The season of Lent ended with a loud alleluia, and we moved into spring as joyful, hopeful Easter people, right?
For me, the spiritual disciplines of Lent rapidly shifted into the work of spring. According to the ads, it’s time to get my body “beach ready.” The patio needs to be power-washed, the summer vacation rental needs to be confirmed and the car needs an oil change. Alleluia?
A mentor once taught me that ministry was similar to serving as faculty in higher education. The work is never done. There’s always another book to read, another member to call, another sermon to write. My life at home and in ministry can easily become an endless list of projects. Pastors have to find peace with this constant state of “unfinishedness” in order to rest in the presence of God, to enjoy friends and family and to survive in ministry for the long haul. No one tells you to go home, so you have to learn to tell yourself.
The congregation I serve has made a commitment to read the entire Bible in one year. I have a little booklet that tells me the assigned readings for each day. The pace is relentless, and if I miss a day, catching up becomes a chore. I also receive a great inspirational quote every day by email and two different daily news digests. Didn’t someone teach us to hold the Bible in one hand and the newspaper in the other? So I need to read the news. Oh, and I also get a poem every day and a cool daily devotional that comes with music and artwork.
Then there are the blogs. Several friends write them, and I subscribe because I want to be supportive. Those emails come and I open them (that should mean something, right?) but rarely read the blog all the way through.
Then there are the podcasts. So many good ones! I can listen to them while I’m commuting or while I’m on my daily walk — but what about listening to the birds?
I get overwhelmed by all those daily subscriptions.
Even the fruit of the Spirit can become a list of projects. It’s quite a list: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Shouldn’t we be working on these? Many preachers have turned the fruit into “the projects.” Those sermons are particularly appealing when the title has a number: Three Keys to Joy, Five Steps to Generosity, Fourteen Ways to Be Kind. Honestly, I’ve been stuck on the first project – love – and haven’t made enough progress to move on to the others yet.
What if the fruit of the Spirit are fruit and not projects? The Greek word for fruit cannot be translated as “projects.” I’m enough of a Calvinist to believe the projects don’t work very well anyway. Making myself more gentle is about as likely as growing apples or oranges from my arms. Yet I also have a fear of spiritual sloth. All of the contemplative wisdom about just letting myself “be” in the presence of God sounds mighty dangerous to me. Perhaps the fruit of the Spirit are indeed fruit, appearing like a delightful gift on a healthy tree in the orchard. Perhaps our spiritual task is to nurture a healthy tree and not to fuss over it so much we turn it into a bonsai project. Give life a little nourishing mulch. Be sure it gets sunshine and water. Get out of the way for the Spirit to enter and transform. The fruit will appear like a delightful gift — and not as a result of reading just one more devotional or listening to another podcast.
Listen to the birds instead.
MILLIE SNYDER is executive pastor at Myers Park Presbyterian Church in Charlotte, North Carolina. She enjoys watching the jigsaw puzzle of ministry come together into a faithful vision.
