Fruitfulness Over Productivity

What should I do today? Hopefully you take a few moments each day to consider this question. Most of us would say we want to be productive. By that, we mean we want to accomplish tasks. Perhaps you have a written to-do list or maybe you use an intricately maintained task and project management system that would put David Allen to shame.

We would probably all agree that we want our answer to line up with Scripture, but it is so easy to get caught up in the excitement of checking things off.

As I recently took a step back to evaluate my own practice of answering this question, I noticed a flaw in my task management system. I had developed a habit of trying to check off the most items possible instead of the most important. It made me feel productive. As I was reading a book a few weeks ago, I realized I needed a mindset change.

In Redeeming Productivity, author Reagan Rose grabbed my attention with these words: “Christians were saved not just to get more things done, but to bear fruit for God.”¹ As he continues in chapter 5 of his book, he points out how the Industrial Revolution and the assembly line changed our perspective of productivity.

When we consider Scripture, though, “we are called to be productive like a tree, not an assembly line.”²

What difference does a shift from focusing on tasks accomplished to producing fruit make? Let me share some ways it has changed the way I look at my own productivity:

1. My heart becomes the first focus of my productivity, not what I will accomplish that day.

When I start the day thinking about all the things I need to do, it’s easy to overlook a focused time getting my heart in the right place through time meditating on Scripture and prayer. It’s even possible to do these things with the intention of checking them off instead of fellowship with God.

That’s not how fruit works, though. You have to plant a seed, water it, feed the plant, and make sure it gets plenty of sunlight. Your heart needs input to grow. Spend focused time with God each day.

When I was growing up, my dad and grandfather (who lived next door to us) had a friendly competition. They would see who could get the first red tomato growing in their garden. One year, my grandfather got it first and decided to play a joke on my dad. He took the tomato off of his bush and taped it to my dad’s. My dad was pretty excited until he realized how the tomato was connected. That was a fun prank, but my dad couldn’t claim that his plant had produced that fruit!

We can’t accomplish things of eternal value by merely doing tasks without a heart that is connected to Jesus (like taping fruit to a plant). Jesus says in John 15:5 that “apart from me you can do nothing.” He is speaking as the vine, the source of our fruit-bearing. When we try to accomplish tasks without depending on him, we can check things off. We might even look productive to others, but we are not doing things that have true eternal value. We must value heart work more than tasks accomplished.

2. Interruptions to my plans become divine appointments, not task-blockers.

C.S. Lewis wrote,

“The great thing, if one can, is to stop regarding all the unpleasant things as interruptions of one’s ‘own,’ or ‘real’ life. The truth is of course that what one calls the interruptions are precisely one’s real life — the life God is sending one day by day.”

If I’m focused on checking off the most possible tasks, then when a situation arises to disciple my kids or love my wife, I might try to get through those opportunities as fast as possible so I can get back to my “real life.” But God has called me to make disciples of my kids. God has called me to love my wife as Christ loves the church. Bearing fruit for God means when needs come up around me, I need to seriously evaluate whether those needs should be prioritized over the work I have planned.

3. I will prioritize tasks with long-term fruit instead of those that can be checked off and forgotten.

There’s something exciting about having less tasks and projects on my list, but often the most important tasks and projects I work on have no finish date. Discipling my kids is a lifelong endeavor. Hours of work, play, correction, and conversations late into the night characterize the first 20 or so years of parenting for each child. Certainly the level of involvement and authority over them changes, but I would be failing as a parent if I didn’t pray for God’s work in their hearts regularly as long as I live.

Leading my wife to follow Jesus more day by day has moments of great reward as well as times of weariness (most often due to my own sinful heart being revealed), but God hasn’t given anyone else the level of responsibility I have to prepare her to stand before Christ! I need to be ready to prioritize her needs at any time of day or night.

I consistently must take time to stop and evaluate where my priorities are. As I think about what to do for the day, I should pray and consider what tasks will prepare me best to bear fruit for God. Many times the most important tasks aren’t able to be checked off. Jesus promises in John 15:11, though, that if we live a life of fruitfulness, we will experience the full joy that he designed us for.