The treeless fruit.

As disciples of Christ we seem to have this notion that we can substitute selflessness for development. This week my mind has been burdened again by the thought of, "what does it really mean to bear fruit?" On Sunday night I had the opportunity to sit down and hear the thoughts of about 300 college students on this topic. Over and over again this idea of the importance of the 'fruit' would come up - the idea that nothing else is as spiritually sustainable as 'fruit.'

While I agree that multiplication and discipleship is in turn the reproduction cycle of spirituality. I also believe that we, as Christ followers, allow ourselves to be over taken by the idea of the 'fruit' and spend way too little time concerning ourselves about the 'branch.'

The 'branch' in this case would be us; our development, our righteousness, our training to be disciples, our ability to be rebuked (and then make an effort for change), even an ability to develop others.

Side note: The thoughts that I have right now are all coming in response to John 15.

My biggest question is, "How can we concern our selves with fruit if we dont have branches that are healthy enough to bear?" Please do not get me wrong, I believe and know that we are to be and make disciples, I understand that. I believe that evangelism is of the utmost importance and there is no one way of doing it and without it there will be an extinction of what I believe in. I understand all that. My biggest concern today is that people become so caught up in the idea (which is the greatest idea of all) of living my life solely for others and not having anytime for myself or any cares for me that they forget their own development stages. We cant have the fruit without the branches - we cant spend all of our time focusing on the 'fruit' forgetting to even plant the stinkin' tree. John 15 is one of these mysteries to me and I still dont have an answer to my original question, "what does bearing fruit actually look like anyway?"