Places can help you grow, but you can help grow places

​I frequently say, once my youngest graduates high school, I'll leave Richmond behind. That's driven mostly by the mountains calling me and by my longing to answer that call.

But one thing Richmond has taught me, just like the wilderness taught me in eastern North Carolina years ago, places can bring out the best in us, but not if we aren't willing to offer those places our best.

There are places that have helped me discover hidden gifts in my life, but uncovered gifts are only as valuable as our willingness and desire to share what we've uncovered.

In many ways, I'll always consider Richmond the place where I was truly born. Where I discovered the true me. But more importantly, Richmond will always be the place where I began giving the real me I discover along the way to the world in the realest way I've ever given me.

Pastor Jonathan Josephs says, "your environment can either squander or accelerate the purpose God has for your life." And it is true, place can play a significant role in helping us live out our purpose in life, but no place will ever bring out a purpose we're not prepared to live out.

Richmond has been where I have least squandered God's purpose for my life, because Richmond has been where I've been most prepared to live it out.

Even if at times quite imperfectly.

I do often feel called to the mountains. I feel at peace there. But God's purpose for my life isn't to feel peace, it's to help others feel God's peace in the places I am called to. So if I get to those mountains and I indeed feel that peace, I will still be called to answer the question, how much of that peace are you prepared to offer others?

And you know, sometimes, when we feel like we're in the wrong place, the answer might not be moving to a new place, the answer might be contributing more of the right stuff to that wrong-feeling place. A lot of wrong places start to instantly feel more right that way.

What's the old saying, bloom where you're planted.

I know it helps to be planted in fertile soil, but nothing grows in any soil it's unwilling to grow in.

So as we go into this new month, look around the place you are in, look for all the ways your place can help you grow, and be grateful for that. But also look at you in that place, and ask yourself what you can do to help grow that place.

Grow it full of peace and love.

Places play a big role in our lives. But we can also play a big role in the life of the places in which we live.

No place will ever bring out the best you have to offer if you're not willing to offer that place your best.

Offer your best this month.