I have had my fair share of obsessions in life. My elementary school obsession was playing with beanie babies. I can’t really think of any obsessions from middle school because I am pretty sure I blocked that stage of life out. In high school, it was playing the Sims for hours upon hours. In college and in Nashville my obsession became music. I LOVE going to concerts and listening to all sorts of music.
Anyone who knows me can confidently say that I have a slightly obnoxious obsession with Frothy Monkey, which is a small local coffee shop in Nashville. I love everything about it. I love the smell. I love the welcoming faces when you walk through the door. I love the tables by the bar area and the lights that are dimly lit. I adore the walk to the coffee shop through my adorable 12th South neighborhood. I love the music they play. I love that I make friends there that love Frothy equally as much. I love how they decorate for Christmas. I love that they know my name when I walk in and typically have my glass of wine ready for me. And I love their tea when I want to relax. I have tried all their teas. I love each flavor and I am in awe when I ask what’s in it: flowers, grasses, spices. Tea is a craft just like coffee and I realize that I usually overlook the craft.
Last month in Laos, my team and I were invited to come see how tea is crafted and to help on the farm. I jumped at the offer to see how this one woman created a signature tea with just mulberry leaves and lemongrass. For someone who is obsessed with coffee shops, tea and coffee, this was my dream.
We arrived eager and early on a Monday morning. It was entertaining to see six girls from various larger cities in America coming to a small farm in Laos to help do labor.
We pulled up in our new friend Roger’s massive tank of a jeep. We applied our sunscreen and I made sure to wear a tank and shorts so I could get the best tan ever. I walked down the long rows of mulberry bushes in my Nike shorts, Nike shoes, Adidas tank and $5 fake Ray Ban sunglasses and just stood there. There were many rows of nicely pruned bushes that had lots of leaves that would be ready to be picked the next month. Then there were even more bushes that hadn’t been pruned in months that looked completely dead. In my head, we were going to pick the leaves off the nicest bushes. They obviously were the better ones. But she kept walking towards the massive dead looking bushes. She grabbed a saw, trimmers and a hoe and began to show us what we had to do. I laughed in my head. This was supposed to be a breeze. I was supposed to go out there, cut off some leaves, get a tan and get out. But instead I had to work really hard on some dead bushes.
Ya’ll it sucked. For the next countless hours, I cut, sawed, hoed, dragged, pulled and yanked at these dead looking bushes. There wasn’t a leaf on the bush. Seriously, what was the point? They were a lost cause. But there we were, cutting off the branches that could no longer produce any leaves and pruning the branches that had a lot of life left in them but just needed a little adjustment.
We all went in for lunch after working for maybe 2 hours. The woman sat us down and told us her story. She was from north Laos and worked on a mulberry farm that used mulberry leaves to feed silk worms to create silk for amazing scarves, clothing, etc. We found out she was a Christian and she was persecuted for her beliefs. People were searching for her in Laos to kill her but thankfully, she escaped and decided to open her own mulberry farm in a different part of Laos. She planted and tended to many bushes but soon it became too overwhelming for her. She couldn’t prune all the bushes like she wanted to because there wasn’t enough time and she had to tend to the other bushes. But this was her business. This was her dream. How could she give up on something that she knows how to do so well and that she loves? She needed all the bushes and she didn’t want to see any bush go to waste.
She poured us a cup at the end of her mulberry and lemongrass tea while we sat outside looking out at her field and I tasted the dedication that she put into her crops. Tea really is an art. It takes passionate people who have a vision to create something that makes people happy. But it takes hard work.
Fast forward a week to me in Bangkok, Thailand. It is now month 7. I had a mental breakdown at our debrief. It was getting hard and I was ready to bow out. I didn’t want to pack my bags again. I didn’t want to sleep on the floor of a church. I wanted hot showers. But more than that I was tired of being pruned. Pruning is hard. Being told things to work on is tough. I know that I have opinions. So what does it look like to hold my opinions so that others can share theirs. I know that I mask my feelings with humor. So what does it look like to not turn awkward situations into a joke all the time? It is a lot of being dragged, pulled and yanked. It is a lot of hard questions over and over again. And why do we have to go through that? Why can I not be okay with who I was before the race? What is the point of pruning?
Jesus says
“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. Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. 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.”
John 15
I think about what it looks like to bear fruit. Maybe that looks like being nice to people when others are mean. Or maybe it is giving people the chance to share their opinions even if it is taking them five years to come up with opinions. Possibly, it is being selfless when it can be easier and better for you to be selfish. It is asking God to highlight areas in your life that you can grow from and pruning those areas but then cutting off the things in my life that are not from God and throwing those into the fire.
“These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.”
John 15:11
The outcome of this is joy. God wants us to have JOY and joy abundantly. But it is hard work. It takes you not being complacent with things in your life that you know need pruning or burning. It is icky and sometimes in the middle of it you ask God what the point is. But think of the reward at the end of joy. The joy could taste as sweet and mulberry and lemongrass tea.
Are there areas in your life that you need to allow God to drag, pull yank and prune? It isn’t an easy process but think of the joy that will come with allowing God to come in and be your vinedresser.
