“Pay Close Attention”

Back in the day I worked in Quality Control (QC) for a soft drink beverage company that produced Pepsi and  ginger ale, and other flavored drinks. Our job was to  run various tests ….  checking sugar content, pH, carbonation, color….  making sure the final product was up to standard. When you began filling over a 1,000 cans/minute, no one was happy if you had to pitch pallets of defective product. Stories about the exploding bottles of ginger ale, or the Pepsi cans with the Budweiser lids, or the “mouse”,  will have to wait for a future BLOG. 

I think Jesus would have been an excellent QC Manager. He was always noticing how the various trees and bushes were doing …. cursing the barren fig tree (Mt. 11:20) or commenting that “a good tree does not bear rotten fruit, nor does a rotten tree bear good fruit. For every tree is known by its own fruit. For people do not pick figs from thorn bushes, nor do they gather grapes from brambles.”(Luke 6:43-49) He would always draw larger conclusions that apply to our spiritual life…. teaching us to pay attention, reminding us that “a good person out of the store of goodness in his heart produces good, but an evil person out of a store of evil produces evil; for from the fullness of the heart the mouth speaks….” (Ibid)  

Jesus calls us to be “fruit inspectors”. Look at the fruit in your life; it will tell you how you’re doing. Are the “fruits of the spirit” evident in your life …… “the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.” (Gal. 5:22-23) If they are evident, then be encouraged. If not, then it’s back to the drawing board…better bring in the Quality Control Manager to run some analysis…”maybe your pH is too acid, or your carbonation  is too flat…. hmmmm, maybe your flavor is not sweet enough/too sour. St. Paul would use other terms to describe a bad batch of “fruit”, things like “the works of the flesh ….. fornication, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, anger, selfishness, dissension, party spirit, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and the like.” (Gal. 5:19-21)

So let’s be “fruit inspectors” and listen to the Lord when he tells us to pay attention. If we do, we can be confident that we are on the right course, or if not we can make appropriate course corrections and get back on track. Jesus is always there to help us. And then all will again be well with our soul. And that is very good news.