What does love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control look like today? I cannot claim to see it in the mirror and so I look outside of myself and am lost…and at a loss. How can I desire in others what I cannot find within?

Hypocrisy is an immobilizing poison that either paralyzes the body of Christ or lends the energy of excuse to us all who can easily say ‘Why can I not lie when the other over there hates?” etc. We busy ourselves with burying our neighbour in the heavy lead reminders of their evil and in the process bury ourselves as well.

The priest’s vow of chastity is mocked in our culture today as unrealistic and inhuman but it is reflective of a heart that desires only one passion…an all-consuming fire for God.

There is a great irony in the call to holiness. An existence unhindered by any relationship can relate equally to all. A life unhinged from wealth and belongings can give more than the richest man or woman could ever give. A person who willingly walks away from every love is than free to love all through the love of God that fills the void within.

The fruit of the Spirit results from no effort of our own but blossoms in the fertile soil of a soul submissive simply to the will of the one who would see life rather than death. As fruit it grows not for the benefit of the soil or the vine from which it sprouts but for the nourishment and life of the ones we would give it to.

We can nourish other fruit in our lives too…apathy, depression, hate, restlessness, hardheartedness, evil, meanness, and Dionysian excess. While the fruit of the spirit freely given to others leads to life this fruit of our own brokenness leads to poisonous death in the ones who come near…in the ones we force feed it to.

I feel sometimes as if the fruit is rotting on the vine in my life where it sits unharvested…but perhaps if it falls to the earth it will nourish a new crop that will be enjoyed by many.