Sometimes You Need a Little Crap to Grow

Last week, I was doing some yard work and one of the tasks was to lay some manure and dirt mix around the garden. Spending a few minutes dishing out crap in the yard gives you a few minutes to think and something popped in my head,

Sometimes I Need a Little Crap to Grow

I didn’t buy a bag of cow manure because I especially enjoy the smell or the activity of distributing it around the garden, I bought a bag of cow manure because I know it will help my garden produce more vegetables and help my bushes and trees grow. I could have skipped the manure and my garden beds would have been fine, but with a little crap the plants and trees will flourish.

Sometimes in our life, we need a little crap to grow. Sometimes we need pressure, difficulties, and struggles to force us to get out of a comfort zone, to stretch beyond our current limits and force us into something new. This crap could come in many forms: pressure at work, financial difficulties, a job loss, or a project failure. All of these challenges put pressure on us to either falter or push through it. Without these types of challenges, we become stagnant and grow at a slower pace.

Breaking Down Life’s Crap

If you were to take a bush and plant it in cow manure, it likely would die. The bush needs soil and nutrients that cow manure can’t provide, yet as the cow manure is mixed into the soil and breaks down, it provides nutrients to the plant’s roots. When you’re loaded down by life’s pressures, you need to break the crap down into chunks you can handle.

There are a number of ways to practically accomplish this.

1. Identify the Pressures You’re Facing

First, identify what the challenges are that you’re facing. This will help you take the challenges head on and break them down into pieces you can handle. If you don’t know or understand all of the pressures you’re facing, it becomes more difficult to grow and break through all of them.

2. Know When to Ask for Help

There are times when we all have reached our limit. Many times, those of us who are too stubborn to ask for help find that this causes a break down in our life. You aren’t weak if you ask for help. As the crap piles on, know when to seek help from those around you to assist through the situation.

3. Find a Healthy Relief Valve

Challenges and pressure can cause you to make decisions which are not healthy. When you’re facing a load of crap, find a healthy way to blow off steam – play a round of golf, read a good book, pray, go on a day trip to the beach – find something which will help you alleviate stress and continue fighting.

A Foundation to Withstand Life’s Pressures

A friend of mine once remarked something he had heard from an old pastor,

My prayer for my children is not that God prevents any of life’s challenges to come upon my kids, but that I build a strong enough foundation that when the weight of the world comes they won’t crumble.

When life doesn’t feel like crap is being poured upon you, take some time to build foundations in your life: a relationship with Jesus Christ, educate yourself, a strong marriage, strong friendships with good people. These foundations will help you when it’s time to break down life’s crap and grow stronger.