Seed or Fruit

Welcome back once again, everyone! You can think of today’s post as a follow-up to our recent piece on living in “have-to” vs “want-to.” If you haven’t read that, you might go back and give it a look, but this one should be able to stand alone alright, so no pressure.

You may remember my toilet-cleaning story. As a younger man, I used to despise cleaning toilets. It was such a gross, dirty job, and I felt that it was beneath me. Which was a shame, since my wife and I had a house-cleaning business at the time, so I had to it pretty frequently. After my spiritual rebirth, once I became really committed to what I think of as “real love,” I realized that my experience of this task had flipped 180 degrees. I won’t say that I loved the task in and of itself, but I didn’t mind it at all, and I felt happy enough to sing while doing it.

Obviously, the task itself hadn’t changed. The difference was purely internal. You might say it had become a “want-to” instead of a “have-to,” but that may be slightly misleading, because it wasn’t about the task itself. A better way to put it, and one I’d like us all to give some thought to today, is that I was doing it out of love, joy, and peace, rather than to get love, joy, and peace.

To me, this goes a long way to explain the overwhelming failure of the self-help industry, which is almost entirely goal-oriented, only ever talking about how to use your actions and willpower to get what you want. To be fair to them, it can be difficult to visualize the alternative. I mean, aren’t you here because you want to better yourself, and don’t you want that because it would make you feel better?

Personally, I find great meaning in how ancient manuscripts talk about these things, referring to them as “fruits of the spirit.” Interesting wording, since a fruit is not the source of the vine, but something produced by it. What we want, then, is a healthy spirit (whatever that means), which then produces all of the positive feelings and internal qualities that are otherwise so elusive.

As for what makes a healthy spirit, there are two things I would suggest. The first is love—somewhat counterintuitive, since love is one of our fruits. But I would suggest that there is the loved felt and received, and then there is the love which is given, at personal sacrifice. Just about everyone seems to instinctively know what a wonderful quality this is, and aspire to it, even when they struggle to live it out.

The second is truth. You might now expect me to say that the truth means Jesus… and I do believe this is true. But I don’t assume that you do, and it probably would not do much good for you to accept Him as true purely because I say so, even if you were willing to do that. What I think is indispensable is an earnest search for the truth, and a real commitment to live according to what you find.

Have a blessed, wonderful day!

Dr. Alex Loyd