Lessons from a Plant, Part 3.2 – Pruning
I talked a little bit about pruning last time, but there’s more to pruning than to encourage growth. Well, I guess it’s similar but you can prune plants to enhance the growth of fruit. Cutting off branches that aren’t producing fruit can force the plant to focus its energy on enhancing the fruit that is budding. They could be perfectly good branches but they aren’t serving the purpose of producing fruit; they’re just getting in the way, detracting the plant from it’s main purpose of bearing fruit.
In the same way, we need to prune ourselves. There are plenty of things our lives that we know are bad and we all agree that we should get rid of it. Then there are neutral things which aren’t good or bad. I’m talking about things like tv, movies, books, sports, etc. They’re not bad for you in moderation and can be redeemed to serve a good purpose. There are even good things like meeting up with people, community service, things that people would say are good for you to do. The good is the enemy of the best. Sometimes these neutral things and even the good things can steer us away from the best thing, the main thing. We can even be so caught up in these good things that we miss out on the best things. Some people become like Martha, become so busy doing things, they miss out on listening to Jesus. Or become like the disciples and so concerned with the poor that they miss out on pouring perfume and worshiping at his feet. As with plants, sometimes we need to cut back on the things that are good, like healthy branches, so that we can focus on the best, bearing fruit. We need to be thinking maximum effectiveness for the Kingdom. There are a million things we can be doing at this very instant in time but what is the best thing we can be doing right now?