What we can learn about the fruitful Christian life from our drip line: Introduction

We grow vegetables to give away to our economically challenged neighbors. Most are grown in the summer: tomatoes, cucurbits, eggplant, cabbage, summer and winter squash. 

Those crops require a steady supply of water to reach their fullest potential, and we are blessed with plenty of it from a nearby pond. We get that water from the pond to our plants through a series of pipes and then distribute it to individual plants through drip lines.

Drip line is a type of flexible tubing designed to carry water and deliver it slowly to the root zone of plants.  It has emitters at regular intervals where the water is released from the tube into the soil at the base of each plant at predetermined rates as drops of water.

This series of posts will explore the ways those emitters parallel aspects of a fruitful Christian life. Like the water the driplines distribute, those insights will be delivered in small increments that have individual and cumulative value. 

What we can learn about the fruitful Christian life from our drip line, part 1: individual grains of salt and individual lamps.

Each emitter delivers water to a small area: the soil directly under and immediately adjacent to it. But cumulatively they have a big impact; we produce an average of 13,500 pounds of produce every summer and all of that is irrigated by individual emitters. 

That brings to mind Jesus’ teaching about individual believers being salt and light recounted at Matthew 5:13-16. Each grain of salt only impacts the area it directly contacts and each lamp only illuminates the area in its immediate vicinity. But Jesus values each one for the good each produces in its individual space and the huge impact we believers cumulatively have when we faithfully follow Jesus’ example. 

So don’t be discouraged by the state of the world at large. Just trust in the Lord and do the good you can.  God will bless you and others through that. 

What we can learn about the fruitful Christian life from our drip line, part 2: the results of our work only become apparent over time.

Another parallel between our drip line and a fruitful life in Christ is that results of its work only become apparent over time. We start setting up our drip line in April, and start irrigating through it in May, but most of the harvests it makes possible don’t happen until July and August.  Millions of little drips must occur before the blessings we are working towards occur. 

Scripture reflects that dynamic. It is implicit in Jesus’ parable of the mustard seed, recounted at Matthew 13:31 -32.  It takes time for that tiny seed to grow into the fount of blessing it will become. That pattern is stated more clearly in His parable of the seed growing by itself, reported at Mark 4:27-29. It must grow “night and day, while [the farmer] sleeps and when he is awake . . . first the shoot, then the ear, then the full grain[.]” Mark 4:27, 28 (New Jerusalem Bible, emphasis added). Proverbs 13:11 puts it most clearly: “accumulation little by little is the way to riches.” (New Jerusalem Bible). 

So what do we do with that, how do we apply it to our lives? We keep doing the work God called us to, day by day, trusting that He will make it fruitful over time. Just trust in the Lord, do the good you can, and keep doing it. 

What we can learn about the fruitful Christian life from our drip line, part 3: We must stay connected to the source.

Oue drip line only works if it is connected to our water source. Absent that, nothing flows and nothing grows.

The same is true of our work for God—we can’t do it apart from Him. Jesus summed that up in John 15:4-6:

Remain in me, as I in you. As a branch cannot bear fruit all by itself, unless it remains part of the vine, neither can you unless you remain in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever remains in me, with me in him, bears fruit in plenty; for cut off from me you can do nothing. Anyone who does not remain in me is thrown away like a branch—and withers; these branches are collected and thrown on the fire and are burnt. (New Jerusalem Bible).

What we can learn about the fruitful Christian life from our drip line, part 4: We must go and stay where God wants us to be.

Our drip line only works if the emitters are properly aligned to the individual plants we want to irrigate. Otherwise, the water goes to waste, and no fruitfulness occurs. That’s why we take care to see that the emitters are positioned so that the water they deliver goes directly to the plants’ root zones. That’s not always easy. Drip line can be stiff, especially when its new. That makes it hard to get and keep it in place without some sort of outside helps, like garden staples.

             Those same dynamics are present in our efforts to fruitfully serve God.

            We too must go where He wants us to be if we are to bear the fruit He wants—we must seek and abide by His will, go where he places us. Fruitfulness results when we do, Proverbs 3:5-8, 11-12,  and does not when we do not. Psalm 127:1-2.

             We also need outside helps to get and stay where He wants us to be, especially when we are new to serving Him. We get that through regular time in His word, regular time in prayer, regular fellowship with other believers, and Godly counsel. They help us get and stay where we need to be to bear the fruit God desires from us

What we can learn about the fruitful Christian life from our drip line, part 5: timing.

Our drip line does not run constantly. Most of the year it does not run at all. It is idle during the months between summer crops; we winterize it, and it sits until the next spring. And during summer crops, it only runs on specific days at specific times and for specific periods of time that maximize the quantity and quality of our crops. 

The same is true of our service to God, on two levels. 

First, we will we do not constantly bear fruit, even when we are right in the middle of God’s will. Psalm 1:3  tells us that even those fully synched to God only “bear[] fruit in season.” (emphasis added). There will be intervals between seasons of fruitfulness, so don’t sweat it. God’s just getting you ready for the next growing season. You still have value, and you will add value again in the future. 

Second, we must pace ourselves during fruitful seasons. We can’t go all day, every day, even if that effort is directed towards bearing fruit for God. That’s why God gave us the sabbath. Exodus 20:8-11. And we can’t be afraid of resting when we are fatigued; Jesus did so, so we should too. Mark 4:35-38. That will result in more and better fruit than would occur if we tried to power through our exhaustion.