One of the hardest tasks for home gardeners and Christians in the Church is this: Pruning.

There’s something that seems awfully cruel about it.  Painful to witness and worse to perform because our sympathetic hearts want to preserve what little bits of life and hope remain, even if the reality is that we must prune.  Equally important are the When and How to prune, but today we will cover the Why of pruning.

Why do we prune?

• We prune to keep plants in line, so they maintain a healthy shape or size.  Without pruning, they become uncontrolled and unruly.
• We prune to get rid of what is dead, even if what is dead today was growth only a season or a year ago.  If it’s dead, there’s no use hanging onto it.
• We prune to encourage flowering or branching…so that it becomes even more fruitful.
• We prune to remove diseased portions or ones harboring insects or pathogens.
• We prune to eliminate unproductive competition for resources by removing suckers on trees and seed heads on plants from bulbs.
• And we prune to delay the death process and make the most of the time of living.  You see, every plant from the moment it arises, is on its way to being dead.  That process may take a single season with annuals and many vegetables, or that process may be thousands of years.

Our spiritual lives are the same way.  We prune because we must.  But will we?

• How many churches are more concerned about attracting sheer numbers instead of concerning themselves first and foremost with emphasizing purity before God, personal holiness, and Christian living?
• How many churches still do programs they’ve been doing since the dawn of time simply because they remember the glory days of bustling children’s programs with balloons and felt-boards, or the power of hundreds of people in their Sunday best singing hymns from hymnals to high-church organ music?
• How many churches refuse to discipline their membership or insist upon a biblical standard for service in the Church as pastors, elders, deacons, or teachers?
• How many churches allow bitter, divisive, or power-hungry people to worm their way onto committees where their impact poisons the whole?
• How many churches enable people to suck off the life-blood of the church without asking them to contribute in some manner to community or church life… or without teaching them the value of productive work?
• How many Christians in churches are so busy about the unimportant minutiae of the institutional Church that the whole idea of productivity and making the most of opportunities for the Gospel just fade away?

What do the following Scriptures say about pruning in the Soul Garden?

• John 15:1 “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. 2 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.”
• Luke 13: 6 Then [Jesus] told this parable: “A man had a fig tree, planted in his vineyard, and he went to look for fruit on it, but did not find any. 7 So he said to the man who took care of the vineyard, ‘For three years now I’ve been coming to look for fruit on this fig tree and haven’t found any. Cut it down! Why should it use up the soil?’ 8 “‘Sir,’ the man replied, ‘leave it alone for one more year, and I’ll dig around it and fertilize it. 9 If it bears fruit next year, fine! If not, then cut it down.'”
• Hebrews 12:1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. 2 Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. 3 Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. 4 In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. 5 And you have forgotten that word of encouragement that addresses you as sons: “My son, do not make light of the Lord’s discipline, and do not lose heart when he rebukes you, 6 because the Lord disciplines those he loves, and he punishes everyone he accepts as a son.” 7 Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father? 8 If you are not disciplined (and everyone undergoes discipline), then you are illegitimate children and not true sons. 9 Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of our spirits and live! 10 Our fathers disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness. 11 No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.  12 Therefore, strengthen your feeble arms and weak knees. 13 “Make level paths for your feet,” so that the lame may not be disabled, but rather healed. 14 Make every effort to live in peace with all men and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord. 15 See to it that no one misses the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many.”
• Matthew 5:29 “And if your right eye makes you stumble, tear it out, and throw it from you; for it is better for you that one of the parts of your body perish, than for your whole body to be thrown into hell.”
• 2 Thessalonians 3:6 In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, we command you, brothers, to keep away from every brother who is idle and does not live according to the teaching you received from us. 7 For you yourselves know how you ought to follow our example. We were not idle when we were with you, 8 nor did we eat anyone’s food without paying for it. On the contrary, we worked night and day, laboring and toiling so that we would not be a burden to any of you. 9 We did this, not because we do not have the right to such help, but in order to make ourselves a model for you to follow. 10 For even when we were with you, we gave you this rule: “If a man will not work, he shall not eat.” 11 We hear that some among you are idle. They are not busy; they are busybodies. 12 Such people we command and urge in the Lord Jesus Christ to settle down and earn the bread they eat.

