It’s cliché, but life really is like a garden. Not only are there applicable analogies with the soil, sunlight, weeding, and so forth, there is also the experience and change of seasons. We are all in the same season right now here at Impact 360. At the beginning of last week, we were discussing with Dr. John Basie the parable of Jesus concerning the sower and the seeds (Matthew 13). The seed represents the gospel and the soil represents our hearts.
This week, during life together in the mornings, we started studying John 15:1-17, where Jesus taught about being the vine and God being the vinedresser. An area that stuck out to me was the verse about pruning. I’ve grown up in a family where the garden has been an integrated aspect of our lives. My great-grandmother had a garden, my grandmother has a garden, and now my own mom has a garden, a love that she has passed down to me. As such, my mom has taught me that when it comes to growth, pruning is necessary. If this is neglected, instead of abundance, decay ensues. Now pruning can be painful, but it’s necessary, and beneficial.
Tuesday, we started our discussion on this week’s topic: Creation, Fall, and Redemption. In class, we recalled that at the beginning of creation, the garden was not yet finished. Furthermore, we discussed how the mandate from God is to: “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it” (Genesis 1:28).
How does this apply to our lives? It addresses how the internal (pruning) affects the external (vocation). In what areas is God pruning my heart? And how does this affect the person God wants me to become? These are questions we’re asking here at Impact 360.