Knowing the ripe time

Drawing from the two biblical narratives found in the Old Testament account of Jonah and the response of the people of Nineveh and the New Testament story of disciples Simon and Andrew, the two fishermen, casting their nets as Jesus' commanded, Phil Kniss, lead pastor at Park View Mennonite Church, Harrisonburg, VA, told his congregation that "our position as potential disciples is to be open to the work God wants to do in us." God does not demand of us an immediate impossibility, but God invites people who are open and he provides miraculously what is needed for the journey. God's time may or may not be our time, he insisted, but his is the ripe time. When the time is ripe, the fruit literally falls to the ground. When it is not the ripe time, no amount of effort on our part will produce satisfying life-giving fruit, try as we might. And we do try!