I’d been picking berries over a period of a few days, trying to gather enough to make a batch of blackberry freezer jam and a blackberry pie ~ that I had a tiny piece of on a tiny plate, of course!
And, in so picking, I noticed something interesting that I hadn’t given much thought to before: that the berries on a bunch all ripen at different times! Only one or two berries in any given bunch are ready to pick at any given moment.
For your farming education and berry-viewing pleasure, here’s a photo that I took of said berries, and then drew circles around each of the many bunches. (You may notice that a few of the bunches are lacking a dark, ripened berry ~ this is because I had already picked them off!)
This is similar to how I see myself as coming into “fruition” regarding growing in and applying principles of the Thin Within message! There are many areas ~ in Thin Within and in my life as well ~ that I’d like to be adept at all at once. Like immediately!!!
But, alas, I am a slow learner. And :::sigh::: some days go better ~ and some worse ~ than others.
Just when I think I have one area conquered, I fail miserably the next day, as if I’m starting from ground zero! UGH!!!!! I know I’m really not, but some days it just seems like it!
Getting specific
One cluster of berries represents several areas that I need and want to grow and become more mature and skilled in! Like what, you ask?
Well, like… waiting for zero… stopping at 5… which equals eating withing my 0 to 5 boundaries…
creating my truth cards… reviewing my truth cards… getting truths on my truth cards into my mind and heart…
drinking more water… being more faithful at renewing my mind… being more consistent at working in my workbooks…
eating more slowly… exercising 0–5… applying myself to conscious and undistracted eating…
running to Jesus instead of to food for comfort or help in decision-making…
truth journaling… letting go of the dieting mentality… learning to not beat myself up when I fail…
allowing God’s truth to replace lies… for that matter, learning to even recognize lies!!!
And these are not things that I feel bound to do; they are things that God will use to set me FREE, “if I don’t get discouraged (or distracted) and give up”!!!
In fact, since I am berry ~ I mean very visual, I went ahead and labeled most of the individual berries in the bunch in the photo above so that you could visualize exactly what I mean right along with me!
(The above varying berry stages are not exact representations of MY actual maturity in these areas!)
Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we could mature in all of the areas we want, all at the same time!?! But that’s not too likely given the fact that we are human, weak, and imperfect.
But, as long as we are on the Vine, and remain connected to Him, who is also the Vine Dresser, we will mature! And I assure you that it won’t be because of our own ability to hang on! It will be because of His life-giving, transforming grace that flows through the veins of our souls and nourishes, grows us up, and ripens us in the “wisdom and stature of the Lord”! In fact, He even helps us to hang on!
So as we “seek him first,” all these berries – I mean things – will be added unto us!
I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing.” (John 15:5)
Heavy on the “apart from Me you can do nothing” bit!!! And thinking I can when I’m on a good streak is part of the wrong thinking that needs to be renewed in my mind!
Since that verse is about grapes, I thought it would be appropriate to include a photo of grapes ~ which turned out to be prettier than the blackberries! Aren’t the variations in color as they ripen amazing?!?! (Wish I looked this pretty as I’m ripening!!!)
Let’s close by praying through that same verse:
Lord, You are the vine, and I am one of your branches. My heart’s desire is to remain in You, and for You to remain in me, so I ask You to help me do this, Lord! Help me allow You to transform the “home of my heart” into a place You are comfortable residing in.
I want to be a fruitful branch of Yours, and to produce much tasty fruit, but I know this is a byproduct of allowing You to live Your life in and through me! For, apart from You, Lord, I can do nothing! (As in ZIPPO… NADA… ZILCH!!!)
Thank You for choosing to dwell in my heart, Lord!!! … Aaaaaaamen!!!!
By 9:30 a.m., I had weed whacked the entire dog yard. My shoulders and back were stiffening up. The temperature had climbed into the 90s. The last thing I wanted to do was go back out into the heat mid-day and attack the blackberry bush(es).
But what I wanted less was to go another day with them continuing to grow and spread.
When my daughter and I had a falling out, I found myself hurt and angry more than just a bit. Suddenly, I had a lot of angry energy and the adrenaline surged into my aching muscles…I didn’t feel any pain. I plugged my iPod into my ears (nothing but worshipful music wafting into my head) and began my work.
