Seeking Out Goodness by Alexandra Kuykendall

Author:Alexandra Kuykendall
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Christian Living/Personal Growth;REL012070;REL012120;SEL016000
Publisher: Baker Publishing Group
Published: 2021-09-21T00:00:00+00:00

Part 4

The Fruit Is Good

Whatever is pure . . .

PHILIPPIANS 4:8

Faith is holding on tight when the going gets windy.

CHARLES SCHULTZ

Linda held out a plastic tub, a yogurt container now repurposed for our morning berry harvest. Though it had been years, I felt like it was just yesterday that she was handing me a bucket and scooting me out of her door to her garden. My mom, my older two girls, and I were on a visit to the island outside of Seattle where I’d spent a few of my earliest years. We were staying with dear friends who have always been like family to us. The berry buckets, walking to the large, fenced garden, the blue July sky of the Pacific Northwest, and the chickens in their pen felt like whispers from my childhood in this special spot. My city girls were not used to being sent outside to harvest for the breakfast spread. We picked more raspberries than we could eat. They were ripe and ready and oh so good as we sampled a few while still standing next to the bush. The warm berries tasted like pure summer, and it was nothing but good.

Very little in this world is pure. This side of heaven, we live in a mixed-up space of God’s holiness and humanity’s fall. Every relationship, person, or system is flawed because we live in a broken world, but that does not mean that God is not present in those places. Quite the contrary—he is in all those places. Our job is to find where he is at work and call it out. It is the mining process that requires prayer, study (to know God’s character), and the willingness to find him in unexpected ways. We know that the fruit of the Spirit is what is evident in our lives as the Holy Spirit does this work in us. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Gal. 5:22–23) are good because they are the result of God’s work. The fresh raspberries were delicious, and the fruit of the Spirit is a delight to taste. It is flavorful and nutritious. The fruit is good.

When I think of the raspberries straight from the bush, I know that God makes good things. He is the original organic farmer. He created the elements on the periodic table in their pure form. He is the source of pure love and pure joy. So though very little in this world is pure, when we find hints of purity, we can celebrate it with raucous cheers. A baby’s first steps may be wobbly, but they are an indication of so much pure good in God’s creation. Life and growth are evident in those unsteady moves. They might not be perfect, but like the child leaning toward a parent’s open arms, they are steps headed in the right direction. We can keep this mindset as we look for what is pure and good.

The Message paraphrases pure in Philippians 4:8 as “authentic.

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