“Landslide” by  Stevie Nicks

John 15:2 (GNT): He breaks off every branch in me that does not bear fruit, and he prunes every branch that does bear fruit, so that it will be clean and bear more fruit.

Hebrews 12:10-11 (NIV): 10 They disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, in order that we may share in his holiness. 11 No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.

There is no shortage of songs about love and the heartbreak it often leads to. Love and the pain associated with it are unfortunately part of the human journey. While most of the songs on the topic speak to the pain from a place of betrayal or loss, Stevie seems to capture the pain of love through the lens of a recognition that it’s part of a process, a journey. She captures the essence of love including seasons of turmoil through changes that sometimes look unpleasant or as if they are falling apart. Landslides are wonderful metaphors for the removal of something that no longer serves a purpose or even worse creates unsafe environments. In fact, humans have figured out that we must on occasion intentionally cause landslides to prevent greater damage in the future. God is no different. He removes the unproductive and potentially harmful areas of our lives to make room for something better, something more productive. Something that prevents a greater future threat we cannot see. God is in the landslide business too. 

If you were fortunate enough to have loving parents or were raised in a home where adults took an active role in your safety, growth, and development then you were probably disciplined. Maybe you’re a parent now or have custodial control over children and young adults. Very early on in these relationships, discipline becomes paramount to the development and sometimes literal physical safety of the children under your care. It’s no different with our heavenly father. 

There are endless books, podcasts, blogs and opinions on what effective discipline looks like. Everyone has an opinion and all too often they are willing to share it, convinced their way is the only “right” way. But, as humans we all get discipline wrong, probably more than we like to admit. We often administer it incorrectly and we also fail to see discipline for what it truly is when we are on the receiving end, an invitation to change…for the better. There are probably as many reasons we fumble administering and receiving discipline or misunderstand its purpose, application, and value as there are opinions on what “good” discipline looks like. We are humans. We make mistakes. We do what we know and what we learned from past experiences. And we are prone to being a little self-righteous at times. This means we think we know how and when everyone including us should be disciplined.

But our Father in Heaven does know what good discipline looks like. He created us. He knows us better than we know ourselves and He knows discipline is not a one size fits all application. He tailors it to each of us based on the unique and wonderful creation we are. He uses discipline to help us become the person He created us to be and do the very things He created us to do. And here is the great part, He created us to do things that will bring us an incredible amount of joy and peace. He created us specifically to do the thing that sets our hearts on fire. And like most of us who have had the incredibly tough job of administering discipline, He did it from a place of love. 

Jesus talked about God’s discipline using metaphor those in His presence would understand. He used the imagery of pruning and cutting away branches that no longer produced fruit. Wine and the fruit that produced it was common in Jesus’ time as was agriculture in general, so the idea of pruning branches that were decayed and no longer produced healthy fruit would have made sense in Israel 2000 years ago. The metaphorical “fruit” Jesus spoke about are the things we often wish others had, but fail to recognize lacking in ourselves, things like love, patience, joy, peace, self-control, kindness, faithfulness, and gentleness. It’s easy to think we have this “fruit” in abundance. We probably do at any given moment in time. But, if we are honest, we know it takes one rude and careless driver on our daily commute or one social media post that doesn’t align with our values or beliefs to cast all nine of these spiritual fruits to the wayside in an instant. Factor in bills, teenagers, the newest HOA covenant, getting our coffee order wrong again, or any one of the thousands of things that come at us each day demanding our attention and it can seem downright impossible to produce good fruit. 

But we have a God who knows and understands. He dealt with it too. Jesus made a lot of friends and a lot of enemies while He was here on earth. It seemed even His followers and friends didn’t always grasp His purpose and were often more concerned with their own selfish, earthly desires on what they wanted in the way of miracles and Godly kingdom. If anyone had reason to struggle with the fruits of the spirit, Jesus was a prime candidate. But Jesus sees the big picture and He wants us to see it too. If we are to change the world, we must produce the kind of fruit that inspires and invites change in ourselves and others. And to do that we have to recognize and invite removing decay and dead branches that prevent us from producing good fruit. It’s not a pleasant process. 

Make no mistake, God is not punishing us. He is allowing the painful pruning process to occur to bring about change. That’s what we signed up for when we made the choice to follow Him. It’s easy to forget that when the world around us is full of invitations to simply avoid the pain and give in to the desires of our natural human tendencies. We watch people in power or of great influence serve themselves with seemingly little care of the impact on each other, the environment, the community or even their own mental and physical well-being. It’s tempting to avoid the painful pruning process when there are so many others who seemingly avoid it with ease. But everyone produces fruit. Everyone. Good or bad, we are all producing fruit. Bad fruit is dealt with in its own way and time. Fortunately, as followers of Jesus we have a Gardener who wants only the best fruit in His garden, so He allows the sometimes-painful process of removing decay and unproductive growth to occur to let the life-giving vine we are connected to fill us with nutrients for long term, plentiful and healthy growth. It’s a painful process for sure, but it is for our good. So, when the process occurs, and it will, thank Him for the hurt. Know that the hurt is temporary, and it has been permitted because we are loved by the creator of the universe. And it is good.