Humble fruit

 Last night I watched a programme on telly about Marcus Rashford and his campaign to get the government to provide free meals to poor children during the summer ( and then the Christmas) holidays.  A young man of 22 managed to rally all the supermarkets, his millions of followers on social media and the press to persuade the government to change their plans.  Good for him.  Or so you would have thought.

But sadly one of the things that was also highlighted was the amount of abuse Marcus has got since he went public with his campaign.  Apparently about a third of the posts on his social media pages are negative. And it made me wonder what it is about human nature which loves to have a go at people who are successful or even just trying to do their best.   

Ive recently seen a few Facebooks posts by doctors and nurses saying how much things have changed over the past couple of months.  In April and May people were out on their doorsteps clapping. There were rainbows in windows.  There were acts of kindness and thanks being offered to keyworkers.  Now all that has disappeared and instead the levels of abuse of staff is on the increase.  Customers are getting stroppy with shop staff.  Patients are once again impatient at delays in treatment services.  GPs are getting shouted at on the phone.   Why?  What causes us to cheer at one minute and shout ' Crucify' the next?   If you had been in Jerusalem on Passover week what would you have been shouting?

On pondering this briefly yesterday I landed on a couple of answers - there are doubtless many more. Firstly I think its probably something to do with fruit.

One of the lovely fruits of the Spirit is patience.  Longsuffering. Along with gentleness, kindness and self control it's a quality not much seen in the world these days.  We want everything to be instant.  Instant food, instant fun, instant everything.  My kids cant even listen to a three minute song all the way through before they are scrolling onto the next one.  Even when its a song on their ' favourites' list!  Our attention spans are getting shorter. Our ability to wait for anything is vanishing into the haze.  So I suppose it's not surprising that when something like a pandemic hits we just dont have the resilience and experience to deal with everything slowing down. Or stopping.   We can deal with a bit of it for a short time, but ask us to wait in too many queues, tell us we cant buy our loo rolls till next week.... we don't cope well.

Fruit takes time to grow.  Spiritual fruit can grow incredibly quickly indeed if it finds fertile ground, but in general I think fruit is a sign of maturity in our Christian lives.  Following on from yesterdays blog I would say Im a lot more patient, kind, forgiving etc now at 54 than I was at 20. And I still have a way to go. I do still get a bit grumpy every now and again at all the Covid business.  I try very hard not to be grumpy with people, but I fail regularly 😀

Secondly its about pride.  We can all put someone else first for a while. But ultimately it comes back to the fact that its all about me.  And the only way it can not be about me is if it's about Jesus.  Decades ago people used to talk about getting off the throne of our own lives and letting Jesus sit on it instead.  Its an illustration which has gone out of favour a bit, but I still think its does what it says on the tin.  Whilst I'm on the throne I require worship, I require service, I require deference and attention and I consider these to be my right.  Im entitled.   Entitled to have an opinion and share it online regardless of how my opinion might make someone else feel.  When I sit at the feet of Jesus I have a whole different perspective. I see myself as I really am and others as He sees them.

As this eventful year draws to a close and as we are all restricted more and more let's make a choice to be gracious.  Let's be kind.  Be patient. Be gracious.  Choose to understand another's point of view.  Choose to prefer one another and speak good things not bad. Even of our politicians...... perhaps especially of our politicians.   Stop grumbling and complaining - it becomes the soundtrack to our lives and who wants to listen to that?? More than ever the world needs the sweet soul music of the fruits of the Spirit. They are only going to find it in us.