I’ve never been big on editing. I usually say what I mean, so why toil over it? Will it really get better? As I work on songwriting I have worked with some co-writers who have the gift of editing–whittling down a message to a solid core–saying what needs to be said in the fewest words possible. They make it look easy. You know someone like this. They drive me nuts. I wish that came more naturally for me and my life. As I think of Lent, I am thinking about whittling away at some things in my life.
My father has been visiting us for the 6 weeks since my mother death. Last week he began pruning some apple trees in our front yard. Day after day he’d work a little on them–there are four of them. In the two years we have lived in this house they have produced very little fruit. Dad and I went to our local hardware store to pick up some fungicide. I love the hardware store near us. They have live chicks in a pen inside the store. There’s always a dog roaming around inside the store and they used to have a rooster who never could quite finish his cock-a-doodle-doo–it was worth the trip to the store to hear him attempt it. He always left you hanging. Back to the house and back to the apple trees. Max, Zach and I would help as best a 1 yr old and 3 yr old could to pick up the branches as dad and Ron would clip them off. Then the spraying began. Little by little the trees are pruned and sprayed. Today Dad is going to water them. He says he’s coming back in the fall to help pick apples and make applesauce–he’s got vision. They haven’t produced many apples so far. It’s hard to believe that they really will and after all the hard work that has gone into them. I’m really counting on them and looking forward to the day when they will.
Back to Lent… barren… stripped away… now’s the time for us to do the work and trust that we will bare some fruit after this time. I feel it’s time to look inside.. to look at my life.. to edit a little… even though I don’t want to… it takes time… it’s tedious, day after day letting go of some things to make room for new life. I could share with you what I’m working on letting go of, but it is so personal for each of us that I feel like I have to go this one alone. I’ve got to be the one day after day working… pruning… sharing my work with a few fellow editers in my life, as I guess you do. It’s funny–it’s easy to think that the yuck stuff we are working on in our own lives–no one else could relate to. The truth is we ALL have work to do. We all could do a little pruning and editing. It’s nice to know God is with us in this time, working with us, nudging us to let go and to celebrate the new life that awaits each of us.
2 Corinthians 5: 17 So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new!