But the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness (
A few years ago I attempted to plant an orchard on part of our property. I purchased several varieties of apple, peach, and pear trees. I dug, tended, fertilized and watered. I nurtured. I waited. Alas, most of the trees died.
The lone exception was a peach tree, which despite the odds, continued to flourish year by year until finally—last year—it produced its first harvest. The peaches were exceptional—large, delicate, lovely and delicious. Our family enjoyed them with ice cream on several occasions that fall.
However, I learned a lesson from the trees, as well.
Growing fruit—producing fruit—is difficult work. How much more difficult it is to produce fruit or to see the fruit being produced, in people.
Jesus spoke much about this…and in many ways this fruitfulness is at the center of ministry. What is the fruit we are producing? How much? How often? What are the evidences of our fruitfulness and how do we measure it?
I must confess, I struggle with such questions. It is not easy to measure such things, especially in youth ministry. Sure, we can measure numbers such as attendance, work teams and how many kids invited a friend to the lock-in; but the real numbers are more difficult to determine. How many kids made a decision based on faith in the past week? How many kids helped somebody or were helped themselves because of the devotion we offered last week? What are the changes we can’t see?
Growing a mature tree takes time. It takes years! Even in some seasons, the fruit is less than others; the same is true for ministry. It takes a long time to make a disciple. It takes years to grow someone from a infantile faith into a mature Christian. None of this happens overnight.
We should not despair when we our fruit isn’t immediately evident. Keep praying, keep working, keep watering. In time, God will show us a harvest. There will be fruit. God said so.
