Pruned, Sharpened and Sculpted
It’s easy to believe that more is better. More money, more friends, more pleasure, more….well you get the point. But in this devotion, I want to direct your attention to a gold nugget. The liberating truth that if we can lose more of ourselves, then we will be of more value to those around us, and more importantly, to God. John the Baptist said:
He must increase, but I must decrease.
John 3:30
Pruned
Both of my grandmothers are wonderful at growing things. As a child, I would roam around Grandma Blythe’s garden and admire the wide variety of fruits and vegetables growing in that small plot of ground. Nothing beats the taste of a fresh garden cucumber and tomato! At Nanny Morris’ home, I would admire all of her flowers and rose bushes.
On one particular day, I watched as Nanny began to prune a rose bush. And when I say prune, the word that comes to mind is butcher! Limb after limb was cut away until that poor rose bush was no more than ugly pieces of wood with roots in the ground. That rose bush deserved my pity! It’s branches which took so much effort and time to grow were now lying on the ground.
Then came Spring! My goodness, that rose bush was a huge display of beauty with giant roses growing all over it! But why couldn’t that rose bush produce the same results with it’s old limbs? My untrained eyes couldn’t see it but there were diseased and dead stems that were hindering the growth process. In other words, some things had to go in order for the bush to flourish. What areas of your life could use pruning? Relationships, addictions, or selfish desires?
Sharpened
Life has a way of dulling you. Your work for God has a way of dulling you. “What? Did he really just say that?” You may ask. An axe head becomes dull for the same reason that a car runs low on gas. It has been working! The danger of being dull is to remain dull. A lumberjack would exhaust his energy with a dull axe head and accomplish very little. Ecclesiastes 10:10 says it wonderfully:
Ecclesiastes 10:10
If the iron be blunt, and he do not whet the edge, then must he put to more strength: but wisdom is profitable to direct.
So the lumberjack takes the axe to a grinder. “No!” cries the axe, “I can’t afford to lose anything!” In a display of fiery sparks, metal is removed as the axe head regains it’s razor sharp edge.
The axe should not feel ashamed of becoming dull. But neither should it feel resentful when it is sharpened. Pieces of itself must be taken away so that it can once again be used for a greater purpose than itself. What situation is grating on your nerves right now? Could God be using this unpleasantness to sharpen you? Will you endure it for a higher cause than yourself?
Sculpted
The art of sculpting is something that fascinates me. The artist painstakingly chips away on a crude piece of rock and slowly a masterpiece emerges. Most of my work comes from a computer with an “undo” button. I can only imagine myself as a sculptor at the end of my “masterpiece,” only to have an ear or nose to fall off.
If the rock could offer it’s opinion, it would certainly vote to keep itself in the original state. But the sculptor knows that if the rock will only lose part of itself, it will be of so much more value and beauty. There is a legend of Michelangelo who created the great statue of King David. The question was asked, “How do you know what to chip away?” Michelangelo’s reply? “It’s simple. I just remove everything that doesn’t look like David.”
What comes to your mind that does not represent the image of Christ? Will you let the Great Sculptor chip away that part of your life? Will you fall apart at the blow of His hammer? Friend, the Master is not destroying you but making you into something so much better!
If you feel that your being: pruned, sharpened or sculpted, I pray that you will commit yourself to the process. Only God knows the end result of His work in you. The key is to simply say yes to Him. In closing, the words to this song comes to mind:
I’ll say yes Lord yes to your will and to your way
I’ll say yes Lord yes I will trust you and obey.
When your spirit speaks to me with my whole heart I’ll agree
And my answer will be……Yes…..Lord Yes