A second important task of spring clean-up is removal of dead leaves and other debris.  Holding onto what is dead interferes with new life!

So I carefully remove the dead leaves and other debris from around plants that died back over the winter (see before picture of yellow flag iris at right).

Why? Well, there are several reasons.

1. They look unsightly and the beauty of a garden can be ruined by a remnant of dead material amongst the beautiful flowers and plants with their new growth.
2. They prevent the new growth from happening freely. New growth may get choked out by an old mat of leaves/stems remaining on the plant.
3. They also harbor insects and disease. By getting rid of what is polluting my garden, it will require less drastic measures like sprays or recovery measures which are often harder than preventative card.
4. And finally, I remove them because they serve no purpose anymore.

How good are you at identifying the dead things in your spiritual life?

When we become Christians, we become new creations, not just a slightly reformed and polished up old creation.  We get rid of what is dead.

2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.

We are born-again, not mildly tweaked.

Read these Scriptures and ponder what they say about dead things, former habits, and what kind of spring clean-up might be good for your Soul Garden.

Romans 6:1 What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? 2 By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? 3 Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. 5 If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection. 6 For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin– 7 because anyone who has died has been freed from sin. 8 Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. 9 For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. 10 The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God. 11 In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. 12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. 13 Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness.

Ephesians 2:1 As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, 2 in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. 3 All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath. 4 But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5 made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions– it is by grace you have been saved.

Ephesians 4:22 You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; 23 to be made new in the attitude of your minds; 24 and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness. 25 Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to his neighbor, for we are all members of one body. 26 “In your anger do not sin”: Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, 27 and do not give the devil a foothold. 28 He who has been stealing must steal no longer, but must work, doing something useful with his own hands, that he may have something to share with those in need. 29 Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen. 30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. 31 Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. 32 Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.

There’s always lots of clean-up of the yard to do in the spring.

Digging the early weeds to keep them from spreading

Removal of dead leaves and other debris

Pruning things before they leaf out too much

All of them have to do with death and new life.

If you stop and think about it, Christianity is all about the death of Christ that made new Life in Him possible. Our gardens provide us with a beautiful picture of what new life is like.

So, as part of my annual spring clean-up, I identify the weeds both in my lawn and in my garden. Getting them out before they spread or become hidden among the other plants will be particularly important.

How good are you at identifying the weeds in your life?

Some are easy to spot.  Others, less so.

When you find them, do you just overlook them, live and let live, or do you do the tedious and nasty work of digging them out?

What might be some weeds in your Soul Garden? What do these Scripture say about weeds that might be present in your soul or in your church?

• Matthew 7:3 “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?
• Hebrews 12:15 See to it that no one comes short of the grace of God; that no root of bitterness springing up causes trouble, and by it many be defiled;
• Matthew 18:9 “And if your eye causes you to stumble, pluck it out, and throw it from you. It is better for you to enter life with one eye, than having two eyes, to be cast into the fiery hell.
• James 3:10 Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers, this should not be.

One of the first things I do every spring is to shovel the snow piles down to a meltable level on the parkway between the sidewalk and the street. I want to see green grass as soon as possible. Of course, that doesn’t happen all by itself. It needs a little help.

Call me a glutton for punishment, but I take a thatching rake…not so much to remove thatch (which really isn’t as common as most people think it is)…but to give the grass a fighting chance against winter’s shrapnel, diseases, pebbles, and junk.

• It helps me to get after the tiny bits of debris that fall off the ash trees all winter. Dead buds. Little twigs. They’re nasty trees, quite frankly, and the regular rake with its wide spread tines is not up for the challenge. If I were a regular leaf rake, I’d hang my head in embarrassment at being so ineffective…like I had to go back to rake school and take Raking 101 all over again.
• But the thatching rake also combs the turf into a spiky Mohawk of uprightness. It looks like a carpet when I’m done, or like a cat that I petted backwards if it would let me. (A dog would let me.  Just sayin’.)  Anyway, by getting the blades of grass upright instead of matted down, there will be air, blessed air, that gets between the blades and it fights (using nature’s own methods) against snow mold that blights the lawn something awful. And I do mean awful.
• And finally, it provides a way for the lawn fertilizer and spring rain to get to the root system and help the grass to green up and grow.

