When God puts me in the ground He doesn't bury me, but plants me.
I may accumulate dust and dirt under the ground, but my potential is being unleashed, and will be revealed for all to see in due time, for the creation is eagerly awaiting the revelation of God's children ( Romans 8:19 ). I may suffer setbacks and disappointments (in the eyes of the world) because I love God, yet God is thinking how best He may honour me. He is carefully cultivating and pruning his cultivar - me. I am as a young shoot. God wants me to be a strong tree, providing shades to others from the heat of life's troubles. He wants my fruit to comfort the weeping hearts and strengthen the feeble minds.
The world may treat me as a scumbag, but I'll just laugh and say to myself, "They don't understand..." Joseph found himself in a pit but God was planting him to be a prime minister. He could say afterwards, " God turned into good what you meant for evil, for he brought me to this high position I have today so that I could save the lives of many people" ( Genesis 50:20 ).
Where does He plant me? In the ground. Amid the inconveniences of life. Many people don't want that. They always want to be honoured by men. They love all the gists going round about them; they desire to be in the headlines. But God calls those who will obey Him to a quiet place so that he can make them into a wonder the world cannot recover from.
Why does he do this? So that they can be free from every distraction. So that they can be built up and solidified. He wants to built grit into them, to make them strong bulwarks. They are the strong pillars the world is waiting for.
As the tree is not planted in the air --though it places less demands on the tree -- but on the ground, so am I planted where a demand has to be placed on my potential, on the ground. Otherwise how would my potentials be expressed. O how I love the secret place.
You may be mocked and pushed aside because you refused to compromise your integrity before God and man, you may have been sidelined because you live for God. Don't be discouraged. God is planting you. Take comfort because He loves you. Because you have honoured him, He'll definitely honour you.