As I began on the perimeter of the briar patch, God’s Spirit went to work on my heart. It was like with each rotation of the nylon string at the end of my “weapon” slicing out against the plant infestation, God’s Spirit sliced at my resolve. I could hear the Holy One…”Child…isn’t this like what *you* allow in your life? The seduction of the ‘sweet,’ the prideful way you are enamoured and choose to believe that ‘this won’t affect’ you? You thought that the ‘little blackberry bush’ would produce sweet fruit and not demand so much of you in return…didn’t you? And now it owns your yard. It rules, doesn’t it? Who would have thought?”
God showed me that I had made little compromises–even when it came to the anger I was allowing in my life right then. But so often, something appears (like the ‘little blackberry plant’) to offer promise of a reward of some kind. Maybe instant gratification. Maybe yet in the future. With this promise there is a minimization as to the consequences or cost. Who would have thought that the “harmless” little desire for sweet fruit (no less!) would result in a bramble that would take over the yard!
The Spirit revealed to me that occasionally I would even assault these little compromises in my life–conviction that things were getting “out of control” would cause me to come at it with my spiritual “weed whacker.”
Without really rooting it out, without digging down deeply, like with the blackberries, all I was really doing was a temporary fix. If I leave my blackberry mess down there on my hillside without a follow up…without more done to prevent its regrowth, chances are all I have really done is provide MORE of what is needed for MORE proliferation of the plant in my yard. Last November (for instance) during a retreat for 3 days where time alone with God showed me things I needed to root out of my life with an overly full schedule, I didn’t apply follow up treatments. I provided, in essence, “short-term canopy reduction.” Yes, the appearance is that of “Well, that has been taken care of!” But the truth is, for blackberries and sin, assaulting it this way…”In many cases…stimulates the formation of suckers from lateral roots and induces branching.” The result is, in time, MORE of the same!
This reminds me of Hebrews 12:15:
See to it that no one misses the grace of God
and that no bitter root grows up
to cause trouble and defile many.
My plan now for the blackberry brambles is NOT to rest on my so-called laurels and assume that I have taken care of it. In fact, I assume that I have only provided the way for it to thrive! I will *follow* UP the work done yesterday. I will rake the pieces, I will spray (ugh) anything that yet remains in the ground…and, hopefully, when we have a California Department of Forestry declared day for burning, have my burn permit in place and burn whatever is left.
If this bramble wasn’t on our leech field I *would* rototill as well…but I can’t do that. This blackberry bush (if it had a brain) was very clever about where it settled…I can’t rototill it without affecting the leech field which also probably gives this blackberry the moisture it needs to thrive. It is protected there in some ways. Just like sin sets up residence in subtle ways…insidious yes, but sometimes protected or even cherished and nurtured in a corner of our lives. From that place of protection it appears harmless enough…and before you know it, it has taken over the entire life.
The lessons in the brambles showed me that I need to approach sin in my life with a same aggressivemulti-facted approach. I must not just assault it head on, but I must follow up…like saturating any remnant with herbicide, I must saturate my life with God’s Word. With the blackberries NOTHING will be given sympathy and allowed to remain. Likewise, I must not allow one single solitary shred of sin to remain. It must be destroyed.
A part of me feels badly for the quail who have nested under the protection of the brambles in the past. Their thicket is gone. But I must not allow this “false compassion” to lure me to compromise. It MUST NOT BE ALLOWED TO GO ON.
Like the blackberry bush(es) took over the yard intended for something else, so too will sin not “behave” and stay in the place I hope it will…it will also send out shooter roots and suckers and branches…and it will take over if I allow it.
Song of Solomon 2:15 says:
Catch for us the foxes,
the little foxes that ruin the vineyards,
our vineyards that are in bloom.
It is the little foxes, the little compromises that spoil the garden of God in our lives. Let us refuse to allow these “little compromises.” No matter what they promise…sweet fruit that is “good for you,” or even something more, I will choose to be mindful that I must remain wholly devoted to God and His purposes in my lives.
To look at the picture above is to stimulate the taste buds for many of us. Naturally sweet, wild “California Blackberry” can be found throughout California–along creeksides, riverbeds and, yes, even in backyards in riparian woodland…here, where the Bylsmas live! Michaela and I have gone on horseback on our “berry tasting tour” every August for the past few years, delighting human and horse tastebuds alike. (You should see Breezy scrape the berries off the top of the prickly branches! It is quite humorous!)
Five years ago, when we moved here, there were no blackberry bushes within sight of our house. Definitely *not* in the area outside that became our dog yard. Our dog yard is enclosed by a 100 foot fence along each side. It is a hillside, marked by a number of oaks and Douglas Fir trees and makes a great playland for our two dogs, Jordan and Daisy.
