Pages 3-18 The Big Idea - Jesus is your vinedresser, and vinedressers work towards the long term health and sustainability of the vine. Jesus is not interested in productivity at the expense of your health. Discussion Qs - Have you had seasons of your life where you resented God for not letting you be productive? - What are the "signs of life" for you? How would an observer know that you, in particular, are healthy and thriving? - What can Jesus' approach teach you about caring for the lives that you're responsible for at work, at home, at church etc? --- "I took the fruit off this year because the vine just wasn't healthy enough to bear it." - pg 3 We think our unhealth is our fault, and we are ashamed of our unhealth. Jesus, instead approaches that unhealth with compassion and with an eye to the long term. "His measurements are the signs of life, not the pace or scale of production." - pg 5 A grapevine, and a person, are living systems. Applying the ways we measure industrial systems (productivity, efficiency, downtime) to a living system would be just as inappropriate as asking if an industrial laser was fulfilled, if a robotic production line has enough beauty in it's environment, if a computer was getting enough time to pursue it's own interests. The author spends the last section talking about the inherently extractive and exploitative nature of the productivity-prioritized mindset. In my own thought these ideas resonate with observations re: [[imperialism]], [[industrialism]], and [[colonialism]]. She ends with several anecdotes to illustrate her points.