Why Pruning Sooner is Always Better

Two years ago, my fig harvest dropped to almost nothing. In truth, it had dwindled the last several years, but I was content with the small harvest because I was busy. I consoled myself with the idea that I didn't have time to handle a big yield anyway. 

I knew the tree needed pruning. Radical pruning. 

It seemed like too much trouble. 

When the fig yield essentially stopped, I knew I had no choice. I had to cut the tree down to save it. When I did, I found the trunk was severely diseased.

I cut it down with a nice tall stump. Still diseased. 

Cut again. Still diseased.

Finally, I did what might have been prevented if I'd done it a few years earlier. I cut the tree as close to the ground as I could, below the line of disease.

It took a while to come back. In fact, last year, I wasn't sure it would. I knew I should've pruned it sooner, and regretted my delay. 

This year, the first post-pruning figs have begun to develop. They're still hard and green but, before long, they'll be sweet fruit. There are only a few figs this year, but, next year, the harvest will be better.

That's how growing fruit works. When there's disease, whether in a vine or a branch, that branch must be removed.

For followers of Christ, who is our Vine, we are the branches. The disease that stops fruit-bearing in our branches is sin, and it must be removed before it consumes our fruitfulness entirely. 

The appropriate way to prune is to cut close enough to the vine to remove the diseased part, but far enough out to allow fruit-bearing to continue. The sooner the pruning is done, the less branch has to be removed. 

Lack of fruitfulness is the red flag that signals the need for pruning... both in fig trees and in believers. Are we bearing the fruits of the Spirit? Are our lives distinctive because of the love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control we possess?

If not, perhaps that lack is evidence of some sin-damage that needs to be corrected. 

Better sooner than later is my motto.

Let's take a close look at our fruitfulness. Are we bearing fruit of the Spirit? Are we making disciples? Are we sharing the good news of Jesus with those in our Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the uttermost parts of the earth?

If not, why not? Is there hidden sin that needs to be removed? Has busyness marred our relationship with our Father? Has love for this world superseded our love for the next? 

Today, let's ask Our Lord to prune now so that more drastic pruning can be avoided later. Pray that the cutting away of sin will be sufficient to return the sweet fruit God intended in our lives. 

Why wait? In pruning away sin, cutting sooner is always better. 

"But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things!" Galatians 5:22 nlt

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In case you missed it, here's the link to yesterday's post: Pigpen Parables: Pigs Just Want to Have Fun

If you feel led to partner with this ministry (US, Jordan, the digital world), here's the link to give your tax-deductible donations: Global Outreach Acct 4841 

Or you can mail your check or money order to: Global Outreach/ PO Box 1, Tupelo MS 38802. Be sure to put Account 4841 in the "for" line

Three Years and 1550 Blogs Later: Fig Trees and a Look at How Far We've Come

{NOTE: I expected to have Sam's project ready to announce this morning. My blog's ready to go, but the project page (photos, links, donate button) isn't ready yet. I expect them to be ready in a few hours... What better way to celebrate my anniversary than to help others? I hope to make the announcement mid-day today. Please check back.}
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"Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert." Isaiah 43:19 esv

Just over three years ago, I was happily practicing medicine. Things were going exactly according to my master plan, when I began to think God wanted to expand my borders. It turned out that He wasn't just expanding  borders, He was about to rock my world.

It started with a blog. I didn't know what a blog was, and I certainly didn't know how to start a blog. When that Still Small Voice whispered, "Google it," I thought I might be in for an adventure.

I was.

I wrote twice a day. Learned how to tell a story. How to organize my thoughts and write fast. How to write accurately and decrease the typos. 

Today marks three years since that first blog post that changed my life. You, my precious readers, have encouraged me, responded to my words, allowed them to change you. You've become a part of me, and I'm better for it. 

1,550 posts later, I know at my core that I was born to be a story teller, but I wouldn't be here without you, the sweet people who've read my blog, liked and shared posts, left comments, given encouragement. You helped me keep writing, because writers need readers. I'm grateful to God for you. Thank you. 

This is a day for remembering my beginnings and celebrating what God has done, so here's my first blog post. (It didn't have a picture, but I've added one.)

What counts is your life. Is it green and blossoming? Because if it’s deadwood, it goes on the fire.” (Luke 3:9 MSG)

The fig tree at my home has been there for decades. When I first moved there, it bore a few figs, but gradually the yield was less and less. After a few years, there was essentially no yield at all. As the fig  count waned, my frustration with the tree grew. Nothing I did helped it. 

Finally, I just cut it down, nearly to the ground. Imagine my surprise a few years later when Sam, my farm worker, said, "Hey, have you seen that tree you cut down? It's loaded with figs!"

I'm not an expert on trees, but it seemed clear to me that all the non-productive parts of that tree needed to go. A severe pruning (to the ground) saved it.

It's easy for us to allow dead wood to accumulate in our lives, isn't it? It's not so much that it looks dead as that its non-productive. When I prune, I lop off the branches that look diseased, but also the ones that don't bear fruit. 

In our lives, it's not just the sin and hurt (diseased branches) that need to go. Those things in our lives that do not make us more like Jesus or demonstrate the love of Christ to a lost and dying world may need to go too.

Just about anything can be deadwood in our lives. I have a friend who says she didn't have time for Bible study until one day she realized how much time she spent reading the newspaper every morning. When she stopped beginning her day with the news and started it with the Good News through Bible study, she found she had plenty of time for God, and now has a life that bears much fruit for him.

