirth that can only be described as spiritual. It is no wonder the lotus is associated with such celestial symbolism; the flower simply defies logic. It grows in several places in the world, including Asia, Australia, North America, including Southern California, and all the way to Canada. It also grows in Africa.
The real question remains: how has the flower acquired such all-encompassing spiritual significance? The lotus flower’s daily resurrection is certainly interesting and surely symbolic of revival (a perfect gift for anyone recovering from illness). The flower also has a fascinating will to live; a seed can withstand thousands of years without water, then germinate two centuries later — remarkable!
It blooms in the most unlikely of places; the mud of murky river water in Australia or Southern Asia becomes its sanctuary. Due to the waxy protective layer on its petals, its beauty is blithely unaffected when it re-blooms each morning. It continues to resurrect itself, coming back just as beautiful as it was last seen. With such refusal to accept defeat, it’s almost impossible not to associate this flower with unwavering faith.
In conclusion, each of us grows to become our best after having experienced a muddy life. Those negative instances helped to shape you into the marvelous soul you have become today! Be like the pigs, waddle in the mud, and just know that you will come out smelling beautiful like the lotus flower blooms!
Lyndia Grant is a speaker/writer living in the D.C. area. Her radio show, “Think on These Things,” airs Fridays at 6 p.m. on 1340 AM (WYCB), a Radio One station. To reach Grant, visit her website, www.lyndiagrant.com, email lyndiagrantshowdc@gmail.com or call 240-602-6295. Follow her on X @LyndiaGrant and on Facebook.
