I’ve been procrastinating doing something about it for a while now. Time and again I’ll walk out into the back yard and look and think to myself, “I really have to tackle that sometime soon, before the weather warms up.”
I’m talking about pruning the rose bushes and some of the other plants in the yard. The roses are especially difficult to prune. They have an enormous number of very sharp thorns so that even with gloves on I often get pierced. I suppose that’s one of the reasons that I tend to procrastinate - it’s painful. But if I don’t get to it, and leave last year’s growth unpruned, the plants will suffer. The branches will get gangly and leafy, and there won’t be nearly as many flowers. Consequently, the bees will have less nectar to feed on, and will breed fewer young. There won’t be nearly as much pollen spread around, and so there will be fewer rose bushes for the future. In short, much of the purpose for the existence of those rose bushes will be hampered. Yikes, all that just because I failed to prune! Of course, I’m exaggerating a bit. I don’t really think life, as we know it on the planet, will actually come to an end if I don’t prune those roses. But pruning the bushes does help them grow stronger.
That’s the way it is with us as well. It may seem ironic, but people can experience pruning and that can help people grow stronger.
On Presidents’ Day I was sitting having lunch with two of my children – the middle two. We were chatting about all sorts of things, and then, as many conversations do these days, the talk turned to the economy. They were venting about people who had bought big ticket houses on low salaries. They agreed that it was greed – the need to have it all before you’d worked for it. Then one of the kids asked, “Dad, what do you think will happen?” I love it when the kids get old enough to ask what I think. I use those opportunities to reflect very carefully. What I said was that I thought the next three to ten years would be very painful – painful for almost everyone, in this country and around the world, but that I believed it would make people around the world stronger in values and character than we’ve been for a generation or more. I believe that we’re being pruned, and that the purpose of the pruning is for our own good – that collectively we’ll be stronger and better for it if only we seek God’s help and work together instead of against each other. Pruning helps communities, nations and the global community to draw closer and work together instead of taking advantage of each other.
Pruning helps individuals, too. That’s what Jesus experienced during those 40 days in the wilderness, which we commemorate in Lent. He drew even closer to His Father, God, and became far clearer about the mission that God had in store for Him. Usually I recommend “taking something on for Lent”, whether a discipline of prayer, study of scripture, some regular act of service to others, or discussion like Wednesday Night Live. But I also recommend some self –pruning. It’s a fine time to simplify life, but not merely to lose weight or spend less money. As Jesus would say, “Those bring their own rewards.” I’m talking about looking at our own lives to see what sort of thing we depend upon which detracts from the quality of our lives or our relationship with God, then pruning it – disciplining ourselves to refrain from it. Let’s use a simple one- let’s say it’s coffee. Say you drink a couple of cups of coffee each morning. Suppose you take the time you’d use to make or buy the coffee and drink it, and use that time for talking with God instead. Say you used the money you’d spend on it to give to the North Kingstown Food Pantry or some foreign mission. Say you offered that to God as an act of worship. I believe that’s an act of pruning, and that it can make a person stronger in spirit. Prune.
Affectionately,
Phil +