Lent #23: yield for yield

My Father examines every branch in Me and cuts away those who do not bear fruit. He leaves those bearing fruit and carefully prunes them so that they will bear more fruit.
John 15: 2


The success of a fruitful life is the yield. The yield is the abundant crop--what a life grafted into Christ gives forth. Earlier this week, our chapel speaker and retiring professor, Dwight Kimberly (a biologist) said, "Many times it is difficult to identify the plant until you see the fruit it bears. The fruit will identify the plant."  Our lives our identified by the fruit that they bear over time through the seasons of life: through the drought, the frosts, and the perfect climate for growth.  The fruit of our lives is not measured in a single growing season, but the fecundity of a lifetime. All of us face seasons in life in which the vine withers, the rain doesn't come, or the locusts devour us. It's a life lived submitted to and trusting of the Farmer that will bear abundance. 


This abundant yield comes out of the yield--the place of surrender. The willingness to release control and submit to the Farmer's pruning is a foundational spiritual practice.  To release ourselves and our lives to the tending of the Gardener requires that we let go of our need to be control and find our identity and trust in the Vine.


Pruning is perhaps some of our most vulnerable moments.  Whether it is a circumstance that brings change, or a sense of a need to let go of something in our lives, recognizing that in order to be more fruitful there is something to let go is often very difficult. 


Some of the things that are hard to release:


Shame for not being who we think we should be
A job that gives us identity that is time to leave
Fear of rejection
A relationship that keeps us small
Over-responsibility for others
Self-destructive habits that give temporary relief
Ministry that God has not called us to




In this week of the passion of Christ, it's a good time to take note of the gentle and clear ways that the Spirit is pruning our lives so that we will be more fruitful. Take note of the push and pull in your Spirit--the places of consolation (obvious presence of God) and desolation (sense of absence of God). 
What are the things that you can release in order to become yielded to an increase in the yield?