Day 13 of 5 Min Writing Challenge

We’re laying off 20 people this coming Tuesday. Pruning, they call it. Necessary, it is. Yoda has visited, so it seems. It’s true, we’ve grown a bit bloated. It’s like before we had kids. We were DINKs (Dual Income No Kids). The money was flowing and we could light our winter fireplace with a couple Benjamins. Then we made the decision for Vanessa to stay home with the kids and then had to tell each Washington where to go. It’s painful. But it’s necessary, and it clarifies convictions. I’ve also been thinking spiritual pruning. John 15:2 says, “…and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit.” Seems counterintuitive to cut a tree to make it grow more fruit but it’s the way God has designed his creation. You cut away the bad to make way for the better. And it’s not that the tree is fruitless and then he cuts it to make it bear fruit. No, that fruitless sucker, he gets burned. But it is “every branch that does bear fruit” that he prunes. So I will trust the hand of the kind Gardener to know how deep to cut to remove the wasting branches and make way for more fruit. It hurts. I don’t like not being in control. But the fruit will be sweet.