SLOW: THE TRUE VINE

THE PRAYER 

Find a quiet space.           

• Breathe deeply and recognise God with you in this moment.           
• When you are ready, speak to God about this time together.           
• After you've finished praying, go through the following passage a few times slowly and thoughtfully (preferably out loud).          
• Allow God to meet you in these words.

God, investigate my life; get all the facts firsthand. Amen. Psalm 139: 1 (MSG)

THE FIRST READING

Read this passage slowly (preferably out loud) as you allow God to meet you in these words. Pay attention to anything God might be saying as you do.

“I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing." John 15:1-5 (ESV)

RESPONSE

Take some time to respond (write down, draw, pray, etc.) to God’s prompting in the first reading of the passage. What is he highlighting and saying to you through this?

THE SECOND READING

Read the passage again (slowly and preferably out loud) through the “lens” of what The Spirit highlighted in the first reading. Listen for anything else the Spirit might be saying.

"I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing." John 15:1-5 (ESV)

THE REFLECTION

Monopoly was a game we used to play as kids. We would clear the dining table, set up the board, choose our pieces, and spend hours buying and selling fake property with fake money for a fake reward. Granted, the money and the property were never really the point; the point was family time and laughing (when you were not arguing) with people you love. But, I always remember that moment in the game when I would look down at all my “money” and think to myself, “if only all of this was real”.

That's the problem with counterfeit rewards. Regardless of how much of it you have, it’s not real. It may look real. It may feel real. In fact, the best counterfeits are almost indistinguishable from their real counterparts. But, in the end, even the best counterfeits simply aren’t real. They don’t carry the same value or produce the same result as the original.

When it comes to how we spend our lives, what we’re looking for is something real. We long for something true that corresponds in substance to the eternity we intuitively feel bubbling up from our deepest self. 

Unfortunately, our world is full of counterfeits, excellent counterfeits. And we are fooled. Driven by a thirst that only God can quench, we waste our time rooting and uprooting ourselves from mirage-like sources that promise relief but only leave us empty. 

It’s into this reality that Jesus speaks.

“I am the TRUE VINE”.

Not the only vine to be sure. There are millions of vines to choose from, vines like productivity, security, popularity, sexuality, and more- vines that look good enough on the outside, yet simply can’t sustain what we are searching for on the inside. But Jesus is the True Vine, the one that meets us at our point of deepest need and leads us to the kind of life we truly long for.

That's why living the story of Jesus starts with slowing down.

In the slowness, we position ourselves to recognise the fake from the real, the counterfeit from the true. We press pause on the autopilot existence that so many of us have come to call normal and step back long enough to see the choice before us. 

Where will we root our lives? 

We can choose the many vines of our age. That is certainly the path of the masses, but such a choice does not lead us to the life God has designed us to experience internally or share externally. 

Only The Vine can lead us to The Life for which we were made.

The choice is ours- stacks of monopoly money or a life rooted in the person of Jesus by the power of the Holy Spirit.