Insights from a Passionate Christ Follower

We had a neighbor once that was very sour on life. He complained a lot, yelled at the neighborhood kids for making too much noise, came bolting out of his house to shake his cane and yell at the teenagers that drove through the neighborhood too fast and seemed to look down on just about everyone. He walked with a limp (I think it was a war injury) and complained about it every time the weather was about to change. I considered that he was so sour because he was always in pain with that leg. Pain can cause us to lash out at others (hurting people hurt people). One day I decided I would invite him to our church, maybe he could find a more happy life in Christ. Surprise! He said that he was a deacon at his church and had been for years. Hmmmm…..

If you have been to a church, almost any church, you will find some people there that seem to be sour on life. And to be fare, not all the people at a church are sour like this, many are happy, some are excited about their faith, friendly and fun to be around. Likewise, I have been to some churches where it seems as though most all of them were sour. I have even heard some fired-up preachers say ‘they’re so sour, they must have been baptized in vinegar’. Do you know some people like this?… have some religious relatives like this?… act that way yourself sometimes?…

We had a large pear tree in our back yard. Each spring it would bloom beautiful pink/white flowers and fill with pears during the summer. It got so overgrown that the pears would weigh down the branches to the point of breaking. I thought I should do something and asked a tree guy what to do. ‘Prune it’, he said. He explained how to prune a tree and warned that I should do it in late fall or winter, while all the sap was in the roots. Fall came and went. Winter came and went. I forgot to prune…

One morning in early Spring I looked out the kitchen window and noticed that the pear tree was full of little buds… they would soon flower and once again load the tree with too many pears. Realizing that I had neglected to prune during the winter, I raced out to at least prune some branches now before it was too late. It was too late, but I reasoned that it was better to prune some small branches now at the wrong time of the year than to risk the branches breaking later. I piled the cut branches beside the tree, then ran off (late) to work thinking I would dispose of them later.

Each morning while getting my coffee, I would look out the kitchen window and think, ‘I need to go burn those branches’. And each morning I would procrastinate. As the days went by I started noticing something very unusual… something a good gardener would never notice (because he would never prune in the early spring and he would have dealt with the cut branches promptly). The cut branches laying in a pile on the ground were in perfect sync with the branches of the tree. The very day that the buds on the tree starting popping out into white flowers – the buds on the cut branches started popping out into white flowers also. A few days later when the tree was covered in white flowers – so were the cut branches on the ground. What?… how is this possible? They were 10 feet from the tree, laying on the ground, connected to nothing!

Then the most interesting thing started happening…  I noticed that the bees and wasp were visiting all the flowers – even the ones on the ground. The cut branches were fooling the insects. They looked just like the ones on the tree! A week or so later the flowers started to change to a pink color, on the tree – and likewise on the ground, in perfect unison… then to a darker orange as they shrunk, faded and started falling off, on the tree – and on the ground! How could this be?… each day I was watching these cut branches laying there in their pile doing everything that the branches on the tree were doing. It looked so odd!!!

After another week or two, you could see little fat buds where each of the flowers had been. As the tree started growing leaves – so did the cut branches (though the ones on the ground were not growing as large)… But, here is where it got real: as the little fat buds on the tree started growing cute little fat pears – the buds on the ground stayed the same size (no change). Then as the weeks went on the cut branches started drying up and their leaves shriveled into dry, brown, crispy shapes. The branches on the tree were green with new growth; the leaves soft and tender as they stretched out. The cut branches now were dry looking and scratchy to the touch. The big noticeable difference now were the pears… on the tree they were taking shape and growing – on the ground they stayed little buds that showed some promise, but had no ability to grow into fruit (being cut off from the source of life).

In John 15 Jesus says “I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me and I in them, you will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing (you can not grow fruit). Anyone who does not remain in me is thrown away like a useless branch and withers. Such branches are gathered into a pile and burned. But if you remain in me and my words remain in you, you may ask for anything you want, and it will be granted! When you produce much fruit, you are my true disciples.” (NLT)

Trying to be a Christian apart from true intimacy with Christ (me in Him and He in me) is not just hard… it is impossible! When I get too busy to spend time with Christ each day, I find myself cooling down, becoming more irritable, hard on myself, short with others, easily hurt, easily offended – eventually dry and scratchy! For a while I still look the part, still talk the spiritual talk, still have the flowers and smell that other Christians have, but I am more sour than sweet!

Some Christians somehow associate prosperity (having lots of stuff) as being fruitful – bearing much fruit. And it is true that God wants us blessed so that we have more than enough to give to others. But having stuff does not = bearing fruit! You can go buy stuff on credit. The Bible describes the fruit of the Spirit as love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. These are the attributes of God that He desires to grow in us. We don’t have them apart from Him. Sure, we can love someone enough that we want to marry them… but, is that the same kind of love that God grows in us as fruit?… the unconditional love that is described in 1 Corinthians 13:4-7?

In 1 Corinthians 13:1-3 the Bible says we can have spiritual gifts and the faith to move mountains and give all we have to the poor, but if we do not have love – we’re still nothing. The love that is described in the next verses is the love of God that we can not grow on our own. I have to remind myself, that just because I’m getting results and being productive – doesn’t mean that I am being ‘fruitful’! I have fruit by spending time with the Father. Even Jesus had to spend time with the Father to have the fruit in His own life. I want to be more like Jesus…

I think back sometimes about that neighbor we had and feel so sad for him. He was going to a church every week, serving as a Deacon, and perhaps doing some church stuff… but just like those branches piled on the ground right next to the tree – he was not intimately connected to the source of life… he had no fruit!