Repent today and bear fruit.

Procrastination is a common human trait. We often put off doing things that are hard or uncomfortable. We hope that by waiting until tomorrow (or the next day or the day after that), the need will disappear and we won’t have to act after all.

Repenting for our sins is often hard and uncomfortable. Repentance involves changing our hearts in addition to changing our behavior. So we put it off. We feel bad about what we’ve done, but we are not quite ready to change. Without a conversion of our heart, we sin again. In other words, it is not repentance if we keep doing what we say we are sorry for.

Jesus tells us, in today’s parable of the barren fig tree, that we better not wait too long to get started on our journey of repentance. Jesus, like the gardener in the parable, is here to guide and support us along the way. But the gardener’s patience is not infinite. If we do not begin to bear fruit (truly repent and show a conversion of our hearts), we will be endangering our salvation