Let's Hew You

Timing is everything: we rush the harvest, and the fruit is wasted; we take too long and the fruit is also wasted. Timing is everything. In the fullness of time, we are able to determine the kind of fruit that has been planted: whether it’s been the Fruit of the Spirit, or the fruit of the flesh, and in the fullness of time, we will be able to determine whether that fruit is good or whether it’s better tossed out, not even used as next season’s manure.

In this green season, Ordinary Time, the season after Pentecost, when enabled by the Spirit, there is much good that should be coming out, what am I really yielding? Have the seeds that were sown earlier in the year (the liturgical year, beginning in Advent) taken good root. Were those seeds planted in fertile soil, were they were properly nourished? Were these seeds planted by streams of water? Conversely, were the seeds tossed on rocky soil where they couldn’t take much root and the message of personal and spiritual transformation and renewal was easily lost?

After a bit of a hiatus, I am back to my task. What will it yield? What will the fruit prove of the seed that has been sown? I have been awaiting the return, but I had to wait until it was the right season. I had to wait until it was the right time. I had to wait until it was the appointed time. No clock, no watch, no modern time-keeping instrument could determine that, and so, I had to wait. How many moons passed? I wasn’t keeping count, because, I had to wait for the appointed time. So, honestly, it wasn’t a matter of moons, it was a matter of guidance. It was a matter of waiting for that voice.

And so now, it’s time. What kind of fruit has been planted? Well, the proof of the pudding is in the tasting, so you will have to tell me!

Timing is everything.

Friends, I’m happy to be back. I’m happy to be back with a new message. I’m happy to be back to share with you a word that replaces the apathy, the hate, the deceit and the cunning. I’m happy to be back with a word that offers compassion, love, honesty and truth. I’m happy to be back with a word that calls those who have lost hope towards the living hope. I’m happy to be back to say to those who are weary that someone hears you and wants to help you carry your load. I’m happy to be back to say to those who are tired of the chicanery that there are some of us who couldn’t be bothered with the masquerade, and seek the truth. I’m happy to be back, friends, because there’s work to be done.

As I return to my task, I invite you, as a fellow pilgrim on a journey and a fellow companion on the road, let us help each other walk the mile and bear the load.

May you be blessed by the words that flow through me during this harvest season. We have harvested quite a bit of rotten fruit over the past weeks haven’t we: from mass shootings to the extension of war efforts, to record-breaking high temperatures in Europe, protests in one country or another and exposure of inept and disappointing country leadership.

May you be blessed by the words that flow through me, for they are not mine. May you be blessed by the words that flow through me for we are tired of the rotten fruit that we are being offered. May you be blessed by the words that flow through me for we cry out for something better. May you be blessed by the words that flow through me for they are not mine, they cannot be mine, for the hope that we all need is not of the flesh, but can only come through the Spirit.

As I step into this new season, I invite you to mutual support in the words of the Servant Song:

Brother, sister, let me serve you,

let me be as Christ to you;

pray that I may have the grace to

let you be my servant too.

The Servant Song – Richard Gillard