Fruitfulness...is it just about being "nice"?

my thoughts on the idea of "fruitfulness..." in response to an original post at BFCCJOURNEY.

The man I married is someone that I wish I was more like every day. He is more Christ-like than any person I have ever known. I've seen him get "mad" at me once - and even in that situation his anger was enveloped in self-control, yet I knew, without a shadow-of-a-doubt, that I never wanted to put him in that kind of situation again. I've heard a story of him getting "mad" once in college. He was having to protect his home and friend and I imagine it was a fierce anger but one that looked much like Jesus over-turning the tables in the temple – I can honestly say that in almost every situation I have ever observed him in, he has responded with the fruits of the spirit, yet I have never questioned his masculinity. Gentle? yes. Kind? yes. Loving? yes. Self-controlled? yes. A man with a capital "M"? definitely.

I think about the old testament where you are reading about God's wrath, it's not "nice". I remember struggling with that when I was frantically reading the OT in Bib Lit freshman year. My mother, after a distraught call home, used my then living grandfather as an example. My grandpa was good, kind, loving, even-tempered. In college I even wrote a comparison paper between him and Jesus, he was much like what my husband is now. He was also tall, strong, a hard-laboring farmer with grit under his nails and at 70 his heart was as healthy as a 30 year old...a gentle giant – yet, you knew when you were in trouble with him. As a grandchild you worked your absolute hardest to never get him to raise his eyebrows in a way that you were certain he was disappointed. BUT, had there ever been anyone or anything threatening me or my life, he would have gone after them and broken them in two with his own bare hands – a wrath much like God's when He was protecting his children (from sin) or like Jesus in the temple, protecting His Father's house. But did God or Jesus have any less the fruits of the spirit at work in them during these times? I don't think so.

Neither of these two living examples I've had in my own life of men bearing fruit and being Christ-like were ever men (little "m") but more mighty (with a big "M" for Messiah shining through). Both of them humble, obedient, and more conscious about representing God in the situation and less of themselves - even when it required them to not be so "nice".