I Come Bearing Fruit

I have great friends. I have a neighbor who has a small garden in his backyard. I have another neighbor who rents garden space down by the river. They regularly drop off bags of whatever has ripened on their vines. I have another friend who occasionally drops off bags of whatever he just got done picking himself and loves to share with my family.

I also have a great wife. And can she ever cook! This time of year casseroles and cobblers filled with these fresh gifts from our friends are almost always in her oven . It's a wonder I'm not huge. My gym membership is a small price to pay to be able to enjoy the fruit from my friends' gardens and the talent of my wife's cooking. My stomach is never empty. It's always filled with good stuff! I think I have the gift of eating.

I have another friend who brings me fruit, too. I have bags and baskets full of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Like so many, I have prayed for patience many times. What I've come to realize is I already have all the patience I need. Too often, I just leave it in the bag it came in and don't make use of the Holy Spirit's generosity. I have a full bag of patience on the counter and I'm still trying to manage my life on my own.

I have all that I need to live a full life. I just don't take it out of the bag and use it. So, I bring way too much frustration into my own life.

I have enough love for everyone. It's because it's God's love he has given me to share. Yet, I try performing on my own and wonder why people respond to me the way they do.

I have enough self-control for everything I encounter. So, why do I lose it so often? It's because I've left it in the bag.

I have enough peace for whatever life throws at me. So, why am I so stressed at night I can't sleep well? Exactly.

Joy? Again! Kindness? Yes! Goodness? Hello! And, so on.

The cobblers that could be made with the fruit God has given me could satisfy a lot of people. And, if we all, as Christ-followers made full use of the basketfuls that God has given all of us the world would be a different place. Too much of it sits unused in the bag it was delievered in.

If I may be honest, sometimes the Holy Spirit scares me. I don't understand him. I can't wrap my arms or my mind around him. I hear him and I feel him, but on his terms, not mine. That scares me.

The result of all this? I'm afraid to get too close to God because he might ask me to do something that will require more than I can muster. I'll have to use what he's given me. And, I'll have to use it the way he wants it used. It's embarrassing to not have control; humiliating. Submitting to another and admitting subserviance empties me of all my pride and fills me with....Oh wait. Again, isn't that the idea?

I have all that I need to live a full life. In order to be full, my life has to be emptied of my pride. I'm emptied when I have to submit and be subserviant.

When I willingly submit myself (bondslave) to God and perform what he has commanded me to perform applying the gifts he has given me, my life will reach the ultimate in fulfillment.

Hmmm. The way to be full begins with being empty. I'm hungry.