The Call to Die - Am I Ready?

The meaning of the principle of “bearing fruit” in my life is taking on a deeper understanding than ever before.  Oh, don’t get me wrong, I understand it, but I don’t want to give in to it!  I don’t like giving ME up for anyone, but that is what He’s calling me to.  He’s asking me to die.  To myself – and what that means, then, is that I have to live for others.  Not for myself anymore – not for what pleases me or how I feel about it – whether “it” is the situation, the comment, the hurt, or the past abuse.  Ohhh, how my inner rebellious core battles with this one!  I’m fighting it, tooth and nail!

                I know this principle, I know the logistics around it.  I know the Scriptures touting it, and the things Christ had to say about it.  I know the ancient truth about it, and I can even see the results of living obedient to it, visible in other lives, lives around me… heck, I’ve even preached it and taught it!  But I just don’t know how to DIE yet.  Not fully. 

                How do we really bear fruit in life?  Take nature as a symbolic illustration – Christ always did!  I have a vibrant patch of strawberries on our garden, and they just bore the “first fruits” of the season yesterday – yummy!  However, for the green parts to come back in the spring, for the petite white flowers to bud and bloom, for the fruit to form under the bloom, then sprout into fruit “buds”, then – mmmmm the juiciness of it all!  The rich, ripe, juicy, red strawberries that resulted!  For all this to happen…well, winter came.  It wiped away the “old” and the plant DIED.  Now, it didn’t die fully - not completely.   It just died enough to kill off the useless parts - the parts that were dragging down the rest of the plant.

Symbolic, huh?!  Trees are like that too, and grass – that’s how He made it.  Where the life, the individuality of that being doesn’t die, the dreams don’t die, (He gave them to us, He’s not a dream killer!)   No, death is only for the old and useless part, the part that is dragging us down.  Once this death happens, rebirth comes!  For some areas, it’s a longer process than for others, but it always comes.

I’m so glad He’s showing me this – it makes it a little easier to listen to the call to die.