Patience

 

Luke 13: 1-9

Repent or Perish

13 Now there were some present at that time who told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices. ² Jesus answered, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered this way? ³ I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish. ⁴ Or those eighteen who died when the tower in Siloam fell on them—do you think they were more guilty than all the others living in Jerusalem? ⁵ I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish.”

⁶ Then he told this parable: “A man had a fig tree growing 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.’”

It takes time to break habits ..or to grow fruit-bearing fig trees.  We tend to be like the first man in this parable, short of patience.  Jesus presents the "other side", the man who is willing to work the soil and give the tree one more chance, the attitude being, "Who knows?  Maybe next year."  It would be good if we could take this approach with ourselves and with others. No need to hurry  Even as we proceed down these weeks of the Lent, we're probably not seeing much "growth", and might be growing impatient with ourselves as the clock ticks. Let's be patient, let's give ourselves a chance.  There is still time to prepare our hearts for Easter, still time to root out  some of the obstacles we deal with;  most of all, there is still time to be as patient with ourselves as God is with us.   Patience will bear fruit.

Bro. Rene