Bear fruit with patience.

Are we there yet? Is it over yet? Are we done yet? – All questions I’ve heard and asked a million times.

And this past week, as we set out to cut up and clean up a huge section of our beautiful backyard willow tree that had fallen this winter… I asked it of myself over and over. How many more branches? How much longer? Are we done yet?

Well, after several days of cutting and stacking… there’s still a lot left undone.

Standing there in my backyard, in the spot where the branches once provided shade, I was reminded of the intersection of patience and labor. Of hard work and waiting.

In Luke 8:15, the evangelist quotes Jesus explaining the parable of the seeds. It is interesting to note that the seeds that failed to grow seemed to do so quickly – being readily snatched up along the path, on the rocks, and among the thorns. But the ones that grew to bear fruit… well, they did it slowly. Jesus said, “As for that in the good soil, they are those who, hearing the word, hold it fast in an honest and good heart, and bear fruit with patience.”

Note that in saying they held God’s Word fast in their hearts, he didn’t mean that they did so quickly, but rather they did so firmly. Think steadfast, not microwave-fast.

It also seems that those described here, bear this fruit with some degree of effort… these seeds grew to bear fruit… while the others fell and allowed themselves to be taken away, deceived, and distracted. So, while I guess it’s not easy to bear fruit, it sure seems to be good…

And it does take patience… which seems to be an important lesson for us these days, as many of us work from home for an indefinite time-frame, wait on hold (perhaps seemingly endlessly) for the unemployment agent to answer, or wait and wonder when this will all be over.

Perhaps there are a few ways we might respond. We might allow ourselves to be taken away by worry. We might allow ourselves to be deceived by the lies of the enemy. We might become distracted by so many things that (still) ultimately don’t matter. Or… perhaps, we might do the work to firmly welcome God’s word into our hearts, where it can take root firmly. Now’s as good a time as any – after all, it seems we have all the time in the world.