One of the best things about my line of work is the amazing people I get to meet on the road and the faith stories I’m blessed to hear. I remember a few years back meeting a man who I’ll call Robert. Robert picked me up at the airport and during the two hour drive to the church, we shared a little of our stories with each other. I learned that He had done well for himself a few years earlier and had become independently wealthy, with all the comforts and accoutrements of affluence that one could hope for: nice cars, a beautiful home, and a luxuriant lifestyle.
As a Christian, he saw his wealth as a blessing from God and was sure to give back. He helped plant a number of churches and was generous in his support of many ministries. He did good things with his money and was passionate about building the kingdom. But then he lost it all – every penny. He told me his awful story of riches to rags, with visible sores all over his arms and legs that were brought on by stress, his relationship with his wife and kids strained nearly to the breaking point, his voice was hoarse and faltered as he related his journey.
“There have been so many people around me who have told me that this is the work of the devil, a spiritual attack. I thought it was, too, at first. But now I’m not so sure. I think it might be the Lord. I see now that I had become arrogant and even my generosity to the church came with strings attached. We may have loved our things like our cars, our house, and our lifestyle too much. This has been the hardest thing I’ve ever gone through, and sometimes it doesn’t feel like I’m going to make it. But there are moments of clarity where I’m aware that it’s doing something good in me. It may sound strange, but it feels like God’s love…”
Here was a man who was the closest thing to Job that I’d ever personally met, yet he proposed that it was God’s love that had brought him low! Such faith is humbling and must certainly be a gift from God. I’ve often met people who have a seemingly supernatural faith in the face of great crisis, and am always aware that even when our world feels like it’s spinning out of control, the presence of God is still apparent in our lives if only in the super human faith that He seems to give us in the midst of the storm. It’s almost as if he rises in our hearts and believes for us in those times.
Shortly after my time with Robert, my friend David told me of a recent tour he took of a vineyard. The proprietor told him of how they harvest the grapes: going out when the vines are first beginning to bear fruit, then cutting off the first fruits and throwing them away. David was floored by this, and asked if it didn’t seem wasteful. He was told that by doing this, the grapes that follow will grow back heartier and more flavorful. That was how they got to the good stuff, and – make no mistake – he wants the best for his wine.
It was a terrifying story to me in light of John chapter 15:
1″I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. 2He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful.”
I understand the concept of God cutting away whatever doesn’t bear fruit in my life, and I’ve more or less made peace with it. But the thought that He may even come after fruit-bearing areas of my life is more than a little distressing. I thought my fruit was safe and that as long as I was bearing fruit, I would be safe from the pruning blades. It makes me wonder: how many of the “good” things I do – giving to the poor, ministry, etc. – do I do in hopes that God will leave me alone?
And yet I have to trust, like Robert, that any time the pruning blade is put to my life, it is to make room for new growth, to get to the good stuff. Though a good pruning can be painful, we are asked to trust that God wields the blade precisely and in love, and that whatever is cut away does not diminish us, but makes more of us – makes us even more fruitful.
Sometimes this trust is the only thing we have to anaesthetize ourselves against the pain of the cut, the wound that is making us whole.
Prayer for the Week: Lord, help us to yield to your pruning blade, trusting that you are carving out your image in us, with the hope that your cut makes us whole and your wounds heal.
