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“He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful.”  – John 15:2 

The large holly bush beside our back gate has been there for many years, since long before we bought the house.  It’s a beautiful shrub which I have endeavored to maintain by pruning it regularly to keep it in shape.  Recently, though, I noticed a small patch of dead leaves in one particular spot.  First I thought it was only a tiny twig that simply needed to be snipped off, until further investigation revealed a dead limb tracible all the way down to the base of tree, requiring a saw to cut it out, which I feared in doing so might damage the shrub’s overall appearance.  Not so, as it turned out.  Not only did it not harm the appearance of the plant, it actually seemed to have improved its health.

Gardeners and arborists recognize two types of pruning.  One involves the removal of an entire branch, as I did in cutting out the dead limb; for branches that do not bear fruit, whether dead-dead or functionally dead, need to be cut off at the base not only because they are worthless, but they often infect the health of the overall tree.  The other type of pruning involves simply trimming back.  This type of pruning improves the plant’s health so it becomes even more productive in bearing fruit, besides maintaining a nice shape and appearance as with our holly bush.

It occurred to me as I was pruning that holly bush that day how much I am just like that – indeed we all are.  I’ve been around a long time too, and like that shrub I require a good bit of maintenance to keep me in shape.  Yet, in spite of that I still develop blemishes – similar to the dead leaves and branches – blemishes that need to be removed, like the small pre-cancer spots on my bald head the dermatologist removed this past week, which after they heal my head should look fine and certainly improve my overall health.  Likewise, I have behaviors and lifestyles that need pruning and reshaped from time to time so that I can bear more fruit.

After all, as I was reminded by that holly bush, what is the purpose of my life, and your life, if not to bear fruit?  And how can we bear good fruit without regular and proper pruning?  For, “He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful.”

“Love one another.”  – John 13:34 

“Don’t you want somebody to love?” begins the refrain from the hit song famously performed by Jefferson Airplane, provocatively challenging the listener, “Don’t you need somebody to love?  Wouldn’t you love somebody to love?” Then comes the punch line in the form of profound advice in answer to the riddle, “You better find somebody to love,” it concludes.

As with most pop songs this one is no doubt referring to the search for romantic love, but that’s okay because love has to start somewhere, and romantic love is at least a starting point to experience loving and being loved, caring for someone as much as we care for ourselves, especially for someone who otherwise is not familiar with love  Thankfully, many of us are fortunate enough to have experienced love long before that, from the time we were born having been loved by our mothers and fathers.  The point is, if we desire love – and indeed, that is universal – we need to find somebody to love, whether a romantic partner, a parent or family member, friend, a stranger even, and most importantly God, then be open to the possibility of being loved back.

The amazing thing about love is that once we have experienced it the greater our capacity is to both give and receive it.  I recall one of my sons coming to me expressing deep concern when he and his wife were expecting their second child whether he would have the capacity to love the second one as much as the first.  All I could say was, “wait and see.”  It has now been thirteen years since that conversation, and seeing my son today with his children is living proof that the human capacity to love – specifically my son’s own capacity to love – has solved the riddle.

According to devotional writer Sarah Young, “Most of mankind’s misery stems from feeling unloved.”  Imagine, being able to eliminate most of the miseries of this world by loving someone else?  And we each have the capacity to do just that, to literally change the world by simply loving one person at a time.  The first step is to go out this week and find somebody to love.  Jesus laid it on the line when He left us with this: “A new command I give you: Love one another.”

“Be content with what you have.”  – Hebrews 13:5 

“If I ever win the lottery I’m going to . . .” [fill in the blank].  Or maybe you’re an optimist who says it more boldly; not “IF I win the lottery,” but “WHEN I win the lottery.”  Either way, how many of us have ever said it, if not out loud, at least fantasized about it privately?  Oh, how we dream of a few million bucks falling in our laps!  Yes, that would solve everything.  Or would it?

The wakeup call usually comes when we read about some lottery winner, or other newly-rich person, who ends up losing it all.  While precise statistics are hard to come by, at least based on my meager research, some of the studies and anecdotes (mostly) seem to suggest that a significant number of winners eventually encounter financial difficulties, with a substantial portion, if not all, of their winnings slipping away.  Overspending, poor investments, and indulgent lifestyles seem to be the primary causes, not to mention family squabbles, divorces, addictive behaviors, or gambling habits.

Steve, my best buddy from childhood, once shared with me some great advice he had received from his father years ago.  “You always want to have enough,” he said, “but you don’t need to have too much.”  Having been close to Steve’s dad, who was like a second father to me, I can say with certainty that he modeled his own words.  Work hard, he might add, excel at what you do, take care of your family, be a good citizen, look out for your neighbors, contribute to your community, then “be content with what you have,” and your life will be abundant beyond any lottery winnings you could ever imagine.

