That’s the thought/verse excerpt that’s been running through my mind for about a week or so. It comes from John 15:5,
I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.
It was the first verse I memorized when I started going to church (of my own volition) back in 2003. Every now and then God brings it back up through memory or circumstances. This time, I feel like I’m understanding it like never before.
Jesus says that He is the Vine, the source of life for all the branches (people) that are attached to Him. I look around me and I feel like I see so many things that we treat like they are the vine. Just so many things that we seek to fulfill us, to be our all in all, in good times and the bad. He says if we remain in Him and Him in us we’ll bear much fruit. I feel like so many of us are seeking to “remain”, to immerse ourselves in things, ideas, relationships, celebrities….people or things that we feel like will make our life meaningful or make us feel whole in some way if we could just bury ourselves in them.
It’s like this idea of remaining is built-in to all of us. None of us seem to be immune. We’re all bent on “finding the vine” in our lives. And when we discover something that looks like it may scratch that itch, fill that void, make us feel significant, we soak up as much of that thing as we can. When it’s other people, especially celebrities, we try to walk in their footsteps every way we can. When it’s a thing like money, or sex, or whatever, we chase it relentlessly.
But on the surface we act chill, cuz for that moment, our painful longing for true life, true living, is suppressed. We supress the truth. And that denial is a deadly, deceptive bliss.
“I am the vine”….
My vines? More like vices… Ego would be #1. In the distant and searingly recent past God has shown me the depth of my depravity through things I’ve done or thought about doing in the name of self. I’ll save the details for when they’re more relevant.