Fruit bombs, secondhand kindness, and the fruitcake of the Spirit

Have you ever seen a healthy apple tree or lemon tree or an orange tree produce so much more fruit than its branches can handle? I’m talking about a tree that will actually stunt its own growth by unintentionally harming itself simply because its own branches will break under the sheer weight of all the fruit it is producing. If a person doesn’t come in there and harvest the fruit, then that’s exactly what will happen. At least eventually.

“The fruit tree with no one to eat from its branches becomes the image of a dying tree”

That’s also what can happen to any Christian who is deep in the Word and spends time in prayer getting to know God through personal fellowship—but spends their life in a protected closet. This is a reclusive Christian that barely socializes with others, aside from going to church and a Bible study group here and there. They love Jesus and reading the Word of God, but they just don’t get out much—so there’s very little fellowship or discipleship or service. The fruit tree with no one to eat from its branches becomes the image of a dying tree. It doesn’t matter how many fruits grow this year or next. It’ll be overwhelming, to say the least, when one looks over at an unpicked tree bursting with fruit on every inch and no one to pick from it. What kind of fruit am I talking about? Fruits of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control are some of them—just to name a few. (Galatians 5:22-23)

Christian fruit bombs

Most of the fruit will fall from the branches and hit the ground. Let’s call those ones Christian fruit bombs. If you’re not hoarding the fruit, a fruit bomb is a low interaction fruit of the Spirit explosion that is often surprising—and very juicy—because they’re thrown around without ever attempting to form a relationship. They are great for some circumstances, but not all. They’re so ripe and ready for picking they just fall off the tree, lying around the base of the trunk—some even rolling further away, but not too far. People will walk by the fallen fruit and step on them and their shoes will get sticky. In real life, this might look like someone who smiled and held the door open for a stranger. No doubt, it will be slightly memorable for anyone to have a smiling person hold the door open for them—right up to the moment that they sprayed down their shoes to get the gunk off and forgot all about stepping on that fruit bomb.

That can be the case for some people, but imagine someone else being genuinely touched by random kindness and gentleness from you. Imagine that there are other people who wondered why a stranger could be so nice. Happily holding the door open for them certainly caught their attention—at least for some curious people. Maybe it wasn’t even the person whom the door was held for, but someone else who was watching from a distance. Fruit bombs are good for many things and can catch a whole lot of people in their blast radius.

Secondhand kindness

This might take the form of secondhand kindness—which is when a passerby gets a whiff of what true kindness looks like by witnessing a Christian share a small amount of their gifts with someone. Just like secondhand smoke, it could be just as effective to watch a Christian let someone else take their place in line or give an unsolicited compliment or cover the difference of someone’s bill when they fall short of what they owe. People are watching—they are the observers who aren’t the main recipients of the fruits of the Spirit, but they certainly got a taste of what it should feel like to love one another as Christ loves us. It is still effective, even if it is secondhand.

“Secondhand kindness is when a passerby gets a whiff of what true kindness looks like by witnessing a Christian share a small amount of their gifts with someone”

Now people are starting to wonder, where did this fruit come from? How do I get some self-control of my own? How come that person is so patient? They might look up at the tree after they stepped on a fruit rolling on the ground and wonder how a tree like that got so much fruit. They might even wonder if the fruit really tastes as sweet as it looks. At this point they might reach up without any invitation and pick a fruit of their own, crack it open, and bite into it. Wow! Incredible! That tree just got its first admirer. Uninvited, someone helped themselves to the fruit of someone else’s tree. They tried a small piece of peacefulness, and then carefully took a bite of gentleness, then they picked love and nibbled on that for a bit. It’s possible they still don’t understand how joy can work in their life. So maybe they still have questions about how to prepare the fruit of joy with an easy recipe.

“Is it the fruit or is it the tree? Maybe it’s the fertilizer”

Awesome things are happening, but is it the fruit or is it the tree? Maybe it’s the fertilizer. They’re going to stick around to find out. And if it’s that good, some of these people are going to run home and tell their families all about it, they’re going to go to work and talk about it, when they hit the gym they’re going to brag about this new fruit tree they found with all of its amazing fruit, and then they’re going to start searching the internet for different recipes so that they can eat it every possible way, everyday. All of that happened after a person stepped on a overripe fruit that simply fell on the ground while they were waiting in line at the grocery store.

What if the owner of the tree picked the fruit instead? Handed it out in boxes to all of their friends? Attached recipes to the boxes and maybe even went out of their way to make some of the recipes themselves. Don’t you think it’d be great to see a Christian giving away fruit pies and juice and jam and yes—even fruitcake?

Fruitcake of the Spirit

When life gives you fruit, make cake! Don’t stop reading—please hear me out. (I promise I’m not a fruitcake) Anyone who’s been given fruitcake as a gift knows what to do with it. Put it straight into the pantry or throw it in the fridge or maybe even re-gift it to someone else. Sometimes just throw it away. Who honestly likes fruitcake, right?

