Last spring I must have completed hundreds of job applications. I had maybe half a dozen phone interviews but only 2 onsite, live in-person interviews. As discouragement tried to gain entrance, I decided to leave the house and get my hands dirty. It was time to start the garden anyway, so I put in some corn, tomatoes, squash, green beans, spinach, cucumbers and potatoes.

As I sat in the grass admiring the afternoon’s work, a phrase came into my mind: “…but God gave the increase.”

So, what is this increase anyway? I plant a seed but a seed is not what grows. A whole plant grows from the death of that seed. That phrase is found in 1 Corinthians 3: 5-8 – “Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers through whom you believed, as the Lord gave to each one? I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. So then neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase. Now he who plants and he who waters are one, and each one will receive his own reward according to his own labor.”

The aim of both planting corn and preaching the gospel is the same – a harvest. God is responsible for the growth. I think there is a duel meaning – both the growth of the Christian faith in the form of new converts and the spiritual growth of those converts. God is in the business of growing us up – creating increase. But that leads me back to my question: What does that growth or increase look like? We have our idea of what it might look like, but God’s definitions are often very different from mine. Spiritual growth might look like what John the Baptist expressed: “He must increase, but I must decrease.” (John 3:30). That doesn’t sound like fun. Maybe he is increasing my dependence on him. What must happen to increase my faith, increase my trust in him alone, increase my dependence on him? Well, I guess he must do something to erode my dependence on myself, debunk my self-confidence, remove my ability to provide for myself. Ouch, ouch, ouch. Our increase then is really an increase of Him in us – becoming less like me and more like him. But that is not really it either. It is learning to do what Jesus would do if he were me. That is a subtle difference then the standard WWJD

Romans 5 says that God produces perseverance through suffering. And perseverance builds character and maturing, Godly character in turn gives us hope. James 1 is similar: trials produce perseverance and perseverance matures us. Peter tells us that our trials prove out our faith, and the end result is praise, glory and honor to Jesus. Increase looks like maturity – growing to become more like Jesus – and that can be a bumpy road. A mature tomato plant or corn stalk looks nothing like the seed planted. But they both contain many, many reproductions of that seed. Increase and maturity should lead to the result of reproduction.

For someone or something to grow or increase, it must be acted upon by an outside power or have the element of life within him or it. For a seed to grow, mature and produce fruit, it needs nutrients from the soil, water, and sunlight. Those outside influences destroy the outer protective shell of the seed so that the dormant life inside can come out. The same happens with us. Those trials, troubles, and pressures break our outer man so that the life of the Spirit inside us can come out. Increase requires some pressure, some death, and some substance. God wants to increase us, so like a good father and a good gardener, he makes sure he provides us with just enough pressure and just enough sustenance so that we can die… and then flourish.

What do I want him to increase in me? Is that desire Godly? Or is the better question, what does He want to increase in me? Maybe I should not even be bothering to think about increase or growth but just abiding. Maybe I should take my focus off the end goal and put it on just knowing and being known by Jesus. John 15: 1-6 says this: “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.” Abiding in the pressures and the nutrients God provides in my life and let them do their work. Of course, we are not passive. We are not inanimate seeds stuck in the ground. We sense and respond. When I feel pressure or am enduring a trial, do I get angry, depressed, or complain? Or do I turn to Jesus for strength? Do I proclaim, “though He slay me, yet will I trust Him?” As disciples we must follow - it is an active process of being with Jesus. We do this in a variety of ways, but it must be intentional. The more we are with him, the more we become like him.

The more we become like him, the more we start doing the type of things He did.

(If you really want to flesh these thoughts out, read John Mark Comer and Dallas Willard)

So, increase is His responsibility, abiding is mine. Learning from him, letting him shape me, trusting that whatever comes, He is in charge. He plants us, molds us, creates us, empowers, and gifts us for a purpose and when we fulfill our purpose, God is pleased, and we are joyful. Even though we have had to endure the trials of the scorching sun and the beating rain and the pruning shears, the end result is joyous fruitfulness.

It feels good at the end of summer to harvest tomatoes and corn. I wonder if tomatoes and corn had feelings, would they feel joy as well? It is a thing of pleasure to fulfill your purpose. His pleasure and ours. I long to hear, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”