Plant yourself in someone else

Fruit has an uncommon commonality in culture, philosophy, politics, art and nutrition. We eat fresh fruit. We preserve it, jam it and spread it. Budding artists use bowls of fruit as their first aspects of training and inspiration. The pineapple is a symbol of hospitality, the mango the national symbol for the Philippines, while the apple is symbolically linked both with the discovery of gravity and the forbidden fruit. Fruit is also a symbol of a well-lived life.

Proverbs 11:30 reads, "The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life, and whoever captures souls is wise."

This proverb reminds us that our lives were made to produce fruit, that we were created to make a difference. Your life was made to matter. You are not here by accident. Your life is more than a stock quote, your net worth, the mountains you have climbed and the degrees you have earned. All of those are good things, but your life was created to produce more than fruit for yourself. Your life is to produce fruit that ignites a passion in others.

Your life was made to be invested in others. Each of us are created to produce in their lives, but, according to this proverb, the righteous life produces trees. The difference between a piece of fruit and a tree is the sustaining quality of a tree.

When a piece of fruit is eaten, it is gone. A tree continues to produce more and more fruit. The implication here is the hidden potential that can be drawn out when we become God's instruments of investing in others. Those who know God are to invest in others who will then continue to invest in others. An old adage says, "You can count the seeds in the apple, but only God knows the number of apples in the seeds."

The adage captures the essence of making a difference with your life through planting your life into someone else by igniting a passion in their soul. You can be instrumental in capturing the passion in someone else. Invest your life in someone else without any guarantees or concern for what you can get out of your investment. Invest your life in someone else to capture and unleash the soul, the heart and the passion within them.

The Lord can use your life, your fruit, to make a difference.

Rob Hurtgen is a husband, father and serves as the associate pastor at the First Baptist Church in Jackson.