So how’s it all working for you?

DAILY BYTE

The parable of the Fig Tree in Luke 13. 1-13 has a repetitive pattern of affirming a life truth, and then asking of its readers a resulting question. Today we look at the second of these which is:

Life can be messy (failures and fruitlessness abound), so why not be courageous enough to ask yourself some truly hard questions.

The point of this parable is that the fig tree had been given every chance to be fruitful. It was planted in a vineyard, and the normal practice was to plant fig trees in the corner of the vineyard where all the best soil was. The fig tree also had a full time gardener attending it but even after all this time and effort it was still fruitless.

Dr. Phil is probably most famous for the question he repeatedly asks someone whose life is mired in some dysfunctional behaviour or habitual mistake that they are refusing to acknowledge. He will ask them to assess their life and then say, “So how’s it working for you?”

This parable asks us almost exactly the same question – So how’s it working for you? Are you bearing fruit? Or are you barren and empty where it really counts – in terms of God-life, God-hope and God-love?

It has been said that the main cause for emptiness and unhappiness (fruitlessness) is trading what you want most for what you want at the moment. If the best things in life are not things, then what do you actually want most?

Fulfillment? Love? Joy? Meaning? Intimacy? Friendship? Spiritual wholeness? To thirst after God?

This parable affirms that life can potentially be filled with emptiness if we prioritise all the wrong things. Which is why the parable goes on to ask us the following question – how is it really working for you? And if it isn’t working at all, then why not do something real about it? Why not change what you prioritise and sink your roots deep into God and what God values.

So how is it all working for you?
PRAY AS YOU GO
God of love, help me to sink my roots deeply into you and everything in life that you value and prioritise. Help me to recognise and cut short wherever I may be meandering down paths of emptiness and fruitlessness. Amen

FOCUS READING

Luke 13:6-9 NRSV

Then Jesus told this parable: "A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard; and he came looking for fruit on it and found none. So he said to the gardener, 'See here! For three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree, and still I find none. Cut it down! Why should it be wasting the soil?'

He replied, 'Sir, let it alone for one more year, until I dig around it and put manure on it. If it bears fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.' "