A New Playlist (Part Six)- Based on the book by Jacob Armstrong

What is your favorite kind of fruit? Every summer, as a kind of bonus to its workers, my dad’s company gave each employee a case of fresh Ruston peaches. Grown only about 30 minutes from my home, these peaches were always ripe and delicious, and were great to eat alone. However, as much as I was happy to eat those peaches, I knew that at some point, my mom would pull aside a few for the even better treat of her homemade peach cobbler. I can taste it right now as I type. Those perfect peaches made for a perfect cobbler, and the whole dish would be gone in a day or two.

Then there was the time my friend across the street introduced me to pomegranates.  I had never seen or heard of this fruit, but I thought it was so fun to break one open and eat those hundreds of little seed fruits. I nagged my mom to no end until she finally agreed to get one for me at the store, which I brought home and proceeded to make the biggest mess, spraying the red juice and fruit all over the kitchen. That was the first and last pomegranate that entered our household.

As followers of Christ, we are called to have a special relationship with fruit. We are to be bearers of fruit, a natural byproduct of our relationship with Christ. John 15 tells us that as we abide in Christ, and as we live in Him, our lives will have healthy fruit to show for it. That fruit for you may look like a kid that you were able to help, a parent that you were able to empower, or even a coworker that you were able to encourage. It may be a family member, a friend, or even a stranger, but as you continue to hang close to Christ, your words and actions will be marked by Him.

The people with whom Christ interacted during His time on Earth were mostly of an agrarian society, so many of His parables and examples dealt with farming, because that was what His audience knew. Not only can we apply the John 15 passage to our lives as fruit bearers, but we can also look at Matthew 7, as He talks about the two men building houses. One man chooses to build his house on the sand, and that house without a firm foundation shifts and eventually floats away in the storms. However, the house built on the rock, when faced with the same storms, continues to stand tall, because it is built upon a solid foundation that lasts.

Just as the soil matters in home-building and foundations, it also matters in the production of fruit. In order to grow to its full potential, fruit needs the right soil--soil that is diverse, is not too acidic, and is deep enough to handle growth. When fruit is given healthy soil, along with enough sunlight and water, it will become all that it can be. However, if fruit is given silt, or clay, or otherwise unbalanced soil, it simply will not make it.  

My question for us today is, what kind of soil have we chosen? Are we building our lives on a firm foundation, and are we making important decisions based on what really matters? Do we have soil that is diverse, that is not too full of acidic people (or things), and is our soil growing deeper as we spend more time with Christ? Or does our soil need a little work in order for our fruit to fully blossom?

Not only do we need to look at our own soil, but so many of us are soil tenders for those in our care. Whether it be your own children, children that you serve, or even employees you may supervise—are you providing soil for them to grow? While we certainly aren’t able to make decisions for others (as much as we all would sometimes prefer that), we can do our best to make sure that they have a healthy environment in which to bloom. Can you help remove some acid, or bring some diversity, or tie someone in a little closer to God today?

We all want healthy fruit. It’s better. There’s nothing more disappointing than picking up a beautiful apple, and biting in and finding it mealy, or tasting an orange that doesn’t have any flavor. What can you do today to tend to your soil, and the soil of those around you? We all want for those we care for to live up to the potential we know God has for them, and we all want to reach that potential ourselves. Stay close to Him, ask for His help, and bring others along with you!