Just about anything can end up being deadwood because it keeps us from doing what Christ intended. Internet browsing, Pinterest, Facebook, shopping can all be good things. They can also be time-stealers that keep us from something better.


What is the deadwood in your life? 

Take a serious look at your life today and at all the activities you include. 

Does it make you more like Jesus? 

Does it demonstrate Christ to a world that is perishing? 

If not, it's time for some pruning. Choose today to have a life that is "green and blossoming", then do whatever it takes to get there.
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Here's a hint about Sam's big project:

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In case you missed it, here's the link to yesterday's post: When Hope Came to Hope 

#celebrate #Christian

Parable of the Fig Tree: Removing the Cancer of Hidden Sin

“And He began telling this parable: "A man had a fig tree which had been planted in his vineyard; and he came looking for fruit on it and did not find any. And he said to the vineyard-keeper, 'Behold, for three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree without finding any. Cut it down! Why does it even use up the ground?' And he answered and said to him, 'Let it alone, sir, for this year too, until I dig around it and put in fertilizer; and if it bears fruit next year, fine; but if not, cut it down.'"”         Luke 13:6-9 NASB

This is the fourth day in our "fig tree" series, although I've written about fig trees before because mine has been such a problem over the years. If you're just joining us, here are the links to the previous posts in the series: The Fig Tree With No Fruit and Living Like a Barren Fig Tree, and Cut It Down, as well as links to other "fig tree" posts: The Come Back Tree, The Lesson of the Fig Tree (One of my fav's), and My Daily Fig. (They'll open in a new tab)

The parable above is being lived out with my own fig tree this week, as it has refused to bear fruit for the last two years. No, that's not completely accurate. It's had a few figs, but they've failed to ripen. The lush harvests of the past years are gone. No fig jam this year. No fig preserves.

Yesterday, I made the decision to cut down the tree. My goal was to remove the diseased part so that the healthy part could make a strong recovery. The further down the trunk we cut, the more we realized the extent of the disease. You can see from the photo above that the trunk has a deep split as a result of disease. It wasn't visible from the outside because the bark covered it.

There was more disease in the tree than I realized. Only severe, radical pruning can save it. 

If we could cut ourselves open and glimpse our hearts, would we see a deep infestation of sin? Would we find that we have carefully disguised sin-sickness inside us, hidden it behind an attractive "bark" exterior? 

Would we find those less-visible sins like critical, judgmental spirit, covetousness, anger, unforgiveness, bitterness? Even when we hide them behind a smiling exterior, hidden sins still do a work of destruction in our lives.

Do we want to bear fruit? If so, we must be sure our "inside" is as healthy, spiritually, as our demeanor looks to the world. A big smile cannot erase the destruction sin can cause. Laughter cannot eliminate the gnawing cancer of bitterness or unforgiveness. 

There is only one treatment. Removal. Those sins to which we cling must go, so let's be done with them. Let's ask the Great Physician to do the work only He can do.

The objective of removal is not to leave a gaping hole. The objective is for the Great Physician to fill that hole, once occupied by sin, with the Holy Spirit's presence so that we can bear good fruit that lasts.

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Our Father, our Great Physician, do your work in me today. Remove the cancer of hidden sin and purify my heart. Make me more like you so I can bear fruit that pleases and glorifies you. In Jesus' name, Amen.

#disciple #JesusChrist #Bible #bearfruit #parableofthefigtree

The Fig Tree With No Fruit

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Our Father, forgive me for my lack of fruit-bearing. Create in me a clean heart and renew a right spirit within me. Change what needs to be changed, prune what needs to be pruned. Bring forth fruit in my life, as only You can do. In Jesus' name, Amen.

#disciple #JesusChrist #Bible #vineyard #bearingfruit #fruitoftheSpirit #createinmeacleanheart

The "Come Back " Tree

I had not been at the farm long when I found a very frustrating problem with my fig tree. No fruit. Several years went by, and still essentially no fruit. Finally, I was so distressed by the tree that I cut it down and gave it the opportunity to "come back". The next year, it had figs, and it has borne fruit faithfully every year since then.

The single-digit temperatures this past winter were a bad blow to the tree, and for a while I thought it might have died, but leaves finally grew. Yesterday, I passed the tree on the way to the barn, and realized it is once again loaded with figs. 

The more I look at those baby figs, the more I remember the sad day when I cut the tree down to the ground. It seemed most likely that the tree would never have fruit again. What did I know? Apparently, not much!

Since that day, I've eaten an outrageous number of figs, canned countless jars of fig preserves, and baked quite a few none-too-popular fig desserts. Despite all that, there have been enough figs to share with the birds and squirrels. It turned out that the pruning was the best thing that ever happened to the old fig tree. 

Pruning is one of those very necessary things in the Christian life. When we are connected to the vine, our branches that bear no fruit (or poor fruit) must be removed. Don't be surprised when our Lord does some pruning in your life. The objective is not to take away, it is to add more. The result of careful, well planned pruning is always more fruit, less disease. That is exactly the kind of pruning our Lord does. 

Those instances of pruning in my own life have sometimes seemed like the saddest thing imaginable. What a surprise it always is to find that God has done something new and something better to make me more productive for the Kingdom. 

Are you experiencing a little pruning? Don't grieve for those lost branches. Instead, thank God for the new growth to come. Thank Him, too, for all the fruit He plans for you to bear. Before you know it, you will be glad for the pruning He did.