Pruned

How do you gauge your life work?

Would you consider yourself productive?  Have you born much fruit?

Are you in need of pruning?

'I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinegrower. He removes every branch in me that bears no fruit. Every branch that bears fruit he prunes to make it bear more fruit." - John 15:1-2

John pulls no punches in his presentation of Jesus.  While the language is filled with symbolism and metaphor, the message is a straight shot at the heart.  If you don't produce, you will be cut.

It sounds a lot like a business strategy, and for the vineyard owner, it is.

So, if we are being likened to branches on a vine, what do we need to do to prevent ourselves from becoming kindling?  What in our lives is equivalent to a good crop?

For many of us, the types of things that make us productive on the job probably won't cut it with the vinegrower.  He's looking for good, hearty grapes.  Not just any grapes, mind you, but the kind that will make a premium wine.

The best of the best is what he wants in abundance.

Is that what we are giving when it comes to the things that truly matter?

That may be a tall order, even for the business world, where performance matters and people are promoted or let go based on it.  The concept of peak performance, giving one's all, bringing it, without sacrificing quality may have lost its appeal of late.

We rush through the tasks we are given and look for the easy out, the quick fix, the good-enough-for-now approach.

So, we might misread the message here, and think we can stay alive by producing a great quantity of fruit.  But if it is of poor quality, what value does it have?

I think the time is right for pruning back.  Why wait for the vinegrower to do it, when we know what is working in our lives and what is wasted energy.

To make this day the best day possible, I think I need to trim here and there, to find what is worth spending time on and what is not going to bear fruit.

Perhaps I can minimize the pain and frustration if I take the shears in my own hands and start the job myself.

So, where will I start.

Time to get busy.

More to come...