Good morning…
Several months back I read aloud to a Sunday school class the Message translation of John 15:4. I asked people to ponder, “What word or phrase most tickles your heart and grabs your attention?”
“Live in me. Make your home in me just as I do in you. In the same way that a branch can’t bear grapes by itself but only by being joined to the vine, you can’t bear fruit unless you are joined with me.”
After our slow, gentle reading, we discussed the sparkliest words. With tears in her eyes, my dear friend shared her phrase with the class. “Live in me.” Then she added, “Maybe the Spirit is just saying one word to me, ‘Live.'”
“Live, fully live.” It was a difficult directive for her to follow, having just nursed her husband through two years of ugly cancer care before releasing him to heaven two years ago this week.
“Live, fully live.” It is a difficult directive for many of those I love who are grieving the loss of a loved one to suicide or a drug overdose, many who face divorce or estrangement, many who wake unemployed or in pain.
“Live, fully live.” It is a difficult directive for those who feel isolated by fear or shunned by society, those bound in poverty or who wake in a jail cell, those battling disease or experiencing the crippling effects of aging on their mind and their body. And it is an equally difficult directive for those who are loving these loved ones through hard, daily choices.
This morning as my sleeping mind emerges in prayer, I sense the Spirit whispering to each of us waking to a difficult day, “Live, fully live.” Jesus looked at them intently and said, “Humanly speaking, it is impossible. But with God everything is possible” (Matthew 19:26, NLT).
Today, what would it mean for me to “live, fully live” empowered by God?
Sue
