Faith like a potato farmer!

Did you know that potatoes grow solely under the ground? Like a lot of root vegetables, the underground portion it the portion we want to harvest. When the little shoot starts growing out of the ground, the farmer keeps covering it with dirt, making a big mound for the potatoes to grow. Now, no potato farmer can tell you with one hundred percent certainty that their crop will be abundant. They just don't know. They must take faith in their own skill and in mother nature. They have faith that their own hard work will pay off in the end. There are no pre-orders, no estimated profit, only faith and hope. We forget that life works this way too. Our leaves are what we show the world but it is what is underneath that really matters. We can go around looking at people in their Abercrombie & Fitch clothing or their Vidal Sassoon Haircuts and believe that we know something about them. We can assume all we want, but it is only our faith in what is growing under those things that should be abundant. With our children this is most obvious. We rely on our own skills as parents, cover and nurture our little "seedlings" and help them grow without ever really knowing if we are doing it right. We can only carry faith and hope in what we are doing.
Have you ever been in a friendship where you believe the person is less than you expected, only to be shocked when they show some sort of extraordinary feat? Let's say you always thought your friend a bit frugal. You, on the other hand are generous and luxurious, constantly telling your friend that she should "Lighten up, it's just money." (as you sip giant, fruity, self indulgent cocktails at The Elephant Bar when you know damn well the rent is due.). Then one day the two of you are shopping and she splurges for those Jimmy Choo's she's been eyeballing and even buys you a pair! Are you shocked? Of course you are, but, that was your harvest. Your impact in that person's life for growth. Now, the shoes probably didn't change her life, she may have even experienced a little buyer's remourse but, for that moment she was outside of her element. She had grown in some way. She felt emotions that were once foreign to her. Now, that is a really monetary way of showing what I am talking about but the message fits into all of life's metaphors. We are a society of surprises! Just when you think you have got someone pinpointed...Boom! They go and change on you! So why are we so lacking in our faith for people? Well, it comes from a lack of faith in ourselves.
We do not realize that we impact others so much. We walk around believing that we are living in our own worlds, living our own lives, experiencing our own experiences. But we are really building up lights that cast upon all we contact. "No man is an island." Now most of us take this saying and picture a man sitting on and island, isolated from the world, but lets lake a literal translation before we open up the symbolism. No man IS an island. An island is a piece of land in the middle of the ocean, surrounded by nothing. A continent however, is lots of countries surrounding each other. So, if no man is an island, then we must all be countries, living amidst other countries on the big continent of life. This means that even though we are separate, we are unified. Get it?
So don't go out and splurge on designer shoes if you don't want to, all I am saying is remember your impact. Have faith in the growth that you aid in others. Have hope that the harvest will be abundant. Have faith and hope like the potato farmer. After all, we may not have been blessed with a "Green thumb", but we live in a Miracle Grow kinda world! Go forth and grow!