Hard Pruning--April 24, 2019

[From April 27, 2011; adapted from my April 23, 2003 journal]

Must you prune so hard, O God?

Do I have to bear more and more fruit?

I would prefer a more leisurely, passive role—

just carried along by others to lie at the Beautiful Gate

and to take what comes.  Instead I am pushed to the point of

falling; bees buzz angrily about me.  What can I do but look to you?

Lectionary Readings

Ps. 99; 147:1-11; 9; 118

Micah 7:7-15

Acts 3:1-10

John 15:1-11

Selected Verses

Ps. 118:12

[All nations] surrounded me like bees;
            they blazed like a fire of thorns;
            in the name of the LORD I cut them off!

 I was pushed hard, so that I was falling,
            but the LORD helped me.

Micah 7:7

But as for me, I will look to the LORD,
            I will wait for the God of my salvation;
            my God will hear me.

Acts 3:2

And a man lame from birth was being carried in.  People would lay him daily at the gate of the temple called the Beautiful Gate so that he could ask for alms from those entering the temple.

John 15:2

"… [My Father, the vinegrower,] removes every branch in me that bears no fruit.  Every branch that bears fruit he prunes to make it bear more fruit.  …"  [Jesus to his disciples]