Less Branches, More Fruit
I kept a sticky note on the left side of my keyboard at work. Throughout the day as I remembered things I needed to do when I got off, I jotted them down on the sticky note. Before long, I was running out of room, writing sideways up and down that poor sticky note. I waited for 4:30, not to get off work, but to get to work...to start the one thousand other little things that needed to be done.
I don’t like this version of myself.
When I try to control my time and my schedule — ironically, my schedule gets out of control.
And the first thing to go when I get busy and overbooked is my time with the Lord.
I have a constant ongoing to-do list. I live by it. Anything we live by, we idolize. Where does the time go? To a thousand little commitments, and yet I feel like I’m doing none of them as well as I would like.
Right when I got home, a friend came up to visit with me and I was too busy to even hold a decent conversation with her. I needed to talk to someone who is very important to me on the phone, but all I could think about as I listened to their sweet voice was the one thousand other things I needed to do. I could barely even focus on the task at hand because I had so many other things I needed to do next. And then the smallest hiccup in my mad dash to get things done triggered my impatience and made me snap.
I don’t like this version of myself.
When I try to control my time and my schedule — ironically, my schedule gets out of control.
And the first thing to go when I get busy and overbooked is my time with the Lord.
I have a constant ongoing to-do list. I live by it. Anything we live by, we idolize. Where does the time go? To a thousand little commitments, and yet I feel like I’m doing none of them as well as I would like.
When I lived in Burkina Faso, I did this same thing. I tried to help everybody and say yes to every ask. It wore me out and almost burned me out in my first year of cross-cultural ministry. I remember what the Lord taught me in that season, and he actually taught it to me through my African friends.
In African culture, time is irrelevant and relationships are at the center of everything. Life revolves around not how much you get done, but about how you interact with people along the way. So time moves slower and less gets accomplished, but more people are seen and loved and valued. When I slowed down and started to live at an African pace with an African mentality, that is when things turned around. I got back into spending quality time with the Lord every morning and evening. I had better rest and more energy to do things well. I asked the Lord when to say yes and when to say no, and he guided the schedule that I surrendered to him and took care of the people that I entrusted to him.
A vine branch left untamed and untrimmed will always favor new growth over more fruit. That’s why the pruning process is necessary. Trim the extra growth away so that the strongest branches can bear the most fruit. A vine left to its own natural tendency will spread out far and wide but produce very little fruit.
That is not who I want to become.
I miss the « me » in Africa, where time moved slower and relationships went deeper and I was focused instead of frazzled, intentional instead of busy, and joy-filled instead of wilted.
The Lord convicted me. And I spent some time giving him the pruning shears, showing him my schedule, and surrendering my need to control.
He revealed to me two very specific first steps, and the next morning, I obeyed. Even such simple obedience brought great peace and joy to my heart.
That very same day, I got off work an hour and a half early, which was totally unexpected. I received that as a blessing and confirmation of my obedience that morning. An added gift was that it was raining, and the Lord knows how I love rainy days. I had several things I needed to do with different people when I got home, but none of them were available at that exact moment, so I spent those margin moments with the Lord — with my door open to the cool humid air, just like I used to do in Africa when it rained. In time, the Lord brought the people that I needed to see right up to my apartment, and they lingered as we worked a puzzle and had spiritual conversation and ate banana pudding like none of us were on a schedule. They came and went, and my own heart was blessed and encouraged by them.
And just like that, I got a glimpse back into the person I want to become.
I write such a personal entry because I know I am not the only one who is spread thin and on the brink of exhaustion. I have a feeling I’m not the only one who feels like I am doing too much and yet none of it well enough. When we start to get exhausted and burned out, that is the wake-up call to come back to Christ, the Vine, the Source of life and energy. When the plant withers, you water it. So when we start to wither, we need to get with God and hear from him. We need to refocus, recenter, reprioritize; we need to give him the pruning shears and get in the starting position of readiness to obey.
A vine branch left untamed and untrimmed will always favor new growth over more fruit. That’s why the pruning process is necessary. Trim the extra growth away so that the strongest branches can bear the most fruit. A vine left to its own natural tendency will spread out far and wide but produce very little fruit.
That is not who I want to become.
I miss the « me » in Africa, where time moved slower and relationships went deeper and I was focused instead of frazzled, intentional instead of busy, and joy-filled instead of wilted.
The Lord convicted me. And I spent some time giving him the pruning shears, showing him my schedule, and surrendering my need to control.
He revealed to me two very specific first steps, and the next morning, I obeyed. Even such simple obedience brought great peace and joy to my heart.
That very same day, I got off work an hour and a half early, which was totally unexpected. I received that as a blessing and confirmation of my obedience that morning. An added gift was that it was raining, and the Lord knows how I love rainy days. I had several things I needed to do with different people when I got home, but none of them were available at that exact moment, so I spent those margin moments with the Lord — with my door open to the cool humid air, just like I used to do in Africa when it rained. In time, the Lord brought the people that I needed to see right up to my apartment, and they lingered as we worked a puzzle and had spiritual conversation and ate banana pudding like none of us were on a schedule. They came and went, and my own heart was blessed and encouraged by them.
And just like that, I got a glimpse back into the person I want to become.
I write such a personal entry because I know I am not the only one who is spread thin and on the brink of exhaustion. I have a feeling I’m not the only one who feels like I am doing too much and yet none of it well enough. When we start to get exhausted and burned out, that is the wake-up call to come back to Christ, the Vine, the Source of life and energy. When the plant withers, you water it. So when we start to wither, we need to get with God and hear from him. We need to refocus, recenter, reprioritize; we need to give him the pruning shears and get in the starting position of readiness to obey.
Test it and see if God won’t start to trim and shape you into the version of yourself that he created you to be, the person that you are becoming, whose branches are strong and bear much fruit.
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