Take Stock

Good fruit.

I suppose I might be walking on thin ice with this post, coming across as judgmental and self-righteous. Oh, I hope not. My intention is to get us to self-reflect and, in places where we can, to take actions that benefit others as well as ourselves.

There’s fruit and then there’s fruit. Depends on what you are talking about.

I’m talking about the kind of fruit that results from our actions or omissions, from what we do or what we don’t do.

Hebrew and Christian scripture are clear about the fact that everybody bears fruit, be it good or be it bad. Bearing fruit is a consequence of having been given the gift of life.

Ministering in prison for ten years has enabled me to see up close the difference that presence, kindness, smiles and laughter make. The simplest actions produce unimagined fruit.

At lunch one day during a Christian retreat in Torres, I passed my dessert of peach cobbler to a brother in white. One of his special memories was his grandmother making him peach cobbler. He felt the touch of God in that moment.

Take stock, dear Ones. Are your lives bearing high-quality fruit? And, if not, why not?