Where is the Fruit?
I’m tired. You’re tired. We’re all tired. In today’s world of exhaustion, it is hard to get a break. We live in uncertain times. There are few things in our world that are stable. Even if we are not struggling, there are many around us who are, and, as The Salvation Army, we are called to help them. But sometimes it feels like an uphill battle. Jesus said that the poor will always be among us, and so far, he has been proven right.
Those of us who continue to serve in The Salvation Army – officers, soldiers, employees, and volunteers – do so because of our calling. Many of us feel called by God to serve a suffering humanity. I would argue that this is the calling of all Christians. Why do we serve through The Salvation Army? Why has God called us here, now? These are questions that I know are being asked throughout our organization.
In my work as a counselor, I have found that calling and expectations go hand in hand. As a society, we have an expectation that work will provide our life with fulfillment. This is baked into American culture in many subtle ways. When we meet new people, our first question is often, “What do you do for a living?” Work is the most interesting thing in our lives. It is where we spend most of our time. For those of us with a mission, work takes on even greater meaning.
I, as a Salvationist, am called by God to serve in and through The Salvation Army. This means that God has a purpose for me being here and doing the work that I am doing. We have an expectation that if God has called us to something then our labor must be fruitful. But what happens when we aren’t seeing fruit? Many of us begin to doubt. “I am struggling and suffering for the Kingdom of God, yet I cannot see how my sacrifice is in any way advancing God’s work in the world.” This is when we begin questioning God’s calling on our life. “Surely, if God wanted me to keep doing this work it would be fruitful.”
Jesus tells us that he is the vine and we are the branches. If we remain in him, we will bear much fruit. Those who do not remain in him wither, are thrown into the fire, and are burned. I think that many of us today feel burned. We fail to see fruit in our lives and become convinced that we are distant from the vine. It generates a spiritual crisis within us. We feel fundamentally disconnected from God and begin to question everything that holds us steady. It is when we are most destabilized that we become most vulnerable.
I am not here to tell you whether or not you are bearing fruit; that is between you and God. But I am convinced that many of us are looking for fruit in all the wrong places. Right after Jesus speaks about being the vine, he goes on to tell us how to stay connected to the vine. We must love others as God has loved us. We must remain in His love. “Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends,” (John 15:13). The fruit Jesus is talking about doesn’t preclude suffering; it is suffering. The way we show love to others is by making sacrifices for others. If your fruit is coming without sacrifice, it is not God’s fruit.
So many Christians are deceived. We are convinced we are suffering without cause, sold on the lie that our sacrifice is not bearing fruit. Here is the test by which you can judge your fruit: Am I loving others? Am I making sacrifices for others? Am I hated by the world? Then you are doing it right! Christians are called to suffer and to struggle. If our calling to be like Jesus, to serve others, and to be holy was easy, everyone would do it. But we have fallen for the lie of what the world tells us our calling should be rather than what God says our calling truly is.
There is a fantastic quote I heard recently from long time co-host of NPR’s “Car Talk,” Tom Magliozzi: “Happiness equals reality minus expectations.” This means that as our expectations go up, our happiness goes down. Because we feel called by God, soldiers and officers alike, so many of us have sky-high expectations of our service and the fruits we will see from that work. These expectations drag down our happiness, push us into a place of compassion fatigue, and eventually drive us away from the mission God has called us to. Later in John 15, Jesus tells us to expect persecution and suffering if we are truly bearing fruit. If we enter with the expectation of suffering, anything pleasant is worth celebrating.
Reality for many of us is fantastic, whether we realize it or not. Even the poorest person in the United States lives better than a king from 200 years ago. A king at that time didn’t have access to unlimited music, entertainment, central heating and air conditioning, or the variety of food we have today. In fact, we have such a proliferation of food that our societal problem is obesity, while even 50 years ago the primary problem was mass starvation. In the West we are incredibly fortunate with many things that demand gratitude, if we could just gain a little perspective. Many of us are incredibly blessed, but our expectations prevent us from enjoying it.
Today, if you feel disheartened, I encourage you to begin questioning your expectations. Do you expect your life to be easy because you are doing what God has asked you to do? Are you struggling to identify the fruits of your labor? Are you failing to see God’s hand moving in your life? These are all problems that can be solved by shifting your expectations. There has been a lot of research into depression, and we have found that one of the most impactful things we can do is to be thankful for what we have. Make a concerted effort every day to thank God for the blessings He has given you. Create a journal and make a list of reasons to be thankful. When you are discouraged, return to that journal and begin a prayer of thankfulness rather than a prayer of misery.
Taking these simple steps can return you back to what God has called you to do — love others. Even when you cannot see the direct impact of your love, know that God is working through you by giving you the energy and resources to love others.