Two years ago, my daughter and I saw the first sign of a little wild blackberry plant spring up in our backyard. Enamoured with the idea of having sweet, fresh blackberries right outside our door, rather than having to go hiking or on a horseback ride to find them (we have done both), we allowed the “cute little plant” to live–even during May when it is time to be sure we weed whack everything living that could contribute to the threat of fire (like lots of weeds in the backyard). We live in California fire country…
The first year, the “little” blackberry bush grew quite a bit–but modestly nevertheless. So last year, when it was time to do our “fire safe” work on the place, it was CLEAR we had to cut some of it back. While it hadn’t provided fruit in its first year, we were just sure it would in its second year. We cut it back quite a bit, being oh-so-careful to leave some of it. We eagerly waited for the end of summer, when all the blackberry bushes that we have ever seen have marvelous fruit exploding from their branches.
August of 2007 came and went with NO blackberries. Not only that, but the bush branches themselves went nuts. The cutting back we did previously was just what the bush(es?) needed to receive permission to grow exponentially. Quail made their home what could easily be known as “Bylsma Bre’er.” The dogs certainly weren’t impressed by the way the brambles were taking over their domain. They love chasing the quail, but the stickers that find the dogs’ paws when they venture too close to the briars is another story entirely. The dogs have learned quickly to keep their distance.
This spring, it was clear that the California Blackberry had about taken over the dog yard. NOT a good thing. The NASTY thorns dominated much of the yard! The quail have had their babies and have moved on. And for the record? Last year, the bush didn’t produce fruit either. In fact, not even flowers (yes, I know the two are related..LOL!).
This morning dawned and the deadline for being “fire safe compliant” is upon us (nothing can be more than 4 inches tall and these bushes have been taking up about 50×20 feet in the backyard…they were growing as tall as 4 feet high in places!). At 7am, I took my weed whacker out there, equipped with a metal slicing blade, ready to make mincemeat of the blackberry…once and for all! I would WIN this war if it KILLED ME!
Hitting a rock a couple of times, seeing sparks fly into the dry weeds about made my heart stop and I rethought my strategy. One thing led to another…I abandoned the metal blade, bought a machete, tried it, abandoned that, equipped my weed whacker with beveled thin string, had a fight with my daughter :-(, found myself energized (funny how that is)…and went out there and attacked the blackberries with a vengance!
There is now carnage everywhere. I definitely won that assault round.
As He often does, God used the experience to bring home some truths to me. I will write about those tomorrow…I give all of this account as background. But I wanted to share some things that I read *after* I assaulted the blackberry bushes today…after I proudly boasted to my family of my triumph!
I read the following…AFTER I had gone my rounds with the plant vermin, at this website (UC Davis, an agricultural resource in our area):
“Wild blackberries are able to regenerate from the crown or rhizomes following mowing, burning, or herbicide treatment. This makes them difficult to control, and control measures often require follow-up treatment. Land managers often rely on a combination of mechanical and chemical control methods followed by a prescribed burn to dispose of vegetative material.
“Because of the extensive underground root system, digging out the plants in a home landscape is a difficult undertaking. Home gardeners generally must rely on foliage-applied herbicide treatments to control an infestation of wild blackberries.
“Bulldozing can also cause resprouting and can spread the weed by means of root and stem fragmentation.
“Mowing is not an effective means of controlling wild blackberries. In many cases it stimulates the formation of suckers from lateral roots and induces branching. Despite the lack of long-term control, however, mowing or chopping can provide short-term canopy reduction that will encourage the growth of grasses and broadleaf plants.
“Burning, like mowing, is not an effective long-term strategy because wild blackberry plants vigorously resprout from rhizomes. However, like mowing, it also provides short-term canopy reduction.”
Did you catch all of that? This stuff is TOUGH to get rid of. I have once again just done what this “little” plant needs to become BIGGER and MORE PROLIFIC than ever! Our little flirtation with the notion of letting “sweet blackberries” exist right “out our back door” has resulted in a major INFESTATION that we may NEVER get on top of! Short of mowing, removing the stalks (stickers not withstanding), spraying with HERBICIDE (gasp!), and burning whatever is left and being ready to repeatedly rototill the remains…I am not sure we WILL win this war. We have merely prolonged the inevitable. In fact, my best effort to win this have, as in the past, resulted in PROMOTING MORE OF THE BRAMBLES to take over!!!!
Tomorrow’s blog entry I want to share the things God whispered to my heart while I was out there in my self-righteous frenzy, hacking violently away at the blackberries.
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(The above varying berry stages are not exact representations of MY actual maturity in these areas!)
