False Water

“Remain in me, and I will remain in you. For a branch cannot produce fruit if it is severed from the vine, and you cannot be fruitful unless you remain in me. Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing.” John 15:4-5

I have a new tradition of buying flowers once a week or so to fill up the vases throughout my house. There is just something refreshing and soul lifting to walk into a house with fresh flowers. It warms my soul. However, I have to continue to buy flowers because they continue to die. Even with careful tending to the water and cutting the stems, they still die. Not just the flower itself, but if I were to leave them there in the vases the leaves and stems would all dry up and become dust.

I can’t get that picture out of my mind, the one you see here in my blog, shows what once were radiant lilies just a week ago are now curling up to die. The last moments of existence. I did all I could do to take care of them. I did all I could do to enjoy them, but it just wasn’t enough. But isn’t this how we spend so much of our time? Dying in not enough.

We are the branches and Jesus Christ is the Vine. We are connected to Him. When we are in Him we live, we breathe, we last, we constantly grow, we bear fruit, we are free to dance, we have enough, and we are living. He provides us all the nutritional value we need; “I AM the Bread of Life”. He is our water; “All who come to me will never be thirsty again”. When we are connected to Him, we are transformed by His water, by His life and by His word. Why would we give that, “the enough”, up?

Yet, I find myself giving “the enough” up over and over for the “not enough” or false water; the false water in the vase. I sever myself from Christ and say “I can do this on my own.” I settle for false fulfillments of my identity, false praises, desires filled by a false and short lasting happiness. All so I can be fulfilled for a moment. Sometimes, I know I am settling for the false water and at other times I’m not aware of it until the curling up, ready to die phase sets in.

I sever myself from the nutritional water of Christ and settle for the stale, lifeless water in a vase. I’m unable to move. I look like I am growing; my new blooms open, I fill the house with a light fragrance, I make people smile, yet all the while I am slowly dying; slowly losing the life within me with every false fulfillment of needs or desires.

“Apart from ME you can do NOTHING.” I can’t grow when I’m apart from Christ. I can’t live apart from Christ, even if I can fake it for awhile. Eventually, I die. So I allow that part in me to die and allow the Gardener, God, to prune me and to cut off any branches that may harm me. I ask Him to prune me so that I will remain in Him, drinking up and being transformed by the living water that flows so gently and continually through the Vine and into the branches. I want to bear lasting fruit for Christ but not on my accord. I am trading in my false and stale water for the living water. I am trading in my temporary vase for my permanent place in the Vine.

“Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing.” John 15:5