One Apple?

 

The fall is here, which means apple harvest at the Waldron household.  We have three apple trees and two of them are quite large and so you can imagine how long it will take to harvest all the fruit.

There will be apple sauce and pies and jams.  There will be apples aplenty for school lunches.  Who knows what all the glorious things we will be able to do with our harvest?

Or, maybe not...

You see, on all three of our trees, there is only one, solitary apple.  

There's a picture book that I always enjoyed that is called, "Who's got the apple?"  (by Jan Loof).  It revolves around the apple of a store keeper who is raising a single, beautiful fruit on a little apple tree in his backyard.  The apple has many adventures until ends up in the hands of the man in the striped suit.

Unlike that store keeper, our (my) plan wasn't to have only one apple.  Further, this isn't any kind of amazing or special apple.

Each year, I have tried pruning our trees and fertilizing them.  I read books about improving apple harvest.  I even prayed that my apple trees would shape up and do better.  Nothing really has helped a whole lot and every year we get between one and three apples.

Galatians 5:22-23 says, "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law."

I look at the world around me and I don't see many of these fruits exemplified.  It seems as though kindness went out of fashion in the late 19th century and gentleness about a hundred years before that.  Few are joyful and don't get me started about self-control.

In the church, where these things should be ever present, I am afraid the harvest these days is pretty scanty.  "Oh yes," we say.  "I was patient last week.  I think.  And then, there was that time when, if I wasn't totally joyful, I was kind of happy.  And my kids ate the oreos before I could get to them, so that was kind of self control."

Maybe we Christians have too much in common with my apple trees.  The harvest just isn't what either it could or should be.

Should a Christian be satisfied with a harvest that happens once or twice a month?  Is God satisfied with an output like that?

Whatever our harvest is today, our focus must be on increasing it.  We must listen to the Spirit and let Him prune and nourish our lives till we are bearing everyone of His fruits and lots of them.

The harvest isn't scanty because of the Spirit.  He is the same as He ever was, willing to work wonders in our hearts.  It is the fault of His people who no longer are focused on listening to His voice and doing His will...

Or, even bearing His fruit.

School Days

 

"Are you excited to go back to school?  I asked the four of my children who were starting back to school.

"Yes!"  Victoria said, very loudly.

"No!"  Elliot said, just as loudly.

Regardless of what they thought about going back to school, they went back to classes this last week.  I can't say that their mother was totally displeased with their return to school.  

They went back to the normal things, school books and teachers, lessons and lunches, and back to the gentle grind of learning.

Most of us were glad when we reached the age where we were done with school.  It was a blessing to reach the point where we received a diploma and could finally begin to receive a paycheck as well.

Though we graduated with the highest marks, hopefully, that was not the end of our learning.

Learning in the school of life is not easy.  The Book of James tells us to "ask for wisdom."  When I was younger, I imagined that God would just appear in a dream, as He did to Solomon and just give it to me -- maybe when I turned old, like 32 or some age like that.  Then, I would know when to tell people to cut babies in half and stuff like that.

That isn't really the way that we learn or gain wisdom.

Romans 5:3-5 says, "Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us."

Each day I awaken in life's school room with a challenge.  I must identify the lessons before me and then learn them as perfectly as I can.  More often than not, those lessons will involve some sort of trial.

I find these lessons harder than even the hardest days in Medical School.  They are no longer just about learning about a new disease process, enzyme, or medication class.  Now, I find the learning to be in areas like kindness, gentleness, and patience.

Unlike with the times tables, these are not easily learned and applied.  Instead, I feel like I am constantly learning and re-learning these lessons.

I am not excited to study these lessons, but I know that I will not graduate from this school until it is time for me to "go home."  In the meantime, my goal must be to become more and more like my Master, one learning filled day at a time.

Messages From the ICU

 

"He was pretty sick," the nurse told me.  "He kept telling me that he was in his 50s and that he was pretty healthy except for a little blood pressure and so he had thought he'd be fine.  We started on him on dexamethasone, Remdesivir, heparin, and oxygen."

"How was his family?"  I asked.  

"His wife and daughter were pretty upset, but they all thought he'd be OK.  He felt pretty bad and kept telling us that he wished he'd gotten vaccinated."

She paused for a second then began again.  "Then, he crashed.  We had to paralyze him and intubate him.  We proned him -- did everything we could and by the next morning he was dead."

"It was really terrible for his wife and daughter.  Just so quick, you know?"

The sad thing is that this story is not a solitary one.  There are many stories about very sick people in the ICU telling their families to get vaccinated and telling them not to get COVID, that it is worse than they thought.

The interesting thing to me is how easy it is for people to discount these accounts.  Perhaps they believe that they are made up by the media, or that there was something really wrong with the patient that made them so sick.

Regardless, the messages from the ICU often fall on deaf ears.

I've been contemplating the parable of the rich man and Lazarus.  This parable is simply the story of a wealthy man (given no name) and a poor man (named Lazarus).  We know virtually nothing about them except that they lived close to each other and they both died.

Lazarus after dying went Paradise, while the rich man went to hell.  There, in hell, he had a conversation with father Abraham where he begged Abraham to send Lazarus back, "For I have five brothers -- so that he may warn them, lest they also come into this place of torment."

Abraham denies this request, telling him that his brothers have Moses and the prophets (the Scriptures) to warn them of how they should behave.  

Still, the tormented man persisted.  "No, father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead they will repent."

Abraham's reply was simple.  "If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they convinced if someone should rise from the dead."

It seems a strange thing.  Maybe Jesus was telling His disciples that many would never believe in His resurrection.  Perhaps He was speaking of people's unwillingness to hear voices that ask them to change their lives.  Change comes from within, not from outside forces.

I don't know why it is that people are so quick to discount good advice.  This really has nothing to do with COVID.  It has everything to do our desires and even the hardness of our hearts.

I see it all of the time.  People plan what they are going to do and then seek out counselors who encourage them in that path.

If you look hard enough, you can always find someone who will encourage you to continue to live dangerously.

Far better are those who listen -- to Jesus, the law and the prophets.  They will be blessed, both now and in the future.