Giving the world what it needs

If you spend even a few months attending church services, you’ll likely hear someone say a phrase similar to “Jesus is the vine, and we are the branches”.  What they’re quoting is from John 15, where Jesus is teaching His disciples as they walked to the Garden of Gethsemane.  The apex statement in the section is found in verse five:

John 15:5
I am the vine; you are the branches.  The one who remains in Me and I in him produces much fruit, because you can do nothing without Me.

But did you know…that God had previously used the vine analogy to describe His relationship with Israel?  Take a look at what the prophet Isaiah said about 700 years before Jesus:

Isaiah 5:1-2
I will sing about the one I love, a song about my loved one’s vineyard.  The one I love had a vineyard on a very fertile hill.  He broke up the soil, cleared it of stones, and planted it with the finest vines.  He built a tower in the middle of it and even dug out a winepress there.  He expected it to yield good grapes, but it yielded worthless grapes.

And then God speaks:

Isaiah 5:3-6
So now, residents of Jerusalem and men of Judah, please judge between Me and My vineyard.  What more could I have done for My vineyard that I did?  Why, when I expected a yield of good grapes, did it yield worthless grapes? 

Now I will tell you what I am about to do to My vineyard:
I will remove its hedge, and it will be consumed;
I will tear down its wall, and it will be trampled.
I will make it a wasteland.
It will not be pruned or weeded; thorns and briers will grow up.
I will also give orders to the clouds that rain should not fall on it.

And to make sure the people understood the analogy, Isaiah says:

Isaiah 5:7
For the vineyard of the Lord of Armies is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah, the plant He delighted in.  He expected justice but saw injustice; He expected righteousness but heard cries of despair.

The best explanation of this passage that I’ve found comes from G. Campbell Morgan, in his book Great Chapters of the Bible:

Two words in this interpretation reveal the Divine purpose and ideal.  They are the words righteousness and judgment.  The Hebrew nation was created in order that all the nations might be given righteousness and judgment.  In other words, the Divine intention was that through the nation the principle of life which is righteousness, and the consequent practice of judgment should be revealed to humanity as a whole.  In its history the nation had entirely broken down in this matter.  Within its own borders, instead of righteousness, oppression existed, and for lack of judgment or equity, the cry of the oppressed was heard.  Therefore the nations of the world were not being supplied with the things essential to their being, and their well-being.  Because of this failure the nation was rejected as the vine of God.

Jesus’ statement of I am the vine; you are the branches wasn’t just a little teaching illustration.  I’ll let Morgan explain further:

Thus He stood in the midst of human history and declared that God’s purpose was not failing, that His intention would be carried out, that He was the Vine through Whom these things would come to complete fulfilment.  The majesty of the claim is self-evident; and the high privileges and responsibilities of His own are revealed in the fact the He incorporated that group of men with Himself as the instrument of Divine realization as He said, “I am the Vine, ye are the branches”.

Where Israel failed, Jesus declared that He would be the one to show the world what God’s design for true righteousness and justice looked like.  And…the most surprising part of it…is that Jesus has included His disciples (and us) in this work.

If we believers are to show the world what righteousness (i.e. – living rightly by God’s design) and justice looks like in our own lives, then we must remember Jesus’ warning: you can do nothing without Me.

We must stay connected to Him.  We must be talking with Him often and learning to walk as He walked.  We cannot manufacture righteousness and justice by our own efforts and programs – throughout the centuries, Christians have tried to do so and have failed miserably each time.  We can only produce the fruit of the vine when we are connected to it.

Are you intentionally staying connected to the Vine?

Keep Pressing,
Ken

I’ve had it all backwards

Navigating an empty nest isn’t a new challenge in society, but it is still a relatively new challenge in our household.  With one son fully on his own and the other son in his last year of college, our “family” has shrunk to just me, my wife, and our dog. 

Not too long ago, I read that men tend to function at their highest levels of productivity when they are faced with “twenty-year challenges”.  The author argued that having a clearly-defined, long-term goal is a great way for men to focus and stay motivated.  These types of goals can be career-oriented, like starting/building an industry-leading business or achieving a C-suite promotion; or exercise goals, like completing 10 Ironman triathlons; or personal goals, like writing 3 NYT Best Sellers or learning to fluently speak 5 new languages.  These types of goals could also be financial, personal, or even relational…the point was for the guy to make them BIG, set a course, and then achieve it.

If the twenty-year challenge was completed in less than 20 years, that is a good thing.  But the author also suggested that once a goal has been met, a new twenty-year challenge should take its place.

There are many benefits to approaching life this way: clear direction in life, intentional actions, and learning to put off short-term gratification in order to reach a long-term better reward.  Most of all, twenty-year challenges help a man avoid spinning his wheels and merely dabbling around.

After reading the article, I realized that (although I had never referred to it as such), I had treated the raising and launching of our two boys like a “twenty-year challenge”.  Our goal has always been to teach them how to get along without us…because, let’s be honest…unless Jesus returns before we die, they will have to know how to live life on their own.  Seeing that this “twenty-year challenge” was coming to a close, I took the article’s advice and began to ponder what my next “twenty-year challenge” was going to be.

The problem was…nothing immediately came to mind.  Not that I didn’t see options, but I wasn’t sure which one to give the priority to.  So, I spent time thinking about it.  I spent time praying about it.  I spent time talking with my wife, my family, and my close friends about it.  But no “one thing” has risen to the surface for me to say, “Ah-hah!  That’s the next BIG thing for me.”

Then, a little while back, I was reading Proverbs while eating breakfast, and this gem captured my thoughts:

Proverbs 16:3
Commit your activities to the Lord, and your plans will be established.

I wanted to make sure I understood what I was reading, so I looked up the definition of a couple words:

activities = deeds, work, labor, pursuit
plans = plan, purpose

Immediately, I recognized the short-term vs. the long-term in this verse.  The activities I do are the short-term actions, and the plans are the long-term goals.  I also realized that I had been thinking about the empty-nest situation completely backwards.  As I had been pondering the next “twenty-year challenge”, I had been neglecting to give my day-to-day actions the emphasis this proverb requires.

Essentially, I was asking God to drop a new “twenty-year challenge” in my lap, but I wasn’t in the habit of making sure my daily pursuits were committed to the Lord.  But…why should I expect God to give me something BIG to work on, if I’m negligent in giving Him the small things?

This realization cut me deep and has shifted my perspective.  Intentionally committing my daily activities to the Lord isn’t something that comes naturally.  I mean, sure, generally speaking – I want to do life God’s way and live a life that He can be proud of me.  But these are the questions I’m now asking myself:

How can I commit what I eat for breakfast to the Lord?
How can I commit this next work call to the Lord?
How can I commit doing my household chores to the Lord?
How can I commit my down time – what I read, what I watch – to the Lord?

Do you see how challenging this application can be?  Since I read this proverb, I’ve endeavored to be better at it, trusting that as I rightly handle my day-to-day well, that God will establish the long-term plans He has for me.  As of this writing, I don’t know what my next “twenty-year challenge” is yet, but I’m going to take God at His word in this proverb.

How about you?  How would you apply Proverbs 16:3?

If you have any tips or suggestions, I’d love to hear them.

Keep Pressing,
Ken