Choices and Insights
Last week I promised some more answers…not solutions, mind you, just answers…you know, like in a conversation?
About a month ago, a dozen of us went out into the gorgeous Arizona desert on a brisk Saturday morning (Yes, it does get chilly here in winter!) for a few hours of quiet with God. As I focused and stilled my mind to see and/or hear what He might have for me, I observed a young saguaro cactus, about two-and-a-half feet tall. Young by the reckoning of its species, it was probably 50 years old. It was nestled among the roots and branches of a brittlebush. This desert icon can live a couple hundred years, grow 40-60 feet tall, and at maturity may weigh over two tons after adequate rain. It is such a striking plant that there is a national monument devoted to it!
This giant masterpiece of creation can only begin to grow in the shelter of a nurse plant.
Nowhere will you see a “Brittlebush National Monument.” The saguaro gets the attention, even drawing the “state flower” status for its white crown of waxy blooms, yet without the nurture of a smaller, shorter-lived plant like the brittlebush, the tiny black seeds would all be lost, swept down some sandy wash by a summer downpour. The roots and shade of a number of shorter-lived nurturers are necessary for its survival.
This is a picture of disciple-making. The disciple will outlive, and outshine the disciple-maker. Even Jesus said “the works that you do will be greater than the ones you have seen Me do!”
How does this relate to the barren waste in my yard that was supposed to be a garden? It is very weed-free, but not very fruitful. Suppressing the weeds by impartial chemical means is robbing it of produce. A fellow-soil-lover said, “It’s too neat and clean!” Not even the purslane that often feeds us is coming up!
As one who is busy growing Jesus-followers, I can teach my “disciples” to manage their sins and difficulties so that they look good and appear clean and weed-free, or I can provide a place for them to sit in the dirt and be washed and watered by the Holy Spirit, so that God is made glorious by the transformation He produces!
You will never find Jesus managing sin in His followers! He is all about destroying it, not managing it! He is about growing fruit in His branches through the relationship of abiding . His response to sin is to cleanse it!
Following Jesus every day in the everyday,
Christi
P.S. I would love to hear what you are doing to draw close to the Vine during Lent. Shoot me a message!
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