The Fruit of the Spirit

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.” –Galatians 5:22-23

It has taken me quite a long time to write this blog. The thoughts and words have been churning in my mind and heart for about a week now. I’m finally sitting down to chill with my iced vanilla latte and share where I’m going these days. I will start with the fact that I went to church last Sunday; it was great!

The sermon was on psalm 1 and it really sparked a desire in my heart to really dig the Spirit out of my soul. One thing that struck me the most was the word MEDITATE. Sure, if you know me, you know that I often want to be in a state of peaceful meditation, but I never heard the word talked about in this way ever before. It was explained that the word meditate really means “growl”, the kind of utterance you make when you are chewing on something you really enjoy. It was brought to my attention during this sermon that we often “chew” on lyrics to songs and repeat them over and over. We often really enjoy and hang on the feelings that songs evoke in us. The challenge, why don’t we chew on God’s words like that? Wow, huh??!

Psalm 1:3 really stuck out to me. It talks about those that meditate on God’s word, “he is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season and its leaf does not wither. In all he does, he prospers.” I, being an artist, was doodling a small picture of this on my sermon notes. I want my roots to be strong and deep. I want them to be nourished by streams of living water, water that replenishes and refreshes. I want to feel the cool breeze of the water as my branches sway with the sweet whisper of God’s direction in my life. Mostly, I want my branches to bear fruit. I like being productive and want that the most. I want to be fruitful and how do I do that? What does that fruit look like?

Then, the silly little song from VBS came to my mind about the fruits of the Spirit. TA DA! That is the fruit I want! So, I went out and purchased a book to help me through the fruits of the Spirit and I’m really excited about it.

Oh, and here is another freaky thing about the sermon last Sunday. It was Father’s day to give you a little background and we had purchased a card for my dad. It was a “music” card with a picture of Tom Hanks as Jimmy Dugan. When you open the card, you hear Jimmy say the classic line from A League of Their Own, “There’s no crying in baseball!” Well, during the sermon this same line was brought up! SOOO God’s timing… I perked up. It was explained that in that scene, Jimmy was so confused as to why this girl was crying. He just couldn’t understand why a girl would cry, because there is just no crying in baseball. He was astonished! The sermon went on to explain that we should be saying “There is no joylessness in Christianity!” in such a way as this character. It should shock us when we are joyless and claiming to rely on Christ and the fruits of the Spirit. It shouldn’t be allowed. I want that joy …I want the fruits of the Spirit. Who is with me?