My own dad had an amusing fantasy about winning the lottery.  “When I win the lottery . . .”  (My dad, ever the optimist!)  “When I win the lottery,” he would tell my brother, “the first thing I’m going to do is buy you a new pickup.”  My brother, you see, had this old beat-up pickup truck he kept out on his ranch that he used to hall hay, feed his cows, and do other chores around the place.  Filthy, rusted, dented, cracked windshield and torn seat covers, smelling like cow manure, yet that old pickup served its purpose as well as any fancy new Ford F150 ever could.  So, every time Daddy brought it up, my brother would just look at him and laugh.  He loved that old truck, and for him it symbolized what it means to have enough, and to “be content with what you have.”

“Encourage one another and build each other up.”  – 1 Thessalonians 5:11 

During my investment banking days, I once got into a heated debate with my boss about the performance of a certain individual in our firm, who my boss considered invaluable because of his genius bond trading ability.  While I could not disagree about his superior skills, the problem was he made enemies with almost everyone with whom he came in contact, which I argued was costing the firm more than his genius produced.

The problem with genius, Liz Wiseman explains in her brilliant book, Multipliers: How the Best Leaders Make Everyone Smarter, is that some seem “to drain intelligence and capability out of the people around them.  Their focus on their own intelligence and their resolve to be the smartest person in the room has a diminishing effect on everyone else’s.”  Others, however, use “their intelligence as a tool rather than a weapon.  They apply their intelligence to amplify the smarts and capability of people around them.”  Wiseman refers to the former as “diminishers” due to their tendency to be “so absorbed in their own intelligence that they stifle others and dilute the organization’s crucial intelligence and capability.”  The latter she labels as “multipliers” who bring out “the intelligence in others, creating collective, viral intelligence in their organization.  One leader is a genius.  The other is a genius maker.”

This whole concept she cleverly summarizes in the opening chapter of the book with a quote by Irish rock star Bono.  “It has been said,” Bono states, “that after meeting with the great British Prime Minister William Ewart Gladstone, you left feeling he was the smartest person in the world, but after meeting with his rival Benjamin Disraeli, you left thinking you were the smartest person in the world.”

Gladstone and Disraeli were both indisputably genius leaders in their time.  But if one was a “diminisher” and the other a “multiplier” – that is, one purely genius versus the other a genius maker – which do you suppose had the greater and longer-lasting impact?  And that, fundamentally, was the argument I was having with my boss that day.  Certainly, the bond trader’s genius was to be applauded and rewarded, but how much more could have been produced by his genius had he been a multiplier rather than a diminisher, or as Paul wrote, to “encourage one another and build each other up?”

“. . . you entrusted me with five talents.  See, I have gained five more.” . . . “Well done, good and faithful servant.”  – Matthew 25:20,21 

Until I read Julia Cameron’s classic book, The Artist’s Way:  A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity, my long-held belief had been that creativity was limited to those we often think of as “artists” – painters, sculptors, writers, musicians and the like.  It never occurred to me that in some unique way we are all creative.  But as Julia Cameron explains, if we are in fact created in the image of the Creator then it stands to reason that we too are creators.

In the “Parable of the Talents” Jesus tells of a wealthy man who went away on a journey.  In his absence he entrusted his financial assets (talents) with three managers.  To one he entrusted five “talents”, to another two, and to the third one.  After his return he called upon his managers for an accounting.  The manager who had been entrusted with five talents as well as the manager with two had each doubled his money during his absence for which the wealthy master was extremely pleased.  But the third man had not bothered to invest the money at all with which he’d been entrusted, but instead had hidden it away, infuriating the wealthy man.  “You wicked, lazy servant!” he yelled.

I’ve often wondered why the master was so angry; after all he got his money back which seems better than losing it, right?  Disappointed perhaps, but furious?  Then several years ago I began to study Julia Cameron’s works and that’s when the parable started to make sense to me; that is, we too have been entrusted with certain gifts, talents or resources with which we can either choose to invest in the good work of God’s Kingdom, or choose to do nothing; or worse, to misuse it.  Either way would be to squander what we had been given, and it was the squandering that infuriated the master.

Who says creativity was given to only a select few, those we refer to as artists?  The fact is, God has given each of us some special unique creative abilities, and like the “Parable of the Talents,” entrusted us to invest wisely.  As Julia Cameron says, “The Great Creator has gifted us with creativity.  Our gift back is our use of it.”  Someone once speculated that there will only be one question to answer on judgment day and that is, “What did you do with what I gave you?”  Does that not summarize the lesson of the Parable?