Luke 6: 43-45
Last summer, my 73-year-old mom broke her foot in the spring and couldn’t tend to her garden or her flowers. All the family stepped up in various ways to help out: my sister and nieces planted her garden (which is enormous!) My other sister weeded her flower beds. My son “weed-whacked” all around their hobby farm. I attacked the roses and elderberry bush. They were so overgrown. The old growth, now long dead, was impeding new life. This was quite the undertaking. I sat and analyzed the bushes. I looked at each branch carefully. Where did the growth start and stop, carefully cut at the correct location? I'm getting a few excellent scratches because no rose bush wants to be pruned.
It’s pretty much the same with people. Who wants to be pruned? It’s painful. It hurts. It doesn't feel good when God comes in to carve out the yuck in our lives. While the process is so painful, the results afterward are so rewarding. We turn into the most beautiful version of ourselves! My Mom sent me a photo of her newly-pruned rose bushes in mid-June, and they bloomed and were flourishing more than they had in a long time!
Luke 6:43-45 says:
“No good tree bears bad fruit, nor does a bad tree bear good fruit. Each tree is recognized by its own fruit. People do not pick figs from thornbushes, or grapes from briers. A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of.”
Amazing Grace
A few years ago, I wasn’t living the best life. I was just starting therapy for all my childhood trauma, diagnosed with Complex PTSD, and then more trauma happened. I snapped. I was so angry with God, with my husband, with basically everyone. My heart was hard. I fled (because I’m a flight personality by nature), and I started to hang with people who were toxic to me. People who used me for a variety of reasons. I didn’t have good boundaries back then, either. I did things I’m not proud of. I was trying to drown my pain, both mental and physical, in any way I could.
All in all, I wasn’t a charming person. I hated myself and what I was doing to my family, but I couldn’t see a way out. I was in so much pain both mentally, emotionally, and physically, I just wanted to die. Somehow, Jesus pulled me out of that darkness. I was rescued from the pit. Started to slowly clean up my act from the inside out, in therapy and with Jesus. I have gone through a deep pruning by God Almighty. With his loving hands, He has examined every one of my branches, looking for dead and thorny limbs bearing no fruit and cutting those branches off!
I am so thankful for second chances, third chances, and so on. I’m so thankful for God’s grace. His love never fails. His mercy is new EVERY MORNING. His word says in John 3:16 “For God so loved the world, that He gave His one and only son, that whoever believes in Him, should not perish, but have everlasting life.” I like to replace “the world” with my name. It makes it more personal. If you’ve never tried reading it that way, I recommend you read it aloud. Jesus did that. He would have done that just for you. Just for me….
Back to my story…to bear good fruit, I needed better choices in my life. I sought out people who could influence me toward better ways of living- more uplifting and cheerful mindsets. The closer I have gotten to Jesus through his Word and prayer, the more “pruning” happened to my heart, the more I’ve wanted to “de-clutter” my thoughts: my mind of toxicity both in my time, what I watch, who I’m around, what I listen to, what I’m reading and what’s in my home. This word Simplicity came to me at just the right time.
I looked it up in Webster's 1828 Dictionary
SIMPLIC’I’TY, noun [ Latin simplicitas.]
Singleness; the state of being unmixed or uncompounded; as the simplicity of metals or of earths.
The state of being not complex, or of consisting of few parts; as the simplicity of a machine.
Artlessness of mine; freedom from a propensity to cunning or stratagem; freedom from duplicity; sincerity. Marquis Dorset, a man for his harmless simplicity neither misliked nor much regarded.
Plainness; freedom from artificial ornament; as the simplicity of a dress, or style, of language, etc. simplicity in writing is the first or excellences.
Plainness: freedom from subtlety or abstruseness, as the simplicity of scriptural doctrines or truth.
Weakness of intellect; silliness. Godly simplicity in the Scriptures is a fair, open profession and practice of evangelical truth, with a single view to obedience and to the glory of God.
Numbers 1 through 4 were obvious. But…WHOA!!! My mind was blown when I read numbers 5 and 6. I don’t think that would be in today’s version of Webster’s Dictionary…just saying… that my other word at the end of 2021 was OBEDIENCE, which ultimately ties into Simplicity.
“EMBRACE THE GLORIOUS MESS THAT YOU ARE”
~ Elizabeth Gilbert
I love this quote by Elizabeth Gilbert. I’ve had to embrace the horrible, awful, hot mess that I was. While it’s humbling and embarrassing to know how far to the extreme I had fallen into a spiral, it helps me see the amazing grace that God has given me, AND it also helps me see how far I’ve come!!! So embrace the glorious mess that you are. Whether you are a hot mess currently or you are in process. That is okay. Wherever you are. We are in this together. That’s the amazing thing about grace.