Farmer Jones sensed trouble on the trellis. His grape givers groaned. Leaves drooped. Vines dragged. Listless loganberries sighed in chorus.
The farmer listened for a time and decided to do what grape growers have done since the beginning of the writing of this chapter. He talked to his crop. A boss-to-branch chat was in order. He set a stool between the rows, pulled off his straw hat, took a seat, and invited, “Okay, guys. Why the gloom? This is not the whine I had in mind.”
At first no one spoke. Finally, a slender tendril opened up. “I just can’t do it anymore!” he blurted. “I squeeze and push, but the grapes won’t come.”
Leaves bounced as other branches nodded in agreement. “I can’t even get a raisin to pop out,” one confessed.
“Call me cluster barren,” shouted another.
“Forgive me for being sappy,” offered one more, “but I’m one burdened branch. I’m so tired my bark is barking.”
Farmer Jones shook his head and sighed. “No wonder you guys are unhappy. You’re trying to do what you can’t do and forgetting to do what you’re made to do. Stop forcing the fruit. Your job is to hang on to the vine, to keep connected to the trunk. Get a grip! You’ll be amazed by what you will produce.”
Far-fetched conversation? Between a farmer and a vineyard, yes.
But between our Father and his children? He must hear multiple moans a minute.
“I’m a spiritual flop.”
“The only fruit I bear is fear.”
“Perfect peace? I feel like a perfect mess.”
The phrase “fruitless and fret filled” describes too many of us. We don’t want it to. We long to follow Paul’s admonition: “Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise” (Phil. 4:8 NLT).
With a grimace and fresh resolve, we determine, Today I will think only true, honorable, and right thoughts. . . even if it kills me.
Paul’s call to peace can become a list of requirements: every thought must be true, honorable, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent, and worthy of praise.
Gulp. Who can do this?
Confession: I find the list difficult to keep. Heaven knows, I’ve tried. A random idea will pop into my head, and I’ll pass it through the passage. Was it true, honorable, pure . . . What’s next? I have trouble remembering the eight virtues, much less remembering to filter my thoughts through them. Maybe the list works for you. If so, skip this chapter, If not, there is a simpler way.
Make it your aim to cling to Christ. Abide in him. Is he not true, honorable, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent, and worthy of praise? Is this not the invitation of his message in the vineyard?
Source: Lucado, Max. Anxious for Nothing: Finding Calm in a Chaotic World. Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2017.
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