Pruning
God is not found in the soul by adding anything, but by a process of subtraction. Meister Eckhart
Gregg’s Reflection
In the Mountain West, fire was fought with a vengeance for 100 years. As a result, our forests are wildly overgrown. Now, instead of fire periodically burning away the underbrush and restoring health, crown fires destroy everything in the forest, and create a crust that prevents anything growing for years. These photos show the difference a hundred years of fighting fires made.
Now, because fires have gotten out of hand, massive efforts are underway to thin the trees and restore the forest. On Burnt Mountain, where we live, the Forest Service made a first effort at thinning, removing 40% of the trees. That work left 1500 piles of slash and logs to burn, a massive pruning effort. One snowy winter day, we headed out and saw the Forest Service guys torching the whole hillside. They said, “Snow’s coming in so we dropped the match.” Here’s what it looked like.
The woods were so dense before the pruning, there was very little wildlife, only a few squirrels and birds. Aspens had been crowded out by the conifer trees. Once the landscape was opened up, Aspens began to multiply, flowers and grasses moved in, and we started seeing deer, moose, elk, bear and coyote foraging in land that had been very unproductive.
The unintended consequence of the thinning has been massive blowdown. The thinned out trees could not stand windfirm against our winter storms.
So, how does pruning work in our spiritual journey? Much the same way, pruning away old branches makes the vine produce more fruit. Jesus said it this way:
Jesus said, “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine-dresser. Every branch in me that bears no fruit he cuts away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, to make it bear even more” (John 15:1–2).
Meister Eckhart said it this way, “God is not found in the soul by adding anything, but by a process of subtraction.” What he means is that God is already within us (See this post on Divine Indwelling), but the still, small voice is so hard to hear, until we prune away the distractions. Thomas Keating said, “The source of our being lies in our innermost center, buried under the emotional debris of a lifetime.” So, sweeping away the emotional debris allows us to see God more clearly. This is but another form of pruning, removing that which keeps us separate from God.
A few years ago, we went through a season of pruning. Genie and I had hosted aa annual pastors’ retreat here at the cabin, and after five years, we sensed it was time to end it. I hosted a CityChurch Men’s leadership retreat here for five years. After it grew to over 20 men, I knew it was time for them to move somewhere else. As I turned 65, I felt led to prune away my staff position at City Church. In early 2019, we sold our home in Atlanta, and pruned away our whole life in the place we had both been born and raised.
My experience is that you may go through quite a long period of pruning before the next fruit begins to appear. This is when we lean into our trust in God that there is something wonderful coming, it is just unseen at present.
So, come along on a journey to show how God prunes away the dross to reveal the real beauty within.
Blessings, Gregg
Journaling Prompts:
How have you experienced a painful time of pruning that opened you up for a new season of fruitfulness? What might need to be pruned away in you life now to allow you to see God and yourself more clearly? What would it look like for you to embrace emotional health, doing the hard work to sweep away the emotional debris of a lifetime?
Scripture
My son, do not despise the Lord’s discipline, and do not resent his rebuke, because the Lord disciplines those he loves, as a father the son he delights in.
Proverbs 3:11-12
A time to keep and a time to throw away.
Ecclesiastes 3:6
I am the true vine, and my Father is the Gardner. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful.
John 15:1-2
No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.
Hebrews 12:11
Consider it pure joy, my brother and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.
James 1:2-4
And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm, and steadfast.
1Peter 5:10
Ancient Writings
For even as love crowns you so shall he crucify you. Even as he is for your growth so is he for your pruning. Even as he ascends to your height and caresses your tenderest branches that quiver in the sun, so shall he descend to your roots and shake them in their clinging to the earth.
God is not found in the soul by adding anything, but by a process of subtraction.
Meister Eckhart
I have been all things unholy. If God can work through me, He can work through anyone.
Francis of Assisi
God, of your goodness, give me yourself; you are enough for me, and anything less that I could ask for would not do you full honor. And If I ask anything that is less, I shall always lack something, but in you alone I have everything.
Julian of Norwich, Revelations of Divine Love
Nothing great is ever achieved without much enduring.
St. Catherine of Siena
Tear your heart away from everything else, then seek God and you will surely find him.
