If you have grown a money plant, you will have noticed that as it settles into the soil and the environment, it begins to grow longer and longer. If you do not trim it, that one stem will just grow but if you do trim it, the plant begins to have more stems. It becomes fuller. Some who grow these money plants are afraid of trimming it thinking that it will damage the plant.
We need to be trimmed as well. However, there is a streak in most of us that creates inertia when it comes to change. Trimming sometimes means that we have to stop doing what we have been doing all this while. In order for us to discover the variety of gifts that the Lord has given to us, we need to stop and listen to the Word of the Lord. This Word directs us. This Word nourishes us very much like the vine nourishing the branches. Doing only the things that we like to do will only point us in one direction and will only enable us to use that one gift whereas the Lord has given us more gifts. This is why the Lord says to us that we will bear much fruit. The production of the fruits will come from the use of the gifts that has been given. Often we tend to say that we have no gifts or that we have only one gift. We recognize that we have only one gift because we have used only that gift and others have experienced the use of this one gift. Sometimes fear keeps us from discovering and using other gifts. To say that we have no gifts at all is not the truth. God our Father loves us and therefore we are all given gifts.
St. Paul realized his mistake and changed his ways. His was a significant conversion – from a persecutor to a proclaimer. Change was made so that he would remain with the Vine.
Questions for Reflection
Are you willing to let go of what you have been used to and find your other gifts?
Are you producing much fruit for the Vinedresser?
What are the expressions of your faithfulness to the Word of God?
Make your home in me, as I make mine in you– John 15:4
