All Saints Lake Wylie

Fruitful or Productive?

“Yes,” said Joel, “I’m hooked on productivity.  I run a business, and my wife and I have three young children.  I have to produce and my employees have to produce if we’re to accomplish anything.  My days are jam-packed.  If there’s any time left over I spend it with my family.”  Joel’s thinking on productivity received a shake-up at a men’s retreat.  The retreat leader asked a question.  ”When you think of Jesus, do you think of him with a daily to-do list?  (‘Three people healed today.  Two fast comebacks to the scribes and Pharisees.  One really great parable told.  Oh yes, and dinner for 5,000.  And I got the disciples to distribute the leftovers.  A very good day.  Well done, me’).”  Joel listened intently.  ”Jesus spoke wisely and constantly extended mercy and grace.  He might now and then retreat from the crowds, yet when he was with people, he was really with them.  He saw needs that others could not see.  He loved people well.  But was he productive?  Productivity can become a mind-set of constantly moving forward.  Being busy, not at times and in moderation, but as a lifestyle.  Productivity seeks what fruitfulness claims as its starting point – the assurance of God’s presence and love.”  Fruitfulness, Joel saw, allows you to be fully present in the moment.  Fruitfulness is deeply rooted in the soil of God’s grace.  Fruitfulness requires a fundamental trust in the Holy Spirit, like compost around the roots of the fig tree in today’s Gospel.  The Spirit is working at all times and in all places and, if we allow it, is at work in us–busy or not.

Living Stewardship Now
Put aside the lists and waste some time with God – pray, take a nap, play with the kids, admire nature.  It may not be productive, but it will be fruitful.