Daily Reflections on Lk. 13:6-9 (Getting Rid of the Deadwood)

This past winter and spring were devastating to some of the newly planted shrubs and plants around my house. I'm a sucker for flowering shrubs. Our house had nothing but dying vegetation throughout the yard when we moved in a couple years ago. It was a lot of back breaking working to pull the old deadwood shrubs out, prepare the beds and plant new ones. In southwest Missouri one has to mine before one can plant. You don't dig a hole and drop in a bush. You chisel a hole with a pick ax, jack hammer, or back hoe. Talk about manual labor.

Between the worse ice storm in 30 years and an extremely late killer frost this spring just as many trees and bushes were preparing to bloom, it did a big time number on my azaleas, roses, butterfly bushes, sand cherry, Altheas (Rose of Sharon), crepe myrtle, rhododendrons, Bradford pears, Dogwoods and nandinas. It even nearly killed my dwarf evergreens. I was heart broken. Everything looked dead.

Like many others, I went to the plant nursery to find out what to do. Since we've never had a late killer frost like that, no one knew what to do. I was ready to dig it all out and start over. But the advice a of master gardener encouraged me to wait. "They more than likely won't bloom this year, but give it time and the plants should make it," she pronounced. I followed her advice. It took some time and some special care, but nearly all of the plants have survived and some of them even bloomed, albeit late. There's no doubt signs of stress in several of the bushes, but I only lost one Rose of Sharon.

Giving them time and attention helped them to make it and produce. Had I just gone on appearance last spring, I would have angrily ripped about 30 plants from the ground and started over. As it turned out, my patience and care saved me tons of time and cash. Looks like now I'll only be replacing one shrub.

At some point, God will dig up the deadwood and get rid of it. In the meantime, He gives us every chance to respond to Him and grow in Him. He may have to do a radical pruning to force us back from the roots, but He's desire is to see us bloom and grow.

God, gentle pruning is hard enough to take. Radical pruning is downright painful. Lord, you know what I need when I need it. I know you'll do what you have to keep me growing into the image of your Son. I confess I enjoy the fertilizing and watering more than the pruning. Go ahead do what you must so that I can produce the kind of fruit that gives you glory. Show me as a leader, when to break out the pruning shears and when to apply the fertilizer and water. Lord, also help me know who/what still has potential and who/what is deadwood.

Daily Reflections on Jn. 15:1-4 (Pruning)

My dad used to grow roses. For a time he was part of the Jackson Perkins experimental rose growing program. They periodically would send him roses to grow and report on. I can't begin to recount how many roses we had growing in our yard. Of course we had more than one bed. And as the number of roses he grew increased, often my dad often tagged the household slaves (also known as his boys) to help with the planting, pruning, digging, and especially the clean up.

My dad gave us special training on how to care for the roses. He showed us how to prepare the beds, the soil, the plants for planting. We had to make sure the right mixture of dirt, peat and nutrients surrounded the roots. We'd spread out the roots a little, trim back the branches a little to force new growth, stick the plant in the ground at the perfect depth, backfill and water.

Once the rose was in the ground and growing, we had to keep a sharp eye on the plants. My dad taught us that once the rose bloomed, we were to trim that stem back behind the first five leaves. He also taught us that instead of allowing the rose to produce a candelabra effect of multiple blooms on the same stem, we were to trim back the lesser buds allowing only one bud to bloom. Both prunings were to allow for a bigger, healthier, more vibrant bloom.

Today's hybrid roses are actually grafted onto the base of a wild rose. The wild rose root system is hardier than the many special and colorful breeds of today. My dad cautioned us to be sure to trim off any branch growing from below the graft. If not done, the wild rose would take over and the hybrid would die.

Jesus said that God is the master gardener. He prunes us from time to time to shape us, grow us, develop us, make us stronger and more productive for the Kingdom and simply as human beings. Occasionally a wild branch shoots from our old, human nature that God has to trim off. His discipline isn't always pleasant, but necessary to keep up conforming into the image of His Son.

God, I'm just an old wild rose, full of thorns. There's not a lot of beauty in my life. But thanks for pruning off the old me and grafting on your glory. I want to bloom for you. I want people to see just what you've done in my life. I confess, I don't always like your discipline, your pruning, but I want to be productive. Trim off my wild shoots. Keep me pruned to where I can give you the most glory.

Daily Reflections on Mt. 7:15-20 (Good Apples and Bad Apples, Choose Your Friends Wisely)

There's an old adage in business hiring practices that says the best predictor of future behavior is past behavior. For the most part I've found that to be true. There have been some rare circumstances that that has not proved to be accurate, but 95 percent of the time it is. It really is hard for a leopard to change his or her spots.

I've watched young ladies time and time again fall in love with a young man vowing to she'll change his evil, lazy, abusive, ambitionless, or godless ways when they were married. It isn't long before reality hits. The marriage struggles, dreams are dashed, and all too often the fading romance gives way to disaster and divorce.

By the same token, I've advised young men to look closely at the young lady's mother to which they are entwined. The values of the mom are more often that not adopted by the daughter. Many times even mannerisms are unwittingly assimilated. How a young woman's mother treats her father is a pretty good indicator of how she'll treat her husband. There's another cliche, "The apple doesn't fall far from the tree."

Having done more funerals than I can count, it's pretty easy to tell what kind of person the deceased was in life by the number of flowers and sympathizers at the visitation and/or funeral. Giving, gracious, others-centered persons almost always draw bigger crowds and an abundance of florals. On the other hand, stingy, hateful, merciless, self-centered people produce quiet, unadorned mortuaries.

Jesus said by our fruit people will know who and what we are. He noted that good trees produce good fruit and bad trees produce bad fruit. The first question I have to ask myself is, "What kind of fruit am I producing?" The second question is, "What kind of fruit are my friends, boyfriend, girlfriend, chillin' buddies producing?" If one bad apple will spoil the whole bunch, what kind of apples are you hangin' with currently?

God, all of my fruit isn't so good. I need you to fertilize and water and nurture and prune where necessary. Give me the wisdom to choose my friends and associates. Help me surround myself with good trees and apples. Help me cut off the savory, questionable, negative influencers in my life.