The Fruit of Becoming

"...while every branch that does bear fruit, He prunes so that it will be even more fruitful."—John 15:2, NIV

All I remember is that it was a beautiful day, too beautiful for a man to stay cooped up indoors, so I walked briskly into it. Breathing deeply, clearing my head of fog, taking in all the sights, sounds, and aromas around me like a sponge. Preferred walks are long, solitary, and with varied terrain, but on this day, it was good to head to the “downtown route” that winds some three to five miles (depending on your ambition) along storefronts, waterfalls and rivers, steep neighborhood streets, and long stretches of back roads punctuated with homes and bicyclists and dog-walkers and guys running chain saws as part of the New England ritual of always getting ready for winter...

...Look the other way. Change direction. Pretend they’re not there. These are knee-jerk reactions when walking and being approached by missionaries of a belief system that I know is contrary to my own. This time, though, I was surprised that the tables were turned: Didn’t look down, didn’t turn down a side street. When they stopped to ask if they could sit down and talk, I found myself—hardly the bold conversationalist—asking them if I could first talk with them about what and Who I believed, and why.

And at first, they were the ones who started walking away. “Hey wait!” And what came out of my mouth next, I remember not, only that it wasn’t some deep, theological sentence-diagramming conversation designed to back someone into a corner with a finger-pointing "so there!" I wouldn’t know how to do that, anyway. What came out seemed mostly about this: "Believing and following Jesus…changes…everything in a man’s life."

“Jesus does not come to scare us into submission, but to woo us in friendship.”

—Brian Simmons, “Song of Songs—Journey of the Bride”

One seemed genuinely interested, as if eager to know the real deal. Another was decidedly skeptical but seemed curious to hear more. The third guy seemed interested as well, but started doing skateboard tricks either to try to distract me…or distract himself. The entire atmosphere was charged not with tension but with rather mysterious but tangible rest and heaven-sent Love…

…and then, as is often the case with a cool dream, you wake up before you get to the really good part. “What was that all about?”  The answer came the next morning, and I didn’t realize it until after I read back what my mind had downloaded randomly into my journal after just-so-happening to read Gospel stories of Jesus’ interaction with all kinds of curious people:

“This day, purpose to become more like, walk more like Jesus. Become is the word. This will take awhile, like your whole life, but keep becoming more and more. Put Him on each day as clothing. Keep abiding in what He did, who He is, and His words—as one of my pastors puts it, ‘pitch your tent there.’ Then be surprised and amazed at what He does. Remember the pruning of the tree out front? Those rogue branches that want to go off on their own strength but bear no fruit and so have to be pruned back. Not just one and done, but season after season. That is your life. Become is like that. And without even realizing it, the fruit gets more abundant and sweeter with each mile along the long journey. Become is for everyone of God’s kids, not just the bold and well-spoken. Remember what the religious leaders said about Peter and John, that they could tell they weren’t all that educated but had clearly been with Jesus. Become like that. Become can be done, not by my own strength like that rogue branch but simply because He is powerfully at work in me…if I will simply yield, even this day, to stay plugged into the Vine, and then keep on walking…”

“Therefore, become imitators of God. Copy Him and follow His example, as well-beloved children imitate their father. And walk continually in love; that is, value one another—practice empathy and compassion, unselfishly seeking the best for others—just as Christ also loved you and gave Himself up for us, an offering and sacrifice to God, slain for you, so that it became a sweet fragrance.”

—Ephesians 5:1-2, Amplified

Finding Big Things in Simplicity

"It is God himself who has made us what we are and given us new lives from Christ Jesus; and long ages ago he planned that we should spend these lives in helping others."—Ephesians 2:10, Living

There has got to be more. Something big. Something as huge as God. Something as bold and spicy as William Carey’s declaration of “Expect great things for God; attempt great things for God.” Even the more common translations of this Ephesians verse imply that it’s go big or go home: “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” (ESV). And besides, this is America. Come on!

Then there’s the day after day of the routine of life. It can all be very good, and often quite busy, but it can make that living large for God thing seem, well, maybe only for super saints or super heroes from church history, or for some other day. Not me. Not here. Not this week. “I’ll check in with you later, God, when I’m feeling more inspired, OK? Besides, I need coffee.”…

….I stop there just about every workday morning for good coffee at a good price. And over time, you recognize the same faces that show up at the same time every day, and get to know something about the folks who run the place—surface stuff like their names, and a bit about their families, and what’s happening in the world and with the weather. Quick in, quick out. 

Except on this particular morning, when I wasn’t feeling the “go big for God” at all, as I was paying and having my coffee card stamped as usual, one of the folks who runs the place suddenly leaned in and said: “I hear you are religious. Would you please pray for my husband and my daughter…” and she went on in detail about their names, their needs for prayer, and that it had all come down like a ton of bricks on her world on the same day.

You want to protest that you're not really "religious" but rather pursuing something better than that. Instead, you wisely cut to the chase of what really matters right now: “Well, of course!” And she drives the urgency of her request home by writing down their names on a piece of paper and tucking it in my hand.

Out the door and settling back in my car, a sense that Jesus’ reply to “I’ll check in with you later when I’m feeling more inspired…I need coffee,” had been, “Wait up, I’m coming with you.”

And then, an overwhelming sense that this particular prayer request could use many more people coming around to lift Up this family, and so a quick text SOS. And then, “ping”…an incoming text with another and different kind of urgent prayer request. “Please believe with us!”

