Sour Grapes

Well, where do I start?
Hmm..
Well, here it is.  I love sour things.  Sometimes the sourer the better.
I love a good sour lemon.  Oh my goodness.  Just biting into that sour lemon with a little salt.  My mouth is watering as I write.  Pucker up buttercup!
I love a good dill pickle.  For me it isn't just any dill pickle.  It has to be a Vlasic Kosher Zesty Dill Pickle.  So good.  Oh so good!
And a grapefruit.  Love a grapefruit.  Just peel it and eat or cut it in half and spoon that luscious juicy fruit right into my mouth. 
I am a happy camper!!  Yes, yes I am.
But, here is the rub.  When I am expecting a bite of food that I have popped into my mouth to be sweet, then that is exactly what I expect, sweet!
I have a go to lunch that I love.  I so enjoy crackers, cheese and grapes.
It is one of the most refreshing lunches that I have.
In the spring and summer it just satisfies like no other.
I love the creaminess of the spreadable cheese that I get, it is a little bitter but it goes so well on my salty cracker.  I spread it's yumminess on my cracker and then I set a big, juicy, sweet grape on top and pop it into my mouth.  The explosion that goes on is so indescribable. 
So today, I am going to have my most awesome lunch.
I am rinsing my grapes off, getting them ready for this culinary delight that I am expecting in my mouth.  I started to pop one in my mouth but I stopped myself.  I wanted to enjoy that first bite just as I was expecting it.
With my table (desk) prepared before me, cheese - check, crackers - check, and plump, juicy grapes - check.
I popped that first bite into my mouth.  Nope!  Imagine my disappointment when the explosion that took place was nothing like I expected.  The grape was so sour.  This couldn't be.
Did I let that stop me from trying another?  No way.  I am an optimist. 
So, cheese, cracker, plump juicy grape, bite!  Sweet!  Nope.  Just as sour as the first one.
Now sometimes I think brilliant things.  Out of desperation I say to myself, "Self, keep on eating them.  Who knows, maybe there will be some sweet ones."
Now just so you know, that was not the brilliant part of me that said that.  The brilliant me, who happens to be very observant, spoke words of wisdom to desperate me.  "Desperation, umm.. just so you know, all of those grapes are coming off of the same vine.  They are all sour."
Brilliant huh?
Did I let that stop me from eating them?  No.  Desperate or not I was hungry.  And I like sour but it just was not what I was expecting.  Did it satisfy?  No, not even a little.  All it did was let my stomach know it had food in it.
As I was eating though my mind went to who we are as people.
Right now there is a commercial that has a few singers/wrappers letting us know "You can't judge a book by it's cover."
Oh how true that is.
I looked at the grapes.  To look at them you would not be able to tell one from the other.  You would not be able to pick out a sweet one from a sour one.  I've had sweet ones.  They look just like the ones I'm eating. 
That got me to thinking.  What about Christians, or so called Christians?
I go to church.  Not perfect, just forgiven.  I call myself a Christian.  I know that there have been so many times I have fallen, failed, got back up.  Got my heart back in right relationship, only to have it happen again, and again. 
But with each step I take with Jesus I realize that I am beginning to produce fruit.  Jesus said He is the vine and we are the branches.  That people will know us by our fruit.  That the fruit of the Holy Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control.
I know that if I am not careful that I am so capable of producing par fruit.
I so do not want to do that.  I want people to know that I am connected to the vine.  I want the fruit that I produce to be authentic.  I want the love that flows from me and through me to be the Love of God flowing through me and poured out.  I want joy!  His joy!  The joy so unspeakable that it is full of His glory!  I want peace..one of my favorite things.  There is nothing like peace, sweet Jesus peace.  Peace that passes all understanding.  It brings the calm to the storm.  I want to have peace that calms storms in peoples hearts.  Patience, one that I am still practicing.  But I want that patience that God shows me.  I want to be able to wait for that understanding that patience brings.  I want to be able to say I was patient enough to witness that a-ha moment when someone realizes their need for a deeper, closer walk with God.  I want kindness to flow through me.  I meet so many kinds people.  But I sometimes find myself judging people and maybe not wanting to be kind to them because I don't think they are worthy.  Who am I to think that?  I who am so unworthy of His kindness yet He shows it to me every day!  Goodness, I want His goodness to flow through me and spill out onto every one that I meet!  Faithfulness.  I want to be called faithful.  I want that to be the fruit that Jesus calls me.  Faithful.  Gentleness.  How can you produce gentleness?  What is the opposite of gentleness?  I think of the opposite of gentleness as a tornado.  I have been the tornado.  Nothing comes from a tornado.  But gentleness, awe, gentleness.  The tender care of a new mother to her newborn babe.  That is the fruit that I want.  I don't want to be so destructive that I tear down what God is trying to build up.  And self control.  That one is a hard task.  But self control is something that can be done, if you are part of the vine.
All of that fruit is sweet.  It is all encompassing too.  It doesn't say the Fruits of the Spirit, it says the Fruit of the Spirit. As if it is one all put together conglomerate of Holy Spirit Fruit.
I think a lot of times as Christians we think we can fake it till we make it.
NO! 
Be authentic!  We are not perfect.  We walk out our own salvation.   What He is working on and how He is working on you is different for all of us.  We are called to walk and produce fruit.
There is one thing that I think we have to do to produce the best fruit that we can and that is to put Ephesians 4:31-32 into practice.
31 - Let ALL bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice:
32 - And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you.
So, to sum up, be producers of The Fruit of the Spirit, not sour grapes.