Seasons of Being Pruned: Where Flourishing is Born

My jalapeño plant sits on my patio in my homegrown garden. Its bright blue plastic pot brings contrast to otherwise greens of my herbs and the occasional pinks and purples of my petunias and vincas. While the summer heat keeps it from fully growing its peppers, I know that they’ll grow abundantly when autumn comes this year. Even in the summer heat she thrives, growing taller and taller, leaves filling out the plant so it looks almost tree-ish. But it wasn’t always like this.

After last autumn’s harvest, the jalapeño plant became barren and unfruitful. Her leaves began falling one by one. Eventually, I knew I had to prune her completely down to bare branches. Some of the branches even had to go too. While it was work that pained me to perform, I knew it would yield a bountiful harvest when the next autumn came. 

In the pruning and then flourishing process of my jalapeño plant, I was reminded that this is what God longs to do with us. He wants to prune us of the things that no longer serve us. By ridding us of the things that hinder us and hold us back, we will grow bigger and better than before. We can truly flourish into the people God is calling us to become. 

Pruning seasons are painful, yet it’s through the pruning that our flourishing is born.

Seasons of Being Pruned

Sooner or later, we all go through seasons of life that involve being pruned. This often looks like God removing something from our life so that we may be more fruitful. But to us, it doesn’t always look that way. 

It often involves deep pain as we grieve for what was lost, parts of us that we never wanted to say goodbye to. Old habits, relationships, jobs, comforts. All gone as part of God’s pruning process. But it’s through pruning that we are forced to come face to face with our dependency on things that are not of God. 

I have gone through my fair share of pruning seasons as God longed to shape me into someone who was dependent upon him instead of on things of this world. He’s taken away jobs, relationships, opportunities, friendships, habits, and old comforts as He sought after my heart. 

The pain of my pruning was excruciating. But looking back now, I can see that it was all for a purpose. By God removing those parts of my life that were causing me to stumble and turn away from him, I was able to flourish into the person I am now. I’ve experienced tremendous growth that I never would have if I was still holding onto the parts of my life that God was clearly trying to shear away.

While the pruning itself is painful, there’s no denying that there is great beauty that comes from it. By allowing God to prune us, we open ourselves up to a life that is so much more fulfilling than the one we’re currently leading. 

A Pruning Perspective

I want to be someone who handles God’s pruning with grace. But so often, I’m left wondering what I did wrong for God to do this to me. For so much of my life, I felt like it was a personal attack. 

How could God have taken that opportunity away from me, the one I thought was the right thing? Why did He take this chance, this job, this relationship away? Why did God remove from my life the things that brought me joy, the things that were comfortable?

But after almost 30 years on this earth, I’m learning the power of perspective. I’m also learning that God always has the final say.

God took away that job because it wasn’t the best place for me to glorify him. It also wasn’t the best use of my time or talent.

God took away that opportunity, that chance, for one that was so much better.

He took the relationship away because it was hurting my relationship with Him and causing me to stumble.

God removed the things that brought me comfort and joy because it was the false comfort that the world gives. He would soon show me what true comfort in the things of God was.

God’s pruning is always with purpose. The shears may be sharp, and we may have to wait for our flourishing, but we can trust that the pruning brings forth new life.

We can embrace the pruning by:

Allowing ourselves to mourn what was lost but remembering that God is in charge.

I want to be the first to say that it’s okay to mourn what was lost, even if it wasn’t good for us. Your feelings are valid, and your grieving is okay. Oftentimes, the things that God prunes from our lives are things that we held dear and weren’t ready to let go of.

It’s okay to mourn for those things, but we can’t allow ourselves to bask in nostalgia. Our nostalgic thoughts often only make us remember a past that was better than it actually was. We can grieve what was lost, but we have to remember that God is still in charge. Eventually we have to come to a place where we can comfortably walk away from what was lost and move forward, knowing that God has better planned for us. 

Reflecting on why God may have taken that relationship, job, opportunity, (fill in the blank) away.

Through our reflection, self-awareness, and being really honest with ourselves, we usually can begin to understand why God took away whatever it was in our life. Most times, it’s simply because something better is coming. God has something even bigger planned for us. Other times, it’s because it was causing us to stumble and we needed to keep our eyes better fixed on Jesus. Spend some time in reflection and ask God to help you discern why the pruning was necessary.

Asking God what we can do right now to begin our flourishing process.

By conversing with God in prayer, we are participating in what God wants to do in our lives. It’s often in times of prayer when I’m able to sense what God is calling me to or wants me to do next. He’ll sometimes give me little insights or small bits of inspiration or encouragement as I go. When we ask God what we can do right now, he’ll show up. Keep your eyes, ears, and heart open for His response.

Enjoying the preparation season.

If you’ve been reading my blog for a while, you’ll probably notice that I’ve written about this plant before. It’s funny reading that blog post now because it feels like so long ago. My writing has improved a ton since then, but the lesson in that post still rings true.

So often God calls us to a season of preparation after the pruning. In that season, God is preparing us for our flourishing. Preparation feels a lot like waiting for what’s next, but it’s in that season where God is getting our hearts and minds ready for what comes next. Don’t rush the preparation. Enjoy it, and absorb all that God is trying to teach you during it. Your flourishing is coming soon.

Pain that Brings Forth Life

As I pruned away the dead leaves and branches, I was a little distraught bringing pain to a plant I loved. But I knew that the pain would bring forth life. The cuts and bruises would heal and those areas would grow back stronger. 

I think of God in this way too. He gives and takes away. He prunes the dead things and pulls the weeds in our souls. I often think of Him as the master gardener. He knows that by ridding us of the things that hinder us and turn us away from Him, we’ll become more faithful, obedient, and zealous for the things of Him. He prunes so that we would become more bountiful and beautiful, inside and out. 

From the pruning, the flourishing is born.