WEEK ONE: THE SOURCE

At our house, we have a lot of trees in our front yard. Each spring (and then multiple times throughout the year), we spend a considerable amount of time cleaning up twigs and limbs that have fallen from those trees onto our lawn. Something I have noticed over these many years of cleaning them up is that, by the time they are on my lawn, they can be easily broken. What happens is that when a limb or twig is broken off of a tree, it is being cut off from the life-giving nutrients it was receiving by being connected to that tree. That limb—not getting what it needs to sustain life—becomes dead.  But at first glance, the limb still looks like it did before it was broken off. Visibly, it still looks like part of the tree… but there is no life in it. It will eventually dry out and become brittle; then in time, it will rot away.

In John chapter 15, Jesus compares a life of following him to that of a vine and its branches. He tells us that he is the vine and we are the branches. Part of the point he is making is that, as branches, we can’t do anything in ourselves. A branch cannot produce its own sustenance. It needs the vine for that. So it—we—must stay connected to the vine.

So often we can trade being connected to the source for doing things that makes us look like we are connected. We work really hard to satisfy ourselves and to keep ourselves going… but that only leads to being tired and empty.  In essence, what we are doing is we are trying to sustain our lives on our own. But just like the twigs in my yard, we are disconnected from the life-giving source. The truth is we cannot do connected; we have to be connected.

Being connected requires us to do the right things to stay connected. It requires time, effort, and energy if we want the life-giving, life-sustaining connection to Jesus that we so vitally need. Jesus uses the word “abide” when speaking about how we should be connected to him. Abide literally means to “stay” or “remain.” To abide in the Lord means that we continually receive, believe, and trust that Jesus is everything we need. 

So as we enter into this new year of 2024, let’s commit to being people who abide. Let’s make sure that we are staying connected to the life-giving vine that is Jesus. Let’s develop the connection points in our relationship with God so that we have the nourishing connection we need to navigate this coming year.