Always Growing

Ever since I was a little girl, I have been fascinated with the resilience of plants. I marvel at a tiny sprout growing out of a tree stump that appears dead, at least on the surface, or in the middle of a paved road. The way weeds just never seem to go away no matter how many times you pull them out of the ground. How palm trees bend under the strength of hurricane force winds without breaking or being uprooted. The way a seemingly devastating forest fire actually makes way for new life and nourishes the soil.

At the entrance of my community are two crepe myrtle trees. Every February, our landscape crew comes in and prunes them. Now, this isn’t just normal pruning – every single piece of green is cut off of these plants, leaving them completely bare. In fact, every year I’m certain they have killed these poor, helpless trees. And yet, by August they are covered in green leafy branches and beautiful pink flowers. When I notice the first signs of life returning to them I hear the voice of Jeff Goldblum’s character, Dr. Ian Malcom, from Jurassic Park in my head, “Life finds a way.”

This yearly pruning is vital for the overall health of these trees. It allows them to grow strong branches and vibrant blooms. It removes any damaged or diseased branches that could be detrimental to the rest of the tree. It gives them the opportunity to thrive.

Just like these crepe myrtle trees, we too need pruning in order to thrive. Early in my walk with Christ, when teaching on John 15, my pastor told us, “You’re pruned if you do and pruned if you don’t. So, you might as well let the pruning produce fruit.”

“I am the true grapevine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch of mine that doesn’t produce fruit, and he prunes the branches that do bear fruit so they will produce even more. You have already been pruned and purified by the message I have given you. Remain in me, and I will remain in you. For a branch cannot produce fruit if it is severed from the vine, and you cannot be fruitful unless you remain in me.

“Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing. Anyone who does not remain in me is thrown away like a useless branch and withers. Such branches are gathered into a pile to be 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. This brings great glory to my Father.”
John 15:1-8 NLT

In this passage, Jesus makes a distinction between two kinds of pruning: cutting off and cutting back. Branches that produce fruit are cut back to promote more growth. This type of pruning can be seen in God’s discipline, and in trials and tribulation. When I think back on my life, it was in the hard moments that I learned the most about who God really is and who he created me to be.

On the other hand, branches that don’t bear fruit are cut off at the trunk and thrown into the fire not only because they are worthless, but because they could infect the rest of the tree. This is a matter Jesus does not take lightly.

“If anyone causes one of these little ones—those who believe in me—to stumble, it would be better for them to have a large millstone hung around their neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea.”
Matthew 18:6 NIV

The church has changed. Culture has changed. It is not neutral, but largely anti-Christian, individualistic, and secular. If you have followed The Bonhoeffer Project for any length of time you have heard us talk about the many false, or incomplete, gospels in our world, specifically in western churches. These “gospels” separate salvation from discipleship, making the latter optional. The world, and our enemy, would much rather see a passive Christianity that tolerates sin, and whose believers don’t really follow Jesus and don’t do anything to change the world.

I don’t know about you, but I certainly want to ensure that when the Gardener prunes me it’s to strengthen me, to make me more vibrant, and to help me thrive. Going back to our passage in John 15, Jesus tells us how to be fruitful in verse seven (7), “Remain in me.” The English Standard Version uses the word abide. I love how Merriam-Webster defines this word:

• to bear patiently
• to endure without yielding
• to wait for
• to accept without objection

When the storms of life come, do the winds break us or do we endure without yielding? When we’re in the middle of the fire, do we panic or do we wait for God in faith like Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego in Daniel 3:17-18, “If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to deliver us from it, and he will deliver us … But even if he does not …” When a situation seems hopeless, do we simply give up, or do we bear patiently? When God asks us to wait, to trust, to be still, do we resist and rebel or do we accept without objection? I have certainly struggled in my life with abiding by these definitions. Yet, it’s when I come to the end of myself and submit to God’s will for my life that I finally experience true life, abundant and eternal, here and now.

Plants can teach us much on how to become fruitful disciples of Christ. First, that we too are resilient. When we abide in Christ we are able to withstand the worst life throws at us, not in our strength, but in his. God can and does use it all for our good and his ultimate glory.

Second, we were made to grow, to flourish. There’s an old adage that tells us we’re never standing still; we’re either moving forward or regressing. And so it is with the Christ life. In every decision we make each day, in the ways we respond to our circumstances, we are either choosing God or choosing self. As we remain in Christ, as we say yes to him, we begin to produce much fruit. We begin to thrive.

Lastly, we must be deeply rooted in God, in his Word, and in who he says we are. Doing so helps us become unshakeable, immovable. I’m reminded of what the psalmist says about those who delight in God’s ways and meditate on the Word day and night:

He will be standing firm like a flourishing tree planted  by God’s design, deeply rooted by the brooks of bliss, bearing fruit in every season of life. He is never dry, never fainting, ever blessed, ever prosperous.”
Psalm 1:1-3 TPT {emphasis added}

Will you allow the Holy Spirit to teach you how to truly abide in Jesus? When you let him, he will show you how to remain stable and fixed on him, to stay with him as you travel through a world that is not your home, to accept his ways without objection, and to live for him and with him. Will you allow him to prune you in such a way that you will bear much fruit? When you do, you will become like the seed planted in good soil in The Parable of the Sower (Matthew 13) who “produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.” You will allow others to see the rich and nourishing truth, the truth that a life rooted in Christ is what God intended for us to thrive and how we make disciples of all nations.

This post originally appeared at: Always Growing — The Bonhoeffer Project