The Cut
Every writer has a process.
Mine has always been subtraction.
Most posts begin with a page full of ideas. Then I start cutting. A sentence here. A paragraph there. Sometimes entire sections disappear.
The goal isn’t to make the piece shorter.
It’s to make the message clearer.
I’ve often thought about that when reading John 15.
Over the years, I’ve heard plenty of sermons about branches being cut off. But the part that keeps drawing my attention is the branch that’s already bearing fruit.
The gardener prunes it.
Not because it is unhealthy. Not because it has stopped producing. The cut comes precisely because the branch is fruitful.
The gardener sees something the branch cannot see. He knows that if a few things are removed, more life can flow to what matters most.
Looking back, some of the hardest seasons of my life weren’t times when God was dealing with obvious sin. They were seasons when He was cutting away things that had become distractions.
Good things.
Comfortable things.
Things I had grown attached to.
At the time, it felt like loss.
Years later, I can see it differently. The cut wasn’t punishment. It was preparation. God was creating space for something better to grow.
A writer removes words that blur the message. A gardener removes growth that competes with the fruit. God often works the same way, carefully cutting away what is unnecessary so more life can flow into what matters most.
The branch never understands the cut while it is happening.
Only the Gardener sees the harvest coming.
“Every branch that does bear fruit He prunes, so that it will be even more fruitful.” John 15:2
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