Rotten Fruit (of the Spirit)?

"Do you ever not smile?"


"I knew you were a Christian because you were always so kind and happy."


I hear these words from my past as I look in the mirror, getting ready for work some mornings.  They come from a time when I was in college, and I guess life was simpler.  Now these words play behind eyes that have lost a some of that happiness, some of that kindness.  I don't smile as much, and I could blame a thousands things for that.  I don't meet the new day with expectation, and peace is something that often seems far away.  Far too often I replace gentleness with anger.  And for self control- I'm trying to give up Dr. Pepper for a trip to Colorado in July.  It's not easy.

The problem is:  shouldn't those things like self control, peace, kindness, gentleness, joy (which I kinda believes appears on the surface as happiness to other people, although Joy is a much deeper thing than happiness) and all that come naturally to a Follower of Christ?  Doesn't the Bible say:

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. -- Galatians 5:22-23?

For years, I took this to mean if you are not displaying these things from the time you first accepted Christ, you were not genuinely His.  Well, that's not true, I never really believed that, but I was around a lot of people  who said they felt that way.  "If you have the Spirit, you should be displaying them.  That's how people know you are a Christian, after all."  Don't even get me started on the issue of people making it their business to judge your salvation.

I've started kinda understanding the fruit of the Spirit as, well, fruit.  If you imagine the Spirit (aka the Holy Spirit, or Holy Ghost depending on your tradition) as a seed, planted in your heart when you accept the gift of Christ, then imagine that seed grows.  Now, no seed is planted then immediately bears fruit, some will grow fast, others slow.  This depends on varying degrees to the type of soil it is in, and the environment around it.  But over time that seed has shoots that break the ground and grow into a plant- for the purposes of this illustration, lets say a tree.  Now, this being a fruit bearing tree, eventually one expects fruit, right?  Key word is eventually.  I'm no horticulturist, but even I know it takes time for fruit to appear, let alone ripen.  The other thing I know about fruit is that it doesn't look like we'd expect it to right away.  It grows into the image of the apple or the orange that we know, but it takes time.  I also know that a fruit that just hangs on the tree/vine will rot if it is not taken off and used.

With that in mind, the fruit of the Spirit- I believe- takes time to mature and grow.  Some people are more naturally disposed to be patient, so that part of the fruit of the Spirit is evident early on for them.   That one is not me.  By the contrast, for some people there is a horrific pre-Christ life for them that can make joy an unimaginable thing- it will take time for this fruit to ripen.  So, I don't expect every person who professes Christ to be fully displaying the entire fruit of the Spirit at the same levels.

I also know that many people who have the fruit of the Spirit but never share it with others become rotten.  Their joy fades from view, they lose gentleness for anger, they can't stop doing stuff they know they shouldn't.  Fruit must be tended on the tree/vine, and fruit must be tended in our lives.  We must feed the fruit of the Spirit, engaging these aspects of new identity that Christ wants us to grow in our lives.

But people will say:  "I'm an abrasive personality, that's who I am.  I am not gentle."  The Spirit comes to indwell us and refine our person- our character.  Sometimes the things we think that makes us who we are are actually the things that keep Christ at an arms distance.  Distant from us and distant from others.  We must not actively fight against the growth of the fruit of the Spirit in our lives, we must recognize that He must become greater, I must become less.

This is not a one time thing, either.  Once Joy or Self Control is evident in our life, it doesn't mean we are set.  Those fruit can grow rotten, or get used up in serving others, so we need to let the Spirit grow it back in us.  In other words, we can burn out, we can grow weary.  Not unlike an actual fruit tree that has a season and then new fruit must come, we need restoration, rejuvenation.  New seasons.

As I look into the mirror these days, I recognize that if that joyful face from college is not there, I need to tend to the Spirit- I need to spend time with my God, I need to serve Him, I need to worship Him.  This is the fertilizer of the fruit of the Spirit.