 Spiritual: August 07, 2024 Issue [#12679] |
This week: Low-Hanging Fruit Edited by: Jeff  
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"Only a real risk tests the reality of a belief."
— C.S. Lewis
About The Editor: Greetings! My name is Jeff and I'm one of your regular editors for the official Spiritual Newsletter! I've been a member of Writing.com since 2003, and have edited more than 400 newsletters across the site during that time. If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to contact me via email or the handy feedback field at the bottom of this newsletter! 
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Low-Hanging Fruit
The term "low-hanging fruit" dates back to the 1600s, but it wasn't until the 1990s that the term really became popular for describing something that can be won, achieved, or obtained with very little effort. For example, if you have to clean your entire house, you might want to tackle the "low-hanging fruit" of throwing out the old food from the fridge and taking out the trash for a quick feeling of accomplishment before you delve into a more difficult, sustained task like cleaning out the garage or going through the kids' old schoolwork or toys.
One of the things that I've noticed about some religious services I've attended or listened to lately, is how often the spiritual lessons or teachings focus on easier, more quickly achievable things rather than the stuff that will take a really sustained effort to accomplish. For example, when it comes to the topic of grace or forgiveness, I hear a lot of sermons on the importance of forgiving people you've gotten into an argument with. Or who cut you off in traffic. Or who hurt your feelings with an insensitive comment. Which are all things that we should be able to extend grace and forgiveness for, of course!
Sermons on grace and forgiveness as those concepts extend to much bigger, more difficult issues are fewer and far between. For example, you don't hear as many sermons encouraging you to forgive someone for cheating on you, subjecting you to some kind of abuse, or causing enduring trauma in your life. Maybe it's because these things are really hard, and often a long road that's filled with struggle and pain. But I'd argue it's just as important - if not more important - to focus on the big issues because those are the ones that are going to make a tangible difference in your life. Forgiving the guy who cut you off in traffic on the way to work is an important discipline, but forgiving a parent who failed you in crucial ways as you were growing up is the type of forgiveness that, if achieved, can fundamentally change your life and key relationships in it.
There are times when tackling the low-hanging fruit first is an effective strategy. If you're new to something, easy gains can be a way to build the confidence you need to keep going. If you're new to running, you might want to aim to compete in a 5K before you decide to compete in a marathon. And if you're new to faith, you might want to start with forgiving your neighbor for letting their tree grow onto your property before you try and tackle forgiving your significant other for losing most of your life savings on an ill-advised investment.
But once you have built up a habit of grace and forgiveness, if you just aim for that same low-hanging fruit over and over again, you'll never grow in those efforts. You have to push yourself to greater heights if you want to get better at something. A competitive swimmer tries to get the amount of time it takes to swim a lap lower and lower. A writer improves their craft by learning from their successes and failures in the past to improve their subsequent projects. And a person who is trying to learn the disciplines of forgiveness and grace won't increase their capacity to offer forgiveness and grace unless they're pushing themselves to do more than just the little things... the low-hanging fruit... the quick fixes which are easy to forgive and move on from.
The big stuff isn't easy to do. There's a reason why a lot of people don't run marathons, or write professionally, or build habits of forgiveness and grace. But if you want to be known as a person who embodies those last two qualities, once you get comfortable with the low-hanging fruit and can extend mercy in the little moments of life, the next step is to tackle the big things. That may be a very long road and, depending on the thing that needs to be forgiven, something that could potentially need to be undertaken with the support of loved ones and/or the professional help of a therapist, but if you stick to only trying to go after the low-hanging fruit, you'll end up missing out on the things that can be achieved when you embark on a sustained hard-fought effort to achieve a long-term goal.
There's another metaphor about low-hanging fruit that you might have heard. As the idea goes, the low-hanging fruit is the least desirable because it's closer to the ground. Apples at human-height are easier to pick and usually get picked first. Low-hanging berries in berry bushes are more likely to have dirt and worse particulate matter on them because they're closer to the ground. Low-hanging fruit is farther from the sunlight and thus unlikely to be as well-grown or ripe as the fruit that's high up, in full view of the sun, and out of reach from just any random person walking by who wants to help themselves. That fruit is harder to get to, but it's worth it because it's usually better quality than the stuff at the bottom of the tree or bush.
I'd argue the same theory could be applied to the "fruits" of practices like grace and forgiveness. Putting the time and effort into going after the hard to forgive stuff is likely to result in the most bountiful return once you've put in the work. So if you're a new believer or just starting out on a journey of learning how to be more forgiving and graceful... focus on the low-hanging fruit until you get a good habit in place. But once that habit of grace and forgiveness has been established, start reaching for that higher hanging fruit. It'll probably be worth the extra effort.
Until next time,
Jeff
If you're interested in checking out my work:
"New & Noteworthy Things" | "Blogocentric Formulations"
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EXCERPT: I recently heard someone say that if there are no people in a church then God is not there, and it is just an empty building --that the term “church” refers to the people and not a building. I was taught and believe that God is all-powerful (omnipotent), all-knowing (omniscient) and all-present (omnipresent). He is always everywhere. I firmly believe that to teach otherwise is false teaching.
EXCERPT: Brian had been half expecting it all along. Ever since his seventieth birthday in fact.
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Feedback from "Spiritual Newsletter (July 10, 2024)" about mantras and life verses:
I enjoyed reading this newsletter. It was interesting to contemplate real life mantras. I was thinking of one from (I think) "Rebel One: A Star Wars Story" there was a monk in the movie that chanted "I am one with the Force and the Force is one with me;" during battle. Other thing this brought to mind is the Maori people. They have a war dance with a chant they recite before going to battle, I believe it's called the Hakka.
I love your newsletter regarding mantra dated 3 July 2024. I don't think I have mantras, but I have favourite verses like 1 Corinthians 10:13 and Williams' Shakespeare's “Things won are done, joy's soul lies in the doing”. It's something I try to remind myself when I wanna procrastinate. I still do, but it makes me appreciate this quote every single time.  That's something, right? 
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