Crazy can’t keep you from being fruitful

Let me assure you – no one has it better we all just have it different.

Each summer I try to take my kids on an adventure.  We try to make some memories, share some laughs, and if all goes well live to tell about it.  Our 2020 adventure was river tubing and it started off strong – gorgeous weekend, cool water, and a slow-moving river.

The first set of rapids changed the pace of the trip.  My daughter shot through the rocks like a professional.  I followed suit and quickly realized my love affair with carbs had created a backside with more drag on my tube so things were a bit bumpy.  My son’s tube slipped from under him and he rolled like a towel in a dryer.

Distracted by my son’s plight, I fell out of my tube and hit my head on the bottom of the Guadalupe River. The water took my cell phone, hat, and a good bit of my dignity.

Shaken from our experience we emerged to finish the float and – except for some suspicious looking twigs that could have passed for snakes – the rest of the day was a picture-perfect memory.  Several families were on the river that day. It occurred to me that while we were all in the same river not everyone was having the same experience.

Friend – in the year 2020 – we are all in the same river socially distancing, watching a shaky economy, and giving anyone who coughs in public the stink eye. Yet, we are all having different experiences.
-       Some are in-between jobs now.
-       Some are COVID positive.
-       Some are burying loved ones.
-       For a few, nothing has changed except that they are wearing a mask at the grocery store.

Don’t let a tough experience determine your faithfulness. A temporary experience will not always confirm you are in the center of God’s will but fruitfulness does.  Fruitfulness follows faithfulness.

If you start reading in Genesis 37 and finish the book, you’ll see a man’s life unfold to illustrate this principle.  His name was Joseph.
-       God’s hand was on him and he was successful while he was living as the favored son in a wealthy household.
-       God’s hand was on him and he was successful when he was betrayed and sold into slavery by envious brothers.
-       God’s hand was on him and he was successful when he was thrown unjustly into prison (for years).
-       God’s hand was on him and he was successful when he was called to serve in Pharaoh as chief administrator.

Friend, when God’s hand is on you – you will bear fruit, regardless of the experiences, life throws at you.  Joseph’s life churned with set changes yet the anointing on his life stayed true and he was fruitful in pits, prisons, and palaces.

I’m confident 2020 will get even stranger between now and Christmas in ways no one would have thought to predict or imagine.  If you and I stay focused on remaining in Christ and allowing His words to remain in us – the crazy won’t impact our calling.

Jesus promised us that we will bear much fruit in John 15:7 if we remain in him and his words remain in us.  How do you remain in Jesus?  You and I do three practical things, daily: we pray, we read our Bibles, we worship.  Friends, regardless of the external circumstances, regardless of the mask mandate, regardless of the telecommuting and homeschooling.  YOU.  WILL.  BEAR.  FRUIT.  if we remain in Jesus and he remains in us.

Jesus promised you that – and you can rest in it.  Keep on, friend!  The harvest is coming.