For those of you who don't know, on Monday nights I go to a student led Bible study called Vertical Ministries. This ministry is so close and dear to my heart, and I don't know where I would be without it. It has truly been life changing, and I hope to soon be part of the leadership, to make sure that this continues for many more years.
We've started a series about all the I Am statements in the Bible, and tonight crazy hit home for me, and it's a passage that I feel the meaning is consistently overlooked, and I am totally included in that category of people for sure. The passage was John 15 and we were looking at Jesus' statement of "I Am the true Vine."
When Josh was talking tonight, it was like I was the only one in the room. He began his message by saying exactly what goes through my head several times a day. We have this innate need and desire to have some kind of meaning. We want our lives to matter. We go to school to earn a degree, to eventually get a job and DO something. We don't want to just sit around watching life go by, but rather want to be a part of it and at the end of the day feel like we accomplished someone or there was some bigger reason for us being alive that day. You know what I mean? One of my biggest fears in life is that when my life is over, it will have accounted for nothing. Will I have mattered to anyone? I mean even in the little things like writing this blog, I always look to see if someone comments on my thoughts. Heck, I even added a site meter to see if anyone actually looked at my page. I want my life to matter. I want to feel like someone was different because of the way I acted, or something I said. But is that true?
Okay, now to dig in to the text. We read through verses 1-11 tonight and so I invite you to go look up the verses or get your Bible out and remember the words. Jesus talks about how He is the vine, and that the Father is the Gardner and goes on to describe the growth process of a vine and how to make it it's absolute best. And in order to do that, what has to happen? The vine has to be pruned. Why? So that it can be even more fruitful and abundant. One of the quotes he mentioned (I forgot who actually said it, and this is just a paraphrased version) but he said that "Trials stop when they become useless, which is why they scarcely stop." It sounds like such common sense, but when you stop and think about it...it's true!
The past couple months have definitely been a pruning season for me, and I'm weeks away from encountering the same thing happening all over again. I began this blog asking the question of what God had in store for me during this time in my life. Why all of my plans had been wrecked, and how He was going to salvage the pieces and make something even better than I had planned. Like way better. And I think tonight I finally have received a piece of the puzzle. God is pruning me and my life, so that I may grow more fruitful and better glorify His name with my life. Is the process painful? Heck yes. The most painful in my life up to this point. But is it going to be worth it? Absolutely, I have ZERO doubt about it. Christ loves me enough to engage me, and to prune me to become more like Him. Everything He does is because His love for me is so extravagant. He will do whatever it takes for me to be completely broken, so that I may be more fruitful and in the end, closer to Him.
Verse 5 in this passage is the pivotal verse. I feel like it's one of those Sunday school verses that we've heard so many times, it simply becomes mechanic almost. We say it, but never meditate on the words or what it means.
"I Am the vine; you are the branches. He who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing."
Take a step back for a minute and think about the words. What does abide mean? It's got to be crucial because in just these 11 verses, it's used 10 times. Abiding in Christ means to center my heart's affection and my mind's attention on the gospel of Christ. It means to find comfort and peace in the secure reality that I am a daughter of the King, and nothing can take that away from me.
Now look at the last part of the verse...the most haunting part of the verse. "For apart from me, you can do NOTHING." I can be the greatest person in the world. I could win every award, have the most friends, or whatever you want to attribute to a person. But if I am not consistently and constantly abiding in Christ, then it means NOTHING. It means when it comes down to what matters, my life didn't. I want nothing more than to hear Christ say "Well done, my good and faithful servant." But if I don't abide in Him, then that isn't going to happen.
Josh then switched gears a little bit and started talking about Michael Pollin's books which are all about food. He talks in one of his books about how he isn't going to say which diet is best or anything like that. But he condensed his whole thesis into 8 simple words
"Eat food - not too much, mostly plants."
Sounds comical at first, but there's truth beneath it...however not just for physical purposes. If you can't read the ingredients listed on a food, or there's more than 5 listed...it's not good. Most of the food these days, fast food especially, consists of engineered food made my scientists in labs, instead of freshly grown by farmers as was it's original purpose. We fill our bodies with these disgusting non-degradable poser foods instead of giving it what it really needs. The same is true for us spiritually. We try to fill our lives with everything but God, or get caught up in the rituals of going to church every Sunday and being a Sunday Christian. We get so involved in the process and forget what's really going on, as opposed to being a part of the Vine, as was the original intent.
After the message we just worshipped for almost an hour, and it was absolutely amazing. Just sitting in God's presence was so amazing.
I know that was a lot, and kudos if you got through it. But this message touched me so hardcore, and I hope that somehow I conveyed the message at least semi effectively. Hopefully in a couple days the podcast will be available and you can hear it for yourselves (just search for Vertical Ministries in the iTunes store). This passage is comforting and crazy convicting at the same time and I am going out of my mind with thoughts and just wanting to share it with everyone I can...so I figured this was the best place to start.
Am I abiding in Christ? Not nearly as much as I should.
Are you abiding in Him?? Are you a part of the vine??
Wow, Jordan. You have quite a talent with words. That was beautiful. It definitely spoke to me. I'm glad I can read it...you've made an impact on my life in these few words.
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