Indiana Jen and the Temple of Fruit... (sequel to Raiders...)

Competent Communicator Speech #5, "Your Body Speaks"... requirements for the speech are the use of hand gestures and body language to make your speech more effective. (so picture my hands moving as you read... hehehe)

I declared war.

War on blackberries.

You see, I live on 1/3 of an acre, and along our entire back fence behind our house are blackberries. Miles and miles of vines all peeking through or cascading over our fence, and trailing into the garden beds, suffocating the real plants I'd like to keep in their beds. You might say, Ask your neighbors to remove them? Well, that wouldn't work, because the eight feet behind our fence is our property too. It's entirely our problem to deal with.

Some might say that I am lucky. Blackberries are yummy in the summertime, right. Nope. Not at all lucky. You see, these vines are just plain invaders. Back in the main section of the bush some fruit does grow. The vines however, do nothing but trail their very thorny ropes all through the garden without fruit, and they make it all but impossible to get at the fruit it does bear.

This past spring, I was given a new tool for my arsenal against these dreadful invaders. A machete. You don't plug it in, but man, what a power tool! I took it out of its canvas sheathe and admired the shine of the blade. As I held the wooden handle, I was transported into a movie... suddenly, I would become Indiana Jen, slashing my way through the jungle and clearing a path on a search for treasures past. Namely, my roses.

I stood there in my garden, took a stance, closed my eyes, and swung the blade at my enemy.

I opened my eyes expecting to see my giants having been felled... but instead... nothing.

You see, my blade wasn't sharp.

I had borrowed it, and it needed a little sharpening.

After a good sharpening... I was back at it... I climbed back into the carpet of vines, wondering what exactly was underneath. You see, Indiana Jen has the same fear of snakes as Indiana Jones....

This time, as I swung and chopped at the beasts, one by one they fell in surrender. I cut them all off to the top of the fence. Victory was mine. (This year, anyway.....)

I've made a fascinating discovery now in midsummer about what I had done to my vines. Every vine I've hacked back now bears a huge, beautiful bundle of fruit, just about now ripened. I am about to reap the biggest harvest of blackberries I've ever had, because I cut down most of the plant. Now if you think about it, that is sort of counterintuitive. The more vines you have, the more fruit you'll bear, you'd think, right? The more you have, the more you have?

It was then that I saw the metaphor.

It's not productive to just spread out and trail along aimlessly. It looks like you're growing, but if you're not producing its fruit, then it's not real growth. In fact, you may be inhibiting someone else's growth, and suffocating them. Fruit is the product of real growth. And if you're just spread too thin, or not effective in an area, cut it off. Even if you're doing something good, but it's not bearing fruit, cut it off. To have focus, to have a purpose, gives you reason to blossom and fruit you will bear for a plentiful harvest.

"Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it so that it may bear more fruit. "John 15:2