03/22/2022
Late winter and early spring are when I usually do the pruning around our little farm, the weather has warmed, the days are getting longer, and I usually out it off too long. But as I was working on pruning my fruit trees this year, and as usually happens with this process, I found myself thinking deep thoughts about spiritual things. So this year I am going to share some of my thoughts in a blog series: Ponderings on Pruning. Hope you enjoy!
Pondering on Pruning 01: YOU PRUNE DIFFERENTLY FOR FRUIT VERSUS APPEARANCE
http://www.lifetastesgood.org/Blog/Entries/2022/3/pondering-on-pruning-01-you-prune-differently-for-fruit-versus-appearance.html
Having worked as both a farmer and a landscaper, I have to keep my mind in tune for what I am trying to accomplish. One is not necessarily more work than the other. But there are differences in what you cut off and what you leave. One thing I have noticed is that pruning for fruit involves leaving on the tree some things that maybe don’t look as pretty and perfect, and yet as the tree grows over the summer, those places that are less pretty seem to be the places that produce the most, the largest, and the healthiest fruit.
I think life is a lot like that. We live in a time and culture where so much focus is put into appearance. And we try to cover up or get rid of whatever doesn’t fit in with the current definitions of beauty or success. Yet those things we try to cover up or get rid of are the very things we most need to be healthy, to reproduce goodness and find the life we hunger for.
What if we have embraced a completely wrong definition of beauty, success, and even what makes life itself? Maybe we need to stop allowing the popular culture to define health, beauty, life, or wholeness for us. What if the various media outlets, marketing mechanisms, and popular spokespersons in government, fashion, sports, or technology aren’t offering what we need for life? What if the things that seem to consume the world around us are actually stealing the life from those who pursue them? What if finding life means we have to keep some things in our lives that don’t fit with the popular perspectives? And what if a satisfied, fulfilled life means we have to get rid of some things our culture says we have to hold on to, for appearance sake?
A long time back Jesus said, “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.” He spoke in the context of claiming to be the one who made this world and everything in it; the one who holds it together; and the one who knows best how it’s all supposed to work. Those are some big claims, and people have run with those claims in a lot of different directions over the years. But fruit never lies! It’s pretty easy to see what is being produced in this world; war, sickness, broken relationships, separated families, fear. This spring is a great time to go out and trim those plants and trees back. And as you’re doing it, ask yourself what is being produced in and through your own life? Are you experiencing life and fulfillment and purpose and meaning and joy? If not, maybe it’s time to think about asking the greatest pruner to do some personal pruning.