St. Teresa of Ávila
Modern Writings
The source of our being lies in our innermost center, buried under the emotional debris of a lifetime.
Thomas Keating
Something Old and Something New
Yearning for a new way will not produce it. Only ending the old way can do that.
You cannot hold onto the old, all the while declaring that you want something new.
The old will defy the new;
The old will deny the new;
The old will decry the new.
There is only one way to bring in the new. You must make room for it!
Neal Donald Walsch
Jesus said, “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine-dresser. Every branch in me that bears no fruit he cuts away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, to make it bear even more” (John 15:1–2).
These words open a new perspective on suffering for me. Pruning helps trees to bear more fruit. Even when I bear fruit, even when I do things for God’s kingdom, I need a lot more pruning. Many unnecessary branches and twigs prevent the vine from bearing all the fruit it can. They have to be clipped off. This is a painful process, all the more so because I do not know that they are unnecessary. They often seem beautiful, charming, and very alive. But they need to be cut away so that more fruit can grow.
It helps me to think about painful rejections, moments of loneliness, feelings of inner darkness and despair, and lack of support and human affection as God’s pruning. I am aware that I might have settled too soon for the few fruits that I can recognize in my life. I might say, “Well, I am doing some good here and there, and I should be grateful for and content with the little good I do.”
But that might be false modesty and even a form of spiritual laziness. God calls me to more. God wants to prune me. A pruned vine does not look beautiful, but during harvest time it produces much fruit. The great challenge is to continue to recognize God’s pruning hand in my life. Then I can avoid resentment and depression and become even more grateful that I am called upon to bear even more fruit than I thought I could. Suffering then becomes a way of purification and allows me to rejoice in its fruits with deep gratitude and without pride.
Henri Nouwen, Nouwen Society Daily Devotion, 3/5/24
“Resurrection” is another word for change, but particularly positive change—which we tend to see only in the long run. In the short run, it often just looks like death.
Richard Rohr, The Universal Christ: How a Forgotten Reality Can Change Everything We See, Hope For and Believe
Everything has seasons, and we have to be able to recognize when something's time has passed and be able to move into the next season. Everything that is alive requires pruning as well, which is a great metaphor for endings.
Henry Cloud
Marsha [a tour guide] explained that a particular Japanese gardening technique called “open center pruning” was responsible not only for the sculptural appeal of this maple, but also for the uncluttered space and serenity in the garden as a whole.
When a Japanese gardener “prunes open,” Marsha explained, he or she cuts away not only dead branches and foliage, but also often a number of perfectly healthy branches that detract from the beauty inherent in the tree’s essential structure. Pruning open allows the visitor to see up, out, and beyond the trees to the sky, creating a sense of spaciousness and letting light into the garden. It also enables an individual tree to flourish by removing complicating elements, simplifying structure, and revealing its essence. The process of pruning open turns the tree inside out, so to speak, revealing the beautiful design inherent within it. . . .
The truth is, God does not wish for us to stand stubborn like the autumn oak tree, cloaked in a façade of protection, our truest, most authentic selves obscured beneath a tangled bramble of false security. Rather, God desires us to live like the Japanese maple tree, our true essence revealed and flourishing, our true self front and center, secure and thriving. God yearns for us to live wholeheartedly and truthfully as the unique, beautiful, beloved individuals God created us to be. Most of all, God’s deepest desire is for us to know God, to root our whole selves in God like a tree rooted by a stream, and to know [God’s] deep, abiding love for us. . . .
God invites us into intimate relationship . . . so that we may then live more compassionately and intimately with those around us. We are the windows, as Henri Nouwen said, through which others may glimpse God. They are windows through which we might glimpse God.
Michelle DeRusha, True You: Letting Go of Your False Self to Uncover the Person God Created, p.15, 16, 17–18, 19, 216.
The suffering of this life not only can make our temperament more like the Divine Personality of Jesus, but it detaches us from this world. This Divine preparation opens our souls to the working and pruning of the Father.
The offense that shatters an illusion is a kindness in disguise.
David James Duncan, Sun House, p. 81 Even the shattering of an illusion is a form of pruning.