I have been hanging out with the Empower Rangers team out here in Kumakwane, Botswana, and it has been so fun. The ministry consists of multiple different things. We’ve been helping our hosts, Jeff and April, with aquaponics farming. Kristi and Kelsey have been helping at the cafe that Jeff and April own. We’ve helped with worship on Wednesday’s, Bible study on Friday’s, and movie nights on Saturday’s.
The aquaponics farming has been my favorite part of ministry this month. It seems like every single thing we do in regards to farming is a metaphor to our relationship with the Lord. It is CRAZY. I am learning so many different things just through the tasks we are asked to complete each day.
A few days ago, April asked us to move some strawberry plants from the ground to a wall they have that holds plants vertically. Before moving them, she explained that we needed to clean the roots up and trim the excess stems, wilted or not. Too many leaves, regardless of whether they’re beautifully green, stunt the ability for the plant to grow.
“Remove the dead leaves and also ones on the edges. You only need a couple leaves for it to grow.”
The process of pruning. I have literally never thought much in depth about it before this month, but it’s amazing. Listen to the official definition: trim by cutting away dead or overgrown branches or stems, especially to increase fruitfulness and growth.
Removing the dead leaves feels like an obvious correlation ; get rid of the sin in our lives that’s thwarting our relationship with the Lord. Easy enough. While reading in Mark 9 today, I couldn’t help but think of the concept of pruning. It’s an intense piece of scripture, and I still don’t fully understand why it reads so literal, but I appreciate the rawness of it.
And if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life crippled than with two hands to go to hell, to the unquenchable fire. And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life lame than with two feet to be thrown into hell. And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into hell, ‘where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.’
Mark 9:43-48 ESV
Linds, our alumni squad leader, brought up another point later in the morning. The Lord was speaking to her through pruning in a different way. Pride.
I didn’t understand at first what she meant by that. She talked through the fact that we were cutting off excess leaves, too. Not just the ugly ones, but the ones that still looked pretty. The ones that make a plant bigger and more noticeable. Yet here we are, cutting them off to increase fruitfulness and growth.
If that doesn’t sound like pride, I don’t know what does. We puff ourselves up and hang on to all the things that make us look better, sound better, appear better.
In reality, we can’t do anything fruitful for the Kingdom apart from the Holy Spirit. Therefore we have to die to ourselves and our pride in order for the Lord to work through us.
Dang. What a heart check. And a hard reality too. Pruning is a painful process that doesn’t fully make sense initially. To cut off the good looking leaves seems counter intuitive, but you quickly realize that fruit will never grow if there isn’t any room for it.
So, I guess my question for you is, what do you need to prune?
Follow my personal blog at https://lindseykappler.wordpress.com/blogposts/