I want to say that Jesus was chuckling to Himself as I buckled up and drove off. Is it OK to say that? Because I think He was, because that shockingly humble moment that immediately followed wondering aloud where all the “great things for God” were in my life made me laugh, especially in amazement at the wonder of Him and how He works in His larger than my-little-world life.

Another box broken by the uncontainable God of creation. And it was good. And it will, undoubtedly, have to be busted open again many times more in the days and years ahead. Because even if William Carey is right, and even if this is America where everything is supersized, the God I purpose to walk with is so huge that He often works in and through us most powerfully not when we do something really, really big—the kind of “big” I have in mind, anyway—but in the small, everyday things, and when we go back one more time to a simple Gospel of staying faithful and trusting, and being available…"that we should spend these lives in helping others," even when the routine tries to get you to say, “I’ll check in with you later when I’m feeling more inspired.”

“Go back to those Gospels over and over again. God’s word is inexhaustible and can always deepen your understanding and belief. We don’t limit ourselves in conversation with our loved ones because we 'talked to them already' and neither should we limit ourselves in the reading of the Bible because we 'read it already.' It is as dynamic and deep, in fact even deeper, than any person we seek to know. Ask questions of Jesus in Scripture. Ask about His character. Ask about His values. Ask about His life. Ask about His priorities. Ask about His weaknesses. And let Scripture respond to you. The answers you find will lead you to want to know more, to be closer, to be with Jesus. And the more we are with Him, the more we will find ourselves wanting to and learning to be like Him.”—Barnabas Piper, from “Help My Unbelief”

The Harvest Within

“The harvest is so great, and the workers are so few,” He told His disciples. “So pray to the one in charge of the harvesting, and ask Him to recruit more workers for His harvest fields.”—Matthew 9:37-38

Everyone wants their life to make a difference. Not everyone is an evangelist. So, what do you do with this verse? You begin by taking it personally…

…It was not on the original Saturday “to do” list, but with a week of rain in the forecast and the morning breaking sunny and mild, there was no better time than now for tackling spring yard work. The task ahead loomed large, but with the invigoration of mild air in my lungs, no winter coat, and thermal gloves replaced by the blister-preventative type, progress was swift and joyful:

Raking the lawn of its winter debris, digging deep to loosen up the tough and stubborn areas, persistently going over areas besieged by sand from what the snowblower kicked up, admiring the fruit of your labor, and then adding nutrients to prevent moss and dandelions and other persistent invaders, and finally a healthy spreading of turf food….all before the rains came.

“Plant the good seeds of righteousness, and you will reap a crop of My love; plow the hard ground of your hearts, for now is the time to seek the LORD, that He may come and shower salvation upon you.”—Hosea 10:12, Living

You don’t have to be an evangelist to be a harvester of things that truly matter. But you do have to team with the Master Gardener to prepare the soil of your own heart first, and rake up debris of complacency and the dirt that simply comes from walking through this world, so that God might plant a harvest of righteousness—one who is “right with God”—within you.

And it all starts with the ministry of the interior so that you can begin to see and sense and feel like Jesus in His "harvest" declaration as you go about your day. It always starts on the inside so that, like Him, your heart will become more tender, compassionate, quick to listen and slower to speak, and become acutely aware of the “sheep without a shepherd” who walk through your life. To be ready and in season (not just early spring) for His invitation to step into a particular situation, a life, someone’s prayer request, and then carry the Light of the world who is within you—His healing touch-handshake-hug-knowing look, His words of comfort and encouragement that go beyond feel-good sentences, and the testimony of hope from the Father’s works that have been alive and real and that are still pulsating within your own veins….

….in the middle of blissful yard work, an ambulance arrives at the neighbor’s home down the street. A loved one who had been ill is no more. Soon, family members arrive in various stages of shock and sorrow. It would be easy to do nothing—this is a private family moment, after all. Besides, definitely out of my comfort zone to step in. But what would Jesus do? There they are right in front of me: “sheep without a shepherd.” So probably, as in many examples in the Gospels, He would give Himself away to the moment.

I desperately wanted to avoid it all, and yet I desperately wanted to reach out in some meaningful way without being a pushy neighbor. Blessedly, the same Jesus who the Gospels say over and over again knew the hearts of those around him without them speaking a single word, provided a similar open door: As I was driving by, I noticed the oldest son, who I had known many years, out at his truck. The conversation began with surface neighborly type stuff and then quickly to the situation at hand. We were able to shake hands, and celebrate the life that had passed, and share funny stories, and then end with “know that I’m praying for you all.” (Most of the family probably hadn't grasped the fact that the one who had just passed had given His life to the Lord, thanks to another harvest worker in his life, and was now safely in the peace and joy of Eternity.)

And who knows what will come of all of that, other than that two seeds had been planted that day: the one in my neighbor’s heart, and more importantly, the one in my own.

The harvest of righteousness that comes from tilling the soil of your own heart may or not include finding a moment to include the “Four Spiritual Laws” but if the tilling has been good and frequent, the fruit should be abundant, fertilized by the good Word and watered by the power that comes from spending time in His presence. And fruit that grows in the form of generosity—not just in stuff but in attitude and especially with your own time and comfort zone.

It could be as simple as picking up a rake on a Saturday morning...

“For God who gives seed to the farmer to plant, and later on good crops to harvest and eat, will give you more seed to plant and will make it grow so that you can give away more and more fruit from your harvest.”—2 Corinthians 9:10