Daily Lesson for April 8, 2015

Today's daily lesson comes from John chapter 15 verses 1 and 2:

"I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. 2 Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit."

There is no such thing as pain-free pruning. 

It's one thing to break off an old, dried-up and dead branch with no life in it. Hear it snap, and it honestly feels good.  But take the clippers and cut into a living stem of say a rose and its another matter altogether. It resists with its life, pushing back with energy stalking through its veins. To cut it you have to really clamp down -- maybe even use both fists. It bleeds. Do this a few times and then take a step back and the grief sets in; the rose bush just doesn't look right.  It looks naked and vulnerable -- like a shaved poodle.  It cried out to you, "Why did you do this?  I was flourishing."  

"No," you have to say back to it, "You were not flourishing. You were too full, top-heavy, too much for the soil beneath you.  It was necessary.

"It was necessary," you say it again to convince yourself.

Trimming back, letting go, sizing down, saying, "Not again this year," -- these are never painfree decisions.  But the root systems in our lives can only handle so much.  There is only so much nutrients we can draw from.  The law of diminishing returns says we can't just keep growing in all directions. Pretty soon we, like an overgrown rose bush, begin to lose our color. 

That's when pruning is necessary. It is necessary because it's not as important to be big as it is to be healthy and beautiful and pleasing to the eye of the gardener who planted and cultivates us. 

And in the end his delight is worth the pain.