{"id":96,"date":"2026-03-14T07:27:15","date_gmt":"2026-03-14T12:27:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stumbleup.me\/?p=96"},"modified":"2026-03-14T07:27:16","modified_gmt":"2026-03-14T12:27:16","slug":"first-fruits-might-be-uncomfortable","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stumbleup.me\/index.php\/2026\/03\/14\/first-fruits-might-be-uncomfortable\/","title":{"rendered":"First Fruits Might Be Uncomfortable"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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We Made It! (Didn’t we?)<\/p>\n\n

If you made it through this week, same as me, you sat with some things that weren’t comfortable. That’s not an accident. This whole series wasn’t designed to make us feel better about ourselves. It was designed to hold up a mirror and let us look honestly at what kind of fruit we’re bearing for the people around us.<\/p>\n\n

We watched a man in a drive-thru choose grace over revenge when his kids were in the back seat watching every move. We watched a husband lay down the need to be right so he could pick up the calling to be a servant. We watched a father endure a season of waiting rather than forcing his son to move before God’s timing was right. We watched a dad crouching in a church hallway, choosing to be a coach when everything in him wanted to be a critic. And we watched a son drive 30 minutes to sit with his parents, because the clock is running, and time is the only first fruit that really matters to them.<\/p>\n\n

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God loves our progress, not our perfection.<\/p>\n

The righteous man falls seven times and rises again. \u2014 Proverbs 24:16<\/p>\n <\/div>\n\n

I started this series because I needed it. I’m not standing at a distance giving advice; I’m in it, making the same choices, blowing the same moments, and trying to get back up when I do. If this felt personal to you, it’s because it was personal to me first. That’s the only way I know how to write it.<\/p>\n\n

Here’s what I want to leave you with as we close five weeks of Fruitful.<\/p>\n\n

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The Series in One Ask:<\/p>\n

Am I giving my best, first? To God? To my wife? To my kids? To the strangers in my orbit and the parents I don’t visit enough?<\/p>\n

We don’t get to judge our own fruit. The people around us do. That’s the humbling part. And it’s the whole point.<\/p>\n <\/div>\n\n

We’re going to miss the moment in the drive-thru. We’re going to be right when we should have been kind. We’re going to push when we should’ve stayed. We’re going to mean to call. The flesh is loud, and it doesn’t apologize.<\/p>\n\n

Get back up. That is the call. Not to perfection. To persistence. To a posture of heart that keeps trying, keeps offering, keeps bringing the first and the best even after we’ve stumbled. Because that’s what the Spirit makes possible. That same Spirit that created life and raised Jesus from the dead is in us. That’s not a minor point. That’s the whole game.<\/p>\n\n

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“Honor the Lord with your wealth and with the firstfruits of all your produce; then your barns will be filled with plenty, and your vats will be bursting with wine.”<\/p>\n

Proverbs 3:9-10 (ESV)<\/p>\n <\/div>\n\n

Bring your best. First. To the people who deserve it most, before the season closes, before the window gets any smaller, before the drive-thru line moves and you lose the moment.<\/p>\n\n

Fruit is for others to taste. Let your lifesong sing.<\/p>\n\n

See it from God’s seat. Bring your first. Stay in step with the Spirit.<\/p>\n\n

\u2014 Lance<\/p>\n\n<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We Made It! (Didn’t we?) If you made it through this week, same as me, you sat with some things that weren’t comfortable. That’s not an accident. This whole series wasn’t designed to make us feel better about ourselves. It…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":97,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-96","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fruitful"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/stumbleup.me\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/SU_20260314_BLOG.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stumbleup.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stumbleup.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stumbleup.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stumbleup.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stumbleup.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=96"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stumbleup.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":98,"href":"https:\/\/stumbleup.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96\/revisions\/98"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stumbleup.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/97"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stumbleup.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=96"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stumbleup.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=96"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stumbleup.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=96"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}