Removing the Good to Make Room for the Best

It is officially spring. I know that because I just completed my first day of yard work. For as long as I can remember I have had a garden, but I am still hesitant to call myself a gardener. I am best at growing flowers, but I also have several raised beds in which I grow vegetables.

My hesitation with accepting the title “gardener” is that I feel I lack the skills and knowledge necessary for that job description. I’m more of an experimenter. I love trying something new each year. Slowly, I form opinions about which plants grow well and which location they like best. Typically, this style of gardening leads to epic fails and surprising successes.

I have learned the hard way to just let things die off at the end of the season rather than pruning in the fall. I have lost too many plants from my haphazard trimming. By waiting until the spring, I can see where the new growth is and cut accordingly. Not all plants thrive with this style of pruning. If it can’t wait until the spring for its pruning, then it’s probably not the plant for me.

One plant I have had to part ways with over our pruning differences is the fruit tree. I once had a small orchard of about ten fruit trees. When we moved into our house, the trees had not been pruned in years. I began my research by reading some articles and calling our local master gardeners. The first thing I learned was that fruit trees need to be pruned when they are dormant. This is earlier in the spring than most plants need pruning. Already warning flags were flying.

I didn’t want to give up that quickly so I committed to try it for at least a year. I’m still not sure how we remembered to prune in the early spring that first year, but we did. I gathered all my drawings of what a pruned tree is supposed to look like, and we went to town.

Well, almost.

The pictures made pruning look so drastic. That couldn’t possibly be good for the tree. I decided to take a more gentle approach. I removed the branches that looked dead but only removed about half the amount of branches the pictures showed. By spring, there was so much new growth that you couldn’t even tell I had pruned them. In fact, I think the pruning I did spurred on so much new growth that there were even more branches than before I started.

That first season’s harvest yielded a high quantity of fruit but the quality was poor. Because of my poor pruning, we had numerous bite-sized plums and apples. The pits in most of the fruit were bigger than the flesh. I learned that in order to have juicy, plump fruit, I needed to limit the number of branches that I let grow so the tree’s energy would be focused. By half-heartedly pruning, I had spread the tree’s resources too thin.

Over the six years that I continued to try to hone my pruning abilities, I had one failed attempt after another. One year I forgot to prune during the dormant season. Instead, I pruned in the spring after the tree had already formed buds. The results were that several of the trees failed to produce fruit that year. Other years I would forget to water the trees or water sporadically. One year we had a pipe burst which flooded the orchard. I never quite mastered the art of pruning and growing fruit trees.

This isn’t the only area in my life where I have been unsuccessful with pruning. I tend to have an overabundance of activities in my life. I like to keep busy, and there are always more needs than volunteers. It is usually not until I am drowning in activities that I realize I have, yet again, let my life proceed without a season of pruning.

I admit that I say “yes” too often without taking the time to pray and evaluate. Guilt and obligation are dangerous weapons that I often use to add one more thing to an already overflowing plate.

Maybe survival mode isn’t where I am meant to be living. Maybe God has a better plan for where I should spend my energy. Pruning seems to be the answer, but where should I make the first cut?

Several years ago I did an in-depth Bible study on the vine and branches passage in John 15. There seems to be much in common with how a fruit tree is pruned and how God prunes the life of a believer.

“I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit.” John 15:1-2

Just as it is with a fruit tree, areas in our life need to be pruned so they can bear more fruit. I think we get confused to think that if we add more branches to our life, then our life will be more fruitful. In reality, it is by removing branches that the remaining branches are then able to bear more fruit. We need fewer branches, not more.

Back when I was researching fruit trees I learned that you need to approach pruning from an aerial perspective. The goal of removing branches is that all branches would receive sunlight. If sunlight does not reach the branch, then the fruit will not develop properly. This truth should greatly help us when it comes to pruning our own lives. If there are branches in my life that the Son’s light is not reaching, then they should be removed.

How many activities am I involved in that have nothing to do with God’s calling in my life or the giftings that He has given me? Why am I so motivated by the approval of man?

“Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.” John 15:4-5

Nothing.

I wonder if that is why some days I feel like a hamster running on a wheel going nowhere. Have I forgotten the source of all fruit in my life?

Abide.

That seems so unproductive. Are you sure there isn’t something I should be doing for the Kingdom?

Abide.

Really? My value comes from whose I am not what I can accomplish in 24 hours?

Abide.

Okay, I’m going to do it. I’m going to hand over the pruning shears to someone who is a much more skilled gardener than I am. Spring is a perfect season for pruning, and who knows, maybe this summer, fruit will form.