I only use the thatching rake in the front yard. The back yard—with its poor drainage and tons of shade—has tender turf that wouldn’t survive the thatch rake. But I don’t have ash trees there so that’s good. The willow is the back yard’s enemy. Late to drop, early to leaf, and with slender branches dropping any time of any day if someone even speaks the word “wind” within hearing distance, it’s another trash tree. Sorry to break the news to all those willow lovers.

So in the back yard, I use the leaf blower on high to blow the willow leaves into a little mound, I pick up the branches, and the grass gets blown to an upright position. It will be similar in appearance and in a favorable position just like the front yard, with half the actual effort.

And all the while that I’m doing lawn care, I’m thinking theological thoughts because I am SeminaryGal. I consider how there are things in our lives that drop all kinds of junk upon our souls and get wedged into our spiritual self. Some things seem so small that you wonder, could they really be a problem? Yes, they can because they can work their way into places that big sins can’t reach. They are easier to overlook because they’re so small, but when they accumulate, they can be quite significant in their impact on our spiritual lives. And they’re more readily justified to remain there because of what hard work it is to remove them. I think about how getting my soul garden to be beautiful requires more than just some superficial spring cleaning.

Jeremiah 2:22 Although you wash yourself with soda and use an abundance of soap, the stain of your guilt is still before me,” declares the Sovereign LORD.

Hebrews 10:15 The Holy Spirit also testifies to us about this. First he says: 16 “This is the covenant I will make with them after that time, says the Lord. I will put my laws in their hearts, and I will write them on their minds.” 17 Then he adds: “Their sins and lawless acts I will remember no more.” 18 And where these have been forgiven, there is no longer any sacrifice for sin. 19 Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, 20 by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, 21 and since we have a great priest over the house of God, 22 let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. 23 Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. 24 And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. 25 Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another– and all the more as you see the Day approaching.

Questions for today:

• What might be some small sins that are easily overlooked? In general and in your life.
• What are some habits that accumulate into a lifestyle, even if they aren’t sins per se? Let me start you with the excuse we often give and you can fill in what the excuse is about. “I’m just so busy that I don’t have time to_____.” “If there weren’t so many hypocrites at church, I’d have an easier time ___________.” “I can’t find a church I like because none of them ___________.”  You can add yours from there.
• You may have heard the quote attributed to half the people on the planet, “”Sow a thought, and reap an act. Sow an act and reap a habit. Sow a habit and reap a character. Sow a character and reap a destiny.” In what ways is this true? In the Hebrews passage above, how can God intervene by cleansing us from all unrighteousness by the blood of Christ?  How does being “born again” give us a destiny that does not reflect our past actions, thoughts, and character?

I know it’s not the same for people in other areas of the world, but here in Chicagoland, Easter coincides with springtime.

What New Year’s Day does for some people is what spring does for me. I dream big. My hopes are sky high. My goals are within reach. My vision seems endless and my intentions are always at their very best.

After a winter that’s invariably too long, my pent up energy is ready for an outlet and I’m eager to get about accomplishing the dream that’s as big as my heart. I go into my yard and feel myself breathing in the air that smells like melted snow on a new earth. I allow myself to soak up the sunshine. And of course, I find myself thinking theological thoughts…just like every other woman who is both a theologian and a gardener.

God is an amazing Creator and I love discovering how each season unfolds with new glories to cherish. And to watch each season develop at its own pace and with its unique expression unlike any other year’s. I marvel at how even the same season isn’t ever just like another year’s version.

I think about how our souls are like gardens. How they need to be cultivated and planned. How they need to be maintained and nourished. But more than anything, gardens won’t become beautiful by collecting picture books of beautiful gardens on your coffee table or accumulating them on a bookshelf to research when you have time.

You must open the book. Dream the dream. And then get your hands dirty.

This series on spiritual formation, Soul Garden, will flow along with my gardening year. To be honest, the daily writing of Lenten and Advent devotionals take a lot out of me and I need this garden time to become refreshed. Appreciating my Creator by meeting Him through prayer and Scripture meditation in my garden is every bit as formative as Bible study to remain faithful to Him.

Psalm 51:10 Create in me a clean heart, O God, And renew a steadfast spirit within me.

Questions for today:

• How are our souls like gardens?
• What does it mean to get your hands dirty with spiritual formation?