From a distance, these growing tomatoes look fabulous and healthy. From up above, these growing tomatoes look fabulous and healthy.
But once you get down below … where no one sees … it is clear that these growing tomatoes are not healthy at all! They are rotting. What happened??
A Google search reveals this is “Blossom end rot” … and it is caused by inconsistent moisture levels in the soil.
Yes … this would be an accurate diagnosis of the situation. These tomato plants have baked in the sun until they drooped despairingly … then they were drowned, in a desperate attempt to bring them back from the brink of doom … only to bake in the sun several more days until drooping in despair … then drowned, etc. etc. …
This same thing can happen in our spiritual lives, when it comes to bearing Kingdom Fruit. We can get so busy in life that we don’t have time each day for the Water of God’s Word. Our souls bake in the heat of life! And we start to droop despairingly! It dawns on us what’s happening, so we then drown ourselves in some focused Bible time in order to restore our souls. But life is so busy! We get caught up in the rush and find ourselves going several days without spending time in the Word. Our souls bake in the heat! … and we start to droop! … so we drown ourselves, etc. etc. …
Does our Kingdom Fruit look like these tomatoes? Spiritually speaking, do we look good from a distance? Do we look good from up above? But if someone was to get down below … where no one sees … would it be obvious that our Kingdom Fruit isn’t really all that healthy after all?