Why Some Seasons Stink

It’s difficult to know the precise reason why some seasons (of life) stink. 

But scripture provides clues. 

One clue is found in Jesus’ affirmation of pruning as a necessity part of a fruitful, advancing life.  A classic reference is John 14, where Jesus lifts up two paradoxical truths:  the experience of loss is painful and not desired -- but over time -- is known as essential.  For new growth never sprouts, without the removal of existing elements.

“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.”  (John 14:1-4, emphasis added).

This text is rich with layered meaning:  

1) First, loss, pruning is not an indication that something is wrong or punishment from God.  Why the branch being pruned in John 14 is already bearing fruit, so there’s evidence of connection and blessing by the Creator.   No, pruning, albeit painful, is a sign of God’s favor, as God takes steps to flourish life, further.

2) Second, God is with us in our loss.  The branch that is pruned is the branch that is grafted to Jesus, thus Jesus suffers with us in our plight; we are not abandoned, but accompanied in our pain.

In his book Night, Elie Wiesel tells of a gruesome hanging of a young boy at Monowitz, a horrid Nazi death camp, where Wiesel was a prisoner.   Brutally, all in the camp were forced to watch, as the boy died a slow death.  Suddenly, someone behind Wiesel asked,

“Where is God?  Where is He?...For more than a half an hour [the young boy] stayed there, struggled between life and death, dying in slow agony under our eyes.  And we had to look him full in the face.  He was still alive when I passed in front of Him.  His tongue was still red, his eyes were not yet glazed.  Behind me, the same man asking:  ‘Where is God now?’  And I heard a voice within me answer him:  ‘Where is He?  He – He is hanging here on this gallows…” 

3) Third, though we don’t like pruning, we ‘go with the plan,’ for apart from ‘the plan’, God’s plan, there’s no prospect of advancement and abundant life.   For “apart from [Jesus we] can do nothing” (John 15: 5) and apart from His pruning plan, there is no possibility of life-growth.

Contemporary horticulture bears this out.  Leonard Davison tells of a tree his mother in law loved but had barely bloomed one spring. 

“[And so]…I took my pruning clippers and small pruning saw. While she watched… I…went to work. Several times I heard her say, "O my," and "O dear." … [Two basic types of branches needed] to be removed. The first is a branch that is growing the wrong direction. These branches rub the other branches and can cause disease. They also block out the sunlight that is needed for flower buds to form.  The other type of branch to prune is a "sucker" branch that shoots out beneath the graft. These branches are incredibly dangerous…They will draw all of the strength and energy from the tree into themselves, and the tree will often die…When I completed pruning…my mother-in-law…explained to the…the family that she was very sure I had killed her tree. I told her to trust me…[But she was skeptical]…Then, nine long months later, [she called me]. She was so excited. Her tree had bloomed—and not just bloomed. It was covered in so many blooms that it looked like a huge pink snowball…”  

And so whether it’s a ‘wrong way branch,’ a sucker branch, or some other life-branch – it is cutting to experience pruning.  And like Davison’s mother we ‘have our doubts’; profound, searing doubts, to match the searing of our suffering.  But ‘in the end,’ there is purpose in pain, as life advances, beyond expectations. In 2 Corinthians 11+12 Paul testifies to  suffering with purpose: 

“Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was pelted with stones, three times I was shipwrecked, I spent a night and a day in the open sea, I have been constantly on the move…I have labored and toiled and have often gone without sleep…” (2 Corinthians 11: 24-27).  [In addition]…I was given a thorn in my flesh...to torment me.  Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me.  But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” … That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.   (2 Corinthians 12: 7-10).

When I am weak, then I am strong?

It’s a stretch to fully claim Paul’s conclusion.  But we reach in such direction, nevertheless, believing that life’s journey is ultimately a trail of transformation, in Christ, not a dead-end of despair,