The passing of Queen Elizabeth this past week provided extra inspiration for this 2nd post in our series, FIT for LIFE.
Queen Elizabeth’s legacy of faithful service right up to 2 days before her death at 96 after 70 years has been applauded by both critics and devout monarchists. And her personal Christian faith has been highlighted by many, as Christmas messages and speeches throughout her reign have been recalled and replayed.
“Tenure” is the word that comes to mind to describe Queen Elizabeth’s endurance and longevity. In most other royal families in Europe, the reigning king or queen typically abdicates long before their expected death.
Tenure implies perseverance and permanence. It means fulfilling an apprenticeship and progressing in one’s position and calling, and staying on for the long haul. We hear the word mostly in university professorships, resulting in not only job security, but with required regular published deliverables.
It is about finishing well. Or as one author titled his book, to Die Empty. He means sharing ALL your gifts to make your people and world better. With tongue in cheek, Todd Henry wrote,
“the most valuable land in the world … is the graveyard … buried all of the unwritten novels, never launched businesses, unreconciled relationships, and all of the other things that people thought, ‘I’ll get around to tomorrow.’”
Todd Henry in Die Empty, pg 4
So here is our second meaning for FIT (besides the obvious physical fitness meaning), “Fruitfulness in Tenure.” It means continuing to “bear good fruit,” to quote Jesus’ words (John 15:5), both now and for a lifetime. Season after season.
Reaping a bountiful harvest by finishing well
The agricultural fruitfulness metaphor that Jesus often was quoted in his teaching is very relatable for us on rural PEI. It is now mid-September and as I write the grain harvest is pretty well done. The bulk of the potato harvest will begin soon.
While it appears to have been a good growing year, one of my farmer relatives said he was disappointed in the grain yield of some of his fields. He was unsure why.
Some of last year’s potato crop ended up being destroyed due to an infection (potato wart) found in some fields.
Similarly, not all of us will finish well with a fruitful harvest.
Take the royal family. Queen Elizabeth by all accounts has finished well. But several of her offspring have been surrounded by scandal or infighting. One of her grandsons, Harry, and his wife Meghan, spoke of their own hurts in the Oprah interview.
Or take some of the world’s richest. Neither Bill Gates nor Jeff Bezos were able to keep their marriage together. And recall how celebrities like Elvis Presley or Robin Williams ended. And many more.
In fact, research by Barna and Gallup, repeatedly show that many of us get stuck along the way, hitting barriers that either take us out of bearing much fruit or at least yield a poor harvest. Gallup calls it “unengaged employees” (79% of Canadian workforce), and popular media now calls it “quiet quitting.”
Or take the current burnout epidemic. While recovering from a period of burnout can be a wake-up call and some life changing “adjustment in your soil conditions,” or “pruning,” that result in bigger crops later, many people don’t bounce back better. (read Carey Nieuwhof‘s book, Didn’t See it Coming, for his burnout and recovery story).
Same with addictions. Some recover only to relapse. But, there are others who overcome their addiction which can then become the very “fruit” they bring to the world to walk with others with similar struggles.
So, there may be many of us who have reached a barrier or a hurdle that seems insurmountable–a “dark night of the soul’” as the ancients have called it.
Our mission at IHTC is to assist individuals and couples in recognizing and overcoming barriers to “bearing good fruit” for a lifetime. Being “FIT” for life.
So in future posts we will explore Jesus’s agricultural knowledge, and today’s agriscience to help us learn lessons in human flourishing.
‘Bad roots’ lead to ‘bad fruit’
We have a saying as IHTC team members, “Bad roots equals bad fruit.”
While sugar maple trees aren’t a typical fruit bearing tree, like apple trees, they do produce sap for maple syrup and seeds to propagate their species. I have previously photographed and written about our own “burnout” maple tree. Last year (2021), its leaves turned by mid-July and dropped by August (aka “burnout”).
Here it is this year, July, 2022:
Not a single leaf or seed and although I didn’t try to tap it, I am sure there would be no sap! So I cut it down. Here was the trunk:
Let’s all help each other find those “bad roots” (or damaged trunks) so we can repair, and thrive, and bear good fruit our remaining days on earth – and in eternity.
Fighting for FIT citizens and sustainable healthcare,
