The good fruit
- Saved on Purpose
- Oct 14, 2020
- 5 min read
I almost missed it again. That moment when you look ahead and something beautiful is happening right before your eyes. One of those moments you know you will save in your memory bank for those days when you look back on your life and say, those were the one's we lived for.
We decided to spend our Anniversary weekend with the kids. Camping. The entire week leading up to it was one big ball of stress. If anything could go wrong, it did. But I kept on truckin. Fighting to prove to myself (and maybe even my husband) my love for him was so great that I had all these ways to show him. Uh-huh, I'm one of those mushy people. From the planned meals to the wedding day playlist, I had some ideas up my sleeve and I couldn't wait to use them. I owed it to him, after the mess of a year it has been and dangit, I was going to make it special if it was the last thing I did.
But as usual.... real life had other plans.
Regardless of how many things kept trying to disrupt me, yep, I kept on climbing that mountain. Even though I was stressed as hell, I wasn't going to let it ruin our weekend. I wanted him to see that even through all the crazy, we still got this.
Man. Did that backfire.
My crazy week spilled over to the weekend like a freight train, coming to a screeching hault and then piling up into a mess of wreckage. (Cue massively loud banging, clattering train wreck sound: errrrrrrrrrrrrrr clang bang bash ka-POW!) But, yeah, I kept on going. Loading up, filling myself with more frustrations, more anger, trying to prove to myself even though everything kept going wrong, I was going to make it right. (Eye roll, Facepalm)
That Saturday we decided to go for a little hike. As we arrived on the trail, so kindly my husband says, "Do you want me to carry the babe, I know you always say you are so out of shape, I can just carry him."
He meant well.
But, yeah, the cork finally blew.
"Are you kidding me?! Do you think you are the only one who can handle everything?!"
(Again. Eyeroll. Facepalm)
So... on my back he went.
A little over half way through the walk, we hit the hill of death. This was the part I could either fight the fight and die trying or cave in and give my husband a little ego boost by passing the baton (aka our 30 pound backpacked bundle of joy.)
I chose life.
I passed the baton.
And just shortly after that, I witnessed several great moments of laughter, fun and peace because I released that grasp I had on my pride long enough to see it.
Unfortunately there were several more tests that had built up over the weekend that kept pushing and tempting me. Quite a few more that caused me to blow. By the end of the weekend, I had just wore myself completely out.
There are time's in our lives when the hits just keep on coming. No matter how HARD we try, it seems like the weight of the world is on our backs. Right now, I know I'm not alone in this battle. We have all been up against that wall with our hands tied behind our backs. Bobbing and weaving every chance we get. Trying to avoid "the fall." Staying tense, fighting the fight best we can until we have nothing left. Because deep inside (our heads) we feel so strongly we can't give in, we can't give up. We just won't die on that mountain.
Then there comes a time when we get hit and there's nothing left in us to fight back. In that moment we get the opportunity to choose. Are we going to keep fighting that fight until we die, just to prove we never gave up? Or will we see there is something more precious in those moments, something more valuable, that gives us more strength and more endurance to persevere through the next battle?
This morning's passage from Galatians clears it up for me in a way. The works of the flesh (some listed here are intense, bare with me) can prevent us from engaging in the fruits of the spirit. Works of the flesh can also come in the form of pride and other traits that can be so disruptive in our lives that it keeps us from the joy God intends for us to have.
So we must be challenging ourselves correctly.
When we are choosing any of the ways of life or "works of flesh" like Paul talks about in the former part of the passage we miss out on all the beauty of the latter.
Today in our world, we are pushed to be the strongest, smartest, quickest, most witty, most beautiful, bravest, most bad-ass kind of people out there. We are pushing ourselves down a path that is robbing us of beautiful moments. One's that are so simple, yet so important. Moments that give us more endurance and strength, joy and fulfillment than any other planned accomplishment can. Some moments that are messy, ugly and even painful. We are spending so much time trying to make it all perfect and right that we are missing the point!
We are missing out on the good fruit. The nourishment that's meant for our bodies. The moments that are uniquely made for each of us and each of us alone.
Life sometimes just sucks. Yeah, I said it. It sucks. There are times when we just feel so overwhelmed, overburdened, down at the bottom of a mountain we can never see ourselves climbing back up. Awesome enough though, even those wretched moments at the bottom of that mountain have a purpose, if we choose to use them wisely.
We can see each opportunity as a chance to grow. It's easy to "see the thorn in our brothers eye" and think that's them. Me? I got this. But if we aren't looking at the thorn in our own side we will continue to fight all the battles and never obtain the true victory Paul talks about here in Galatians.
Those fruits of the spirit that can fill our souls and be passed on so freely to those around us. Real gifts.
Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and a big one... self-control.
Life gives us many MANY challenges.
Let us pray everyday that we can continue to set our eyes on things above so that when are faced with all the trials in our lives, we can continue to see the opportunities we have been given as a chance to be fulfilled with all the nourishing fruits of the spirit our Lord has provided for each of us. Let us take each moment one step at a time and know that through it all, He will always provide. He always has a way out, if we let Him lead. And remember in His eyes, we never fail. He uses it all for the good.
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