Neglect – My Primary Offense | Wounded ~ Healer ~ Warrior

It was one of those weeks.

Monday was a morning of sewing some seed into a friend’s future. Tuesday was shanghaied by the half day of school, a concussion clinic visit and a drama production in between. This meant my regularly scheduled work day was moved to Thursday. And then an urgent call on Tuesday evening caused my Wednesday to be a work day too, in between my physical therapy. By the time I got to Friday I was absolutely fried!

We’ve all had those weeks when normal goes haywire.

I was happy I survived with my husband’s and kid’s hearts intact. And then I went to my office…

Ms. Azalea was in critical condition! With a harsh gasp, my heart jumped.

“WATER, SHE HAS TO HAVE SOME WATER!”

Seriously panicked, the thought ran through my head;
“You can’t die, you can’t die this fast… I have to write about you! I was supposed to keep you alive for more than three weeks!”

Gratefully, she has survived. But the tell-tale evidence of my personal neglect was set before me in the weary leaves of Ms. Azalea. Chaos happened and I let chaos rule.
While Ms. Azalea recovered I did too. A weekend of slowing down, listening to the Father, getting reconnected to the vine restored me and got me back on this path of self-care.
But there were consequences to the neglect. Ms. Azalea lost all her blooms.
I stopped and wondered. Though I had survived my own neglect, is it possible that there were repercussions for me as well? Was there good fruit on my vine that perished from lack of care?
Fruit comes from consistent nurturing. And I certainly was NOT consistent, for Ms. Azalea or for my self.

“Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches ; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.” John 15: 4-5

Maybe the fruit that perished that week was the ease of grace that comes when I am at home with Christ everyday. But I’m still not sure what fruit I lost from the chaos that ruled.

Maybe that is also the point, sometimes you don’t see what you lose when you make choices outside of God’s will. And maybe that is God’s mercy!
What do you think?

Is it possible to lose your fruit?

Fruit of the Vine (lionessblog.com)
Growing Ms. Azalea – An Introduction

3 responses to “Neglect – My Primary Offense”

Cheryl, this is a great, thoughtful post! I think we can lose fruit or at least slow down the fruit bearing process during seasons when we don’t abide in Christ. I can think of a few seasons in my life when I was distant from God and later I realized the opportunities I missed to glorify Him and to share His love with others.

Yes, Juliet – you made me think that maybe the loss is the fruit of the Spirit. Patience, gentleness, goodness, long suffering…. seems simple. I will pray that God reminds me of that week and lends his insight to my soul 🙂

Pingback: Reconciling the Oxymorons of Faith and Fact | Wounded ~ Healer ~ Warrior·