On the way home from work, I ate a rubbish apple. I’m a bit embarrassed to admit that I had built up some level of anticipation about how nice the apple would be. I couldn’t wait. I love a good apple like the next man. But what I got was a flowery, tasteless, dry, disappointing excuse of a fruit. It should have been ashamed of itself. But it wasn’t. It didn’t care, because it was an apple.

The experience was vivid though.  As I lobbed the mainly uneaten apple in the bin from 4 yards away, and checked to see if anyone had seen my accurate throw, I remembered what Jesus said,

“Make a tree good and its fruit will be good, or make a tree bad and its fruit will be bad, for a tree is recognized by its fruit. You brood of vipers, how can you who are evil say anything good? For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of. A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him. But I tell you that everyone will have to give account on the day of judgment for every empty word they have spoken. For by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned.” (Matt 12: 33-37)

I wonder what sort of fruit my words taste like to others. Do people want to know where that good taste comes from? Do my life and words lead people to want more of Jesus? What sort of fruit is my church bearing?

I’m going to ponder this the next time I am tempted to lash out at someone who has annoyed my or make a cynical remark. In the meantime, I’m off to the shop to buy a better apple.