But good fruitcake can be supercool. If someone gives you one, you’ll store it away not because you knew it had an unbelievably long shelf life, but because it looked so unappetizing you didn’t really want to hurt your friend’s feelings by throwing it away. It became like a sweet brick sitting in your fridge that you forgot about forever ago until one day you’re hungry. On that day, the fridge is empty except for that big fruitcake staring you in the face. Or maybe you shoved it in the freezer long ago, but now you’re coming back to it. It doesn’t matter, because it’s one of the few cakes that freezes really well. Right now hunger is hitting you and you are feeling too lazy to run to the grocery store or call Uber Eats.

Whatever the reason, you now decided it’s time to give it a shot and cut the cake. That’s when you discover properly made fruitcake tastes really good! It wasn’t much to look at, but if the person who made it knew what they were doing, it’ll have a little bit of an alcohol flavor from either cognac or rum or brandy. Then it’s got a rich zest from the orange peels and a sweetness that is not overwhelming, combined with a moistness that kind of makes it bounce a little bit when you stick your fork into it. Maybe the person who made it for you decided to spice it up a little bit with some cinnamon and nutmeg and maybe even added some crunch to it with some pecans or walnuts—it doesn’t matter.

“If you were ever given a good fruitcake, you’ll become a fan instantly”

I mean, really, fruitcake does get a bad name. It’s become the butt of jokes for things that people re-gift or even a great thing to use to keep your doors propped open. It might be because there’s a lot of bad fruitcake out there. It exists, I suppose, because someone was kind but then expected something in return or someone gave you what you thought was a gift but then asked you to pay them back. Without a doubt, that would be some terrible fruitcake. You would have been better off if they never gave it to you. But if you were ever given a good fruitcake, you’ll become a fan instantly.

What exactly is a Christian fruitcake? To almost any non-Christian buddy of yours, it might be exactly what it sounds like—a Christian fruitcake. But to someone who has gotten to know you, it is all of the acts of kindness and gentleness and peace and patience and joy and love and self-control that other people experienced from you directly because you care enough to make them a fruitcake from your own personal fruits of the Spirit. You can’t make fruitcake willy-nilly. It takes time to prepare it, to age it, to wrap it, and to store it. It takes a relationship. You invested in these people every single day. You asked how their day was and you listened to what they replied. You helped hold the door open for them, and then asked if you could help take their groceries to their car. Then you asked them if they wanted to go to church with you. Then you asked if your kids could have a playdate so you could have a Bible study in your backyard while the children play with each other. At some point you asked if they wanted to volunteer with you after church one Sunday afternoon to pack boxes of food for the homeless.

“What exactly is a Christian fruitcake? It is all of the acts of kindness and gentleness and peace and patience and joy and love and self-control that other people experienced from you directly because you care enough to make them a fruitcake from your own personal fruits of the Spirit”

And at some point much later, this person you invested in realized you put a lot of effort into that fruitcake, and after they ate from the fruit that was freely given, they wanted to see if they could go out and make some too. They want to make their own fruitcake for someone else. They accepted Christ into their heart because you cared enough to share your fruits with them and shared your recipes with them and spent lots of time with them and became their friend.

A closeted Christian is an incomplete Christian

We can’t be hermits and we can’t be reclusive. Fruit bombs only work so well. Secondhand kindness only goes so far. We need to go out and share the Gospel message and share our fruits with everyone we run into without any worries of ever running out. Our trees will always have more than enough fruit to go around. We need to make some fruitcake and hand it out to everyone we meet and follow up with everyone to see if they ate it yet or want more. We need to not be upset if they don’t eat it right away. Fruitcake stores very well for a really, really long time.

NOTE: Everything written above was finished and ready to post online—until I dropped my kids off at their Christian school and saw a filthy, grimy, cold, and skinny homeless man holding a sleeping bag behind the church’s sign. I was moved to do something, but I had to get my kids to school on time. Afterwards it bothered me, so I went to the office and asked if they had any homeless care packages like blankets or food that I could give the man behind the sign. I didn’t really expect them to have anything, and it was probably bold of me to even ask.

But I was just thinking, could God be any more clearer with this person in front of the Christian school behind the church’s sign as Christian parents were dropping their kids off in their rushed morning commute? Luckily the office did have a few snack packs and handed them right over to me. If they didn’t, I would have tried to go to the dollar store or the grocery store to get something myself. I was just hoping the office had something to give me and they did.

When I drove up to the man and gave him the snack packs from the office, he smiled greatly and reached out his hand. Let me say that one more time…..he smiled GREATLY—like I had just made his day. I probably did make his day, because it was still early. He accepted the snacks immediately.

I wasn’t trying to make this guy a fruitcake of the Spirit. Anyone watching me hand him snacks would have been exposed to secondhand kindness. All I felt I could do was throw a fruit bomb his direction and go on my way. There was no way to make a relationship with this person. Or am I just telling myself that because there is just no way I am willing to make a relationship with this person? That’s a good question. I know there are other questions of safety that arise and I know he looked a little nuts and maybe he was. But I guess I’m okay with a fruit bomb sometimes. There are different tools for different jobs. I only wanted to give him some kindness. There’s nothing wrong with not doing more. Right? That’s a tough question.

Even though kindness was the only fruit I gave away, I hope it became an invitation for him to stop and look up so he can see all the other varieties of fruit he is welcome to take from other branches all around him.