He told us that he was reading Genesis, and he paused when he got to the "be fruitful and multiply" parts in chapters 1 (& 2?). He asked God why He put "be fruitful and multiply" when it's somewhat redundant: to "be fruitful" is a very similar way of saying "multiply." Then he said that God showed him the difference:
- "Multiply" means to procreate.
- "Be fruitful," as God explained to my friend, means "live out fully My blessing that I gave you." In other words, be useful and productive with the life I gave you.
His challenge to us was "How useful am I in the kingdom of God?"
He used a simple analogy to explain what he meant. He has an orange tree in his back yard. Shortly after he planted it, he noticed many fragrant blossoms, and got very excited because it had always been a dream of his to have an orange tree. He eagerly anticipated the delicious oranges he would be eating in a short while. The blossoms then produced tiny, green, immature fruit. To his great dismay, all of the immature fruit kept dropping off of the tree, leaving him with nothing. He researched this problem on the internet, and decided to try to self-pollinate the tree. It worked! He now enjoys an abundance of delicious oranges! The tree was finally fruitful. :)
In the beginning, the tree looked good, produced blossoms, and even tiny, immature fruit, but the tree was not fruitful because it did not produce mature fruit. It was not useful (except to provide oxygen!), and could not "live out fully" the blessing that it was created to be.
We have all been created for a purpose. We were not created just to take up space and suck up oxygen from the atmosphere. God created each of us for a specific, unique, divine purpose. We were not called merely to survive from day to day. I have such a hard time with that because I find it so difficult to be a single mom, work full time, and enjoy my Wednesday night girls' ministry. During the school year, I struggle so much to keep my head above water mentally and emotionally. I feel so overwhelmed by my daily responsibilities and unexpected challenges that I can do little more than survive.
I have tried various ways to overcome this struggle:
- My Sabbath is a Saturday because I can enjoy more time at rest than I can on Sunday.
- I have lowered my expectations for maintaining my home (I don't expect it to be 100% neat 100% of the time).
- I have given up on maintaining the yard.
- I cook every other night instead of every night (we eat leftovers on the other nights).
- I treat us to In-N-Out on Friday nights, so I don't have to cook or plan a meal.
- I spend a couple of hours with the Lord every Saturday morning to recharge my batteries (in addition to church on Sunday, of course).
- I go to work very early a few times per week so that I can leave early and attend to Carlos' needs after school (before I'm too tired).
So far, nothing works. I don't know how to maintain this level of peace even in the face of the daily responsibilities and challenges of life. I really want to learn how. There must be a way.
I also found it inspiring that my friend had to manually pollinate the tree in order for it to be fruitful. As I pondered this, I realized that we, too, have to make an effort in order to be fruitful. Fruitfulness is not an intrinsic part of our nature. We become fruitful when we regularly spend time with God: in His Word, through praise and worship, in prayer, and in fellowship with other believers. As we spend more time with Him, our character becomes more like His, and He will speak to us and guide us along the path that HE has chosen for our lives. In that way we will live out FULLY the blessings that He wants to give us. Meditation with Him fuels our fruitfulness, in the same way that pollination is the key to a fruitful orange tree.
My friend also sought the Lord in the repetition of the sentence "And the Lord saw that it was good." He encouraged us to live out a life that God considers "good." Maybe part of the key for me is to be inspired by the challenges I face instead of cowering in fear and feeling overwhelmed and frustrated by them.
I hope this inspired you as it did me! :) God bless you!
Comments