There’s no need to prune low-value plants, such as carrots. A carrot plant will grow one carrot. After harvesting that carrot, there’s no need for the plant.
It’s high value plants that need to be pruned.
A vine tomato plant is a good example. When left unpruned, it will grow many stems that shoot out in all directions. The inward-growing stems will choke each other out, preventing light and fresh air from reaching the heart of the plant. Much of the fruit this plant produces will rot, and the plant itself will easily rot when humidity rises in autumn.
In contrast, a well-pruned vine tomato plant can grow for a whole season, producing many successive harvests of healthy tomatoes.
I often tend to be like a tomato plant. I like to put my energy into many random things, rather than focusing on what matters. I like to put my energy into inward growth that keeps God’s light away from my heart – and makes me start to rot inside. Thankfully, God has not, and will not, leave me unpruned.
In the fifteenth chapter of John’s gospel, we are compared to branches of a grape vine. One emphasis of this chapter is that, just as a branch that’s cut off of the plant, we have no life without a vital connection with God.
The other emphasis is that God prunes every branch that grows fruit (John 15:2). Put in other words, God disciplines everyone who He loves (Hebrews 12:6).
I know many people who, when they look back, are thankful for the ways in which God has disciplined them.
God loves all people. God loves institutions, cities and nations – because they are composed of people. For this reason, God disciplines institutions, cities, and nations.
The church that I belong to has needed God’s discipline. Instead of following God’s plans to branch out into all the world to share the good news of God’s love and healing, we became inward-focused in many ways. We disregarded God’s instructions to build many small health institutions in many places. We followed human logic and built one large health center. In order to make money, our publishing house printed books that misrepresented God. God burned both of these institutions (with unquenchable fire, by the way).
For many years, God has given instruction to move out of the cities. Yes, we need to do our best to share God’s love with everyone in the cities. However, living in a city because of the temporal gains to be had there is morally dangerous.
What we look at changes us. That’s why advertisers pay so much to get just glimpses of what they’re selling in front of our eyes. Cities are full of things to look at that point us away from our creator.
We need regular time with God in nature, and this can be difficult in a city.
Now we see the trend toward rioting and severe restrictions for disease control in the cities. It’s even becoming obvious to many non-religious people that it’s best to not live in large cities.
God has told us that He is going to judge the cities. He loves the people who live in them too much to let them remain so deafened by the noise of the city that they can’t hear His voice calling them.
Seeking God’s guidance should be the top priority for each of us.
Ask God to guide you to a place where you can (figuratively speaking) hear His voice, and also reach out to those who can’t hear it.
I also encourage you to prayerfully consider the following video: