Daily lesson for January 5, 2015

Today's daily lesson comes from John chapter 15 verse 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."

We're now five days into the 2015 and by now barely hanging on to our New Years resolutions.  Maybe those resolutions are so difficult to keep because we tack them on to an already overloaded, and overburdened schedule. New Years resolutions are always about starting new things; rarely, if ever, are they about stopping old ones.  And that's pretty much killing us.

Today the daily office gives us an image of stopping things.  It is the image of a vine dresser going out into the vineyard and pruning back the vines.

We don't like pruning. It is always painful.   involves honest evaluation of what has the potential to flourish and what is just wasting resources. Inevitably, and by necessity, pruning involves loss.

Just like a gardener prunes in the winter, this is a good time for pruning in our own lives. The holidays are over, and we've already realized our New Years resolutions cannot just be squeezed into all the other things we've got going on. Something has got to give. Something must be pruned.

So here's some questions that will help us evaluate and make the hard, but necessary cuts which must be made:

1. What's flourishing in our lives and what -- if we're honest -- is pretty meager?

2. A tougher question, what's looking pretty good as a bud by itself but then doesn't seem to look or feel right with the whole of our lives and may actually be of detriment to my long term well being in terms of energy and direction?

3.  Who do I know who can help me look honestly at all this and help me make the cut(s)?  A close friend or counselor can sometimes help.

4. Can I begin to see quality as a greater mark of beauty and health than quantity?

5. Can I begin to see pruning as a positive, regular and necessary practice toward wholistic living rather than as a negative sign of failure?

There is a time and season for everything, the Bible says. Now may be the season for pruning. Think about it.