Susan Narjala
Keeping it Real
You Don’t Need to be Fruitful Right Now
As I scroll social media, scan bookshelves, and read my email, one theme pops up repeatedly: productivity. We’re all looking for ways to get the most out of our time. Being productive is often tied to our purpose. After all, God designed us to use our talents and skills. When He created Adam, God didn’t say, “Now, you can lay back on a hammock.” He gave Adam the task of naming the animals and tending the garden..
Productivity is a good thing. When I see a bunch of checks against my to-dos for the day, I feel good—satisfied that I’ve used my time, talents, and resources well.
But can productivity become a trap for the Christian? Can perfectionism stifle our walk with God?
God calls us to please Him, but there’s a difference between pleasing Him and performing for Him. We long to please Him in response to His perfect love for us. We strive to perform for Him because we want to prove our worth to Him.
For a few months this year, I set my alarm for 5 a.m. so I could spend time alone with Jesus before the morning school routine began. I wanted to offer the “first fruits” of my day to Him. I’d slip quietly out of my bedroom so I don’t wake my husband, and kneel in God’s presence with my Bible and journal.
It was a beautiful, blessed time—until it wasn’t.
Somewhere along the way, I slipped into performance mode.
How did I know?
As embarrassing as it is to admit, I started to feel like God owed me. And when things I prayed for didn’t pan out, I grew resentful at first, and later anxious.
I realized I had started measuring my worth not by what Jesus did for me, but by what I was doing for Him.
Friend, maybe you’re experiencing burnout, anger, or resentment because you’ve bought into the performance lie.
You’ve checked off all the boxes of what it means to be a “good” Christian. You’ve attended church every Sunday (maybe even two services because you were helping in Kids’ Church for one of them), you’ve served on the worship team, you’ve joined the women’s ministry meals-on-wheels program, and you’ve been waking at the crack of dawn to spend time with God.
But instead of feeling rested and refreshed, you’re exhausted. You’re asking, Am I actually producing fruit? Is this making a difference? Why am I not experiencing breakthrough and blessing?
Psalm 1 paints God’s design for our fulfillment with the picture of a tree:
“That person is like a tree planted by streams of water,
which yields its fruit in season…” (Psalm 1:3)
The one who is constantly connected to God is like a tree planted by streams of water. Just as the tree depends on the stream for nourishment, the deeply content person depends on the Living Water—Jesus—for continual replenishment.
But the fruit? It doesn’t need to be constant or continual. The fruit comes in season.
In India, where I live, we enjoy dozens of varieties of mango during the three months of summer. The sweetness of a chilled mango makes the sweltering heat bearable—even enjoyable. Streets upon streets and carts upon carts are filled to overflowing with myriad mangoes. But mangoes are only available in that particular season.
Friend, while you’re called to always abide in the Vine, you don’t have to live in constant fruit-production mode. God cares more about the condition of your heart than the creation of your hands. He knows that when we’re hyper-focused on producing fruit, we miss out on receiving nourishment.
When I stay connected to Jesus, I will bear fruit—in season. And that fruit will refresh others as it is meant to.
God has planned good works for you to walk in. But He has also designed you to be still and know that He is God.
Even as we’re dependent on God for nourishment, may we be discerning about our actions. May we be fruitful but also know that resting in God leads to our flourishing.
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MEET SUSAN
Comments
11 Comments
Peter
A word in season. Thank you.
Psalm 1, along with Psalm 2, the grand gateway to this curated collection of God’s people’s songs of praise through the ages.
This stirring overture is studded with motifs and movements that shape and shimmer in and through every sculpted song that ensues.
It is a high dive springboard that launches one off into the clear, charging, sometimes choppy, sometimes calm waters below. Always living, ever moving. At times heady, at times head-banging, at times head-spinning, at other times simply head-in-hands and hurt-drenched.
Israel is invited to sing their storied souls to God in praise of every hue.
And Psalm 1 marks our entry by sounding the first strains of into this expansive vista.
This is poetry not proposition. Least of all psycho-babble.
This is soul song not inert incantation.
A pour-me-out and a pick-me-up.
Not for the tone deaf ‘figure-it-outers’ and ‘fixers’, the ‘sort-it-all-out’ stars who glitter in corporate firmaments.
And, you’re bang on, dear Susan, not for the Pharaohnic pundits and pujaris of the Temple of Productivity. The high priests of Moloch who lives by feeding off (literally consuming the flesh and drinking the blood of) his worshippers.
This is a salvo which needs to be fired, a bell that must be rung.
We’re called in Christ to be united to, make our home in, the Tree of Life, the True Vine. Planted by streams of living water. The two prerequisites of fruitfulness in Psalm 1. Fruit borne by this living tree by living waters in a life of rhythms — a living (not entropy-enslaved) life. ‘Bringing forth’ fruit, the most attractive even aromatic aspect of a tree’s life that bears its life, in season. Fruit only in response to, in context of… never on demand. This planted person rivers of living water is not a factory, but a tree. An organism, an ecosystem, a complex hive of intricate relationships thriving on reciprocity. It grows by giving. The metaphor is to be meditated, mulled and mined. That’s the magic of a grand old song; it’s ever new… evergreen.
Does anyone capture this better than America’s famous white-haired, wrinkle-worn Rabbi: “Never once in my life did I ask God for success or wisdom or power or fame. I asked for wonder, and he gave it to me.”
Abraham Joshua Heschel
Blessings
Kellyn
For several years, I was in a season of bearing much spiritual fruit. It was a particularly hard season, but I clearly saw how God was changing me and growing me. I felt as if I was really flourishing. But now faced with a hard season again, I am not seeing the same constant growth and “fruit” This post has encouraged my heart so much…maybe right now is time to just rest, rely on His strength, sit by the water, and wait for the “season” with my eyes fixed on Him and drinking from His inexhaustible well of fresh water. Thank you. Your post has answered a prayer I have been praying for months!
Susan Narjala
Amen. So grateful that the Lord spoke to you through that post. Hope you have a beautiful season of rest. Blesssings, Susan
Lola
Thank you for this. I haven’t been super busy but life has been crazy and I question if I’m good enough to walk in my calling. I’m grateful for the reminder to be still and know that He is God.
Susan Narjala
Thanks for sharing, Lola. I’m going through something similar and was so thankful to the Lord for this reminder. Blessings, Susan
Winnie
Thank you Susan ! When our prayers don’t get answered , it’s like God owes us and it was eye opening for me to understand performance vs what Jesus has done for me. Thank you for sharing this thought and that fruit comes in season. I have been thinking of a reset being in the final months of this year and it’s so good to read this post today that is definitely shaping my reset outlook. Thank you!!!!
Susan Narjala
Yes, Winnie. It’s such a freeing passage that we don’t have to constantly “produce” fruit for Him. We need to stay connected and the fruit will come as we abide. Blessinngs during your reset season. – Susan
Leon
Very good, Susan. Very thoughtful.
My takeaway is: enjoy the journey with Jesus. He cares for the tree even when it is not in fruit-bearing season. Serve as you can. Love Jesus always. Fruit will come in time
Susan Narjala
Amen. I really love those truths. Thanks, Leon! – Susan
Bill
Thank you for this Susan! After a time, checking the boxes can be so unrefreshing. I like the idea of being fruitful and refreshed, in season, and in Him.
Blessing to you and yours.
Susan Narjala
Thanks, Bill. It’s a trap for sure… when we’re trying too hard to win God’s favor. Usually, I end up snapping at everyone around me! 🙂 God bless! Susan