How to Get What You Want

The picture you see above in today’s post is a snapshot of God’s handiwork and my wife’s love and attention. It’s a portion of our backyard that has become a sanctuary for me. My wife is our gardener. With a water hose in one hand and pruning shears in the other, she constantly surveys the yard, making decisions about which plants get the pruning and watering they need to thrive.

In his book “Necessary Endings,” Dr. Henry Cloud devotes an entire chapter to the necessity and benefit that pruning plays in our lives. Pruning is a function of cutting away to reduce the extent or reach of something by taking away unwanted or superfluous parts. To illustrate, Dr. Cloud uses the example of how rosebushes require pruning. He points out that roses weren’t designed to be average. They were designed for incredible beauty. But to reach their full potential, they can’t be just left alone. Cloud states:

“Rosebushes and other plants produce more buds than the plant can sustain. The plant has enough life and resources to feed and nurture only so many buds to their full potential; it can’t bring all of them to full bloom. For the bush to thrive, a certain number of buds have to go. The caretaker constantly examines the bush to see which buds are worthy of the plant’s limited fuel and support and cuts the others away. He prunes them. Takes them away, never to return. He ends their role in the life of the bush and puts an end to the bush’s having to divert resources to them.”

Roses were created to be beautiful and thrive. So were you and I. We know this because Jesus said so: “I am the vine; you are the branches.” In other words, “I am the rosebush; you are the long stem rose that’s attached to me, created for allure and flourishing.” We were created to bear fruit; to be a beautiful rose. Jesus tells us that God prunes every branch that bears roses “so that it will be even more fruitful.”

If you were created for thriving, not just surviving, why has your to-do list become a to-do pile? Could it be that you need to do a little pruning in your life?

What would happen if you made a list of the most important things in your life and ordered the rest of your life around these? That is, every decision you make would be filtered through your things-that-matter-most list. If you did, I’ll bet pruning unnecessary things from your life wouldn’t be nearly as difficult as you think.

If you are looking for a place to start, Dr. Cloud says to think about what you want to accomplish – what a rose looks like to you – and recognize that things that don’t move you closer to your vision, must be pruned.

He says there are basically three categories of things that need to be cut away and eliminated forever:

• Things that are just ok and not necessarily unhealthy; things that are not the best and starve you from the choicest resources needed to thrive.
• Things that are sick and not going to get well no matter how much water or fertilizer you add.
• Things that are dead and taking up space, and if not removed, will cause the healthy things in your life to bend and turn corners.

Once you’ve defined what’s most important, you must come to grips with the fact that you operate with limited resources of time, money, and health. As a gardener, you have only so much water to go around. If you water unpruned plants you will have well-nourished mediocrity and an empty bucket to boot.

As the caretaker of your life, you must relentlessly pursue the best and prune the ok, the sick, and the dead. God wants us to be fruitful, but we can’t do it all. What do you need to stop doing – prune from your life for good to be your best? Decide what’s worthy of your limited fuel and cut the other things loose. Partner God’s handiwork with your hard work. Get out those pruning shears and be the rose God designed you to be.

Play to win this week in the game that really counts!