The fish died, but not from loneliness.\u00a0 He had lived alone, in a crowded vase with a bunch of plant roots.\u00a0 He lived that way\u00a0for years, and he was happy.\u00a0 His predecessors proved it.\u00a0<\/p>\n
We tried putting him in a community aquarium with plenty of room and some other fish to keep him company.\u00a0 He died after a few months.\u00a0 We tried putting him in a community aquarium with a female of his own kind.\u00a0 He pestered her until she died.\u00a0 Then he died.\u00a0 We tried adding plants.\u00a0\u00a0 He hid among the plants . \u00a0. \u00a0.\u00a0 and died.<\/p>\n
You have probably seen this little fish.\u00a0 He’s the one they keep in a\u00a0small\u00a0jar at the pet store.\u00a0\u00a0 The one you feel sorry for, because he is kept separate from all the other fish, in a tiny little jar with hardly any water.\u00a0 No filter.\u00a0 No heater.\u00a0 No room.\u00a0 No friends.<\/p>\n
If you see him and feel sorry for him, buy him and take him home.\u00a0 But don’t put him in a big nice aquarium.\u00a0\u00a0Stick him in a big vase.\u00a0 Add water and a plant with lots of roots, so he barely has room to swim.\u00a0 Don’t try to keep the water\u00a0perfectly clean.\u00a0 The plant needs some dirt at the bottom for its roots, and the fish won’t mind at all.\u00a0 In fact, if you treat him like this, he’ll live a long life because it’s the environment he was made for.<\/p>\n
God made this little fish to live in muddy rice paddies.\u00a0 He gave him beautiful bright colors, gills that can\u00a0extract oxygen from\u00a0air as well as water, and the\u00a0disposition to get along just fine in the confined,\u00a0dirty spaces of the rice paddy mud puddles.\u00a0 Let him live as God intended, and he’ll be at peace.\u00a0 Try to force your own preferances on him, and he will die.<\/p>\n
Just like the Betta fish, God made us all unique.\u00a0 He needs some to serve in the crowded cities, and some to serve in the remote mountains.\u00a0\u00a0 He needs some that will minister to unruly 9 year olds and some to minister to a 90 year old in a lonely nursing home.\u00a0 We will never all be the same.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I believe one of the keys to peace is finding the spot where God has called you to be . . . then be there.\u00a0 Be what he has called you to be, in the place he has called you to be, and don’t let others distract you by proudly proclaiming\u00a0their place is a better place.\u00a0 God has a place that fits you.\u00a0 Live there.\u00a0<\/p>\n
And by the way, that plant with which the fish lived so well?\u00a0 It’s called a Peace Plant.\u00a0 Who would have guessed?<\/p>\n
There are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit.\u00a0 There are differences of ministries, but the same Lord.\u00a0 And there are diversities of activities, but it is the same God who works all in all.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a01 Corinthians 12:4-6<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The fish died, but not from loneliness.\u00a0 He had lived alone, in a crowded vase with a bunch of plant roots.\u00a0 He lived that way\u00a0for years, and he was happy.\u00a0 His predecessors proved it.\u00a0 We tried putting him in a community aquarium with plenty of room and some other fish to keep him company.\u00a0 He […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-198","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-consider","category-misc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/markspruill.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/markspruill.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/markspruill.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/markspruill.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/markspruill.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=198"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/markspruill.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":206,"href":"https:\/\/markspruill.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198\/revisions\/206"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/markspruill.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=198"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/markspruill.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=198"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/markspruill.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=198"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}