Day 3: Introducing premises 3 & 4

Day 3. A pretty good day, overall. I don't expect every one of these "in the vine" days to be rockets and red glare. In fact, the steadiness of it all is delightful to me. I've always wondered what "standing on the rock" felt like. It feels solid. Steady.

Great Life Group this morning -- I introduced the series to the group, and shared the two theme Scriptures. So many wonderful insights came pouring out -- the role of distractions, the concept of fruit -- lots of great stuff to study through. The insights from the group are always so rich, and honest. And humble. What an answer to prayer. Give me a thousand humble people sitting in a room trying to figure it out together, all with the intent to make the most of every part of their faith over a single biblical scholar who is more interested in all they know than how any of it is lived. Any day. Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up. Yep.

Premise 3 is about fruit, by the way:

BLOSSOMS AWAY. Fruit actually blossoms or blooms, which is what makes Spring such a wonderful season. From that stone cold, seemingly dead branch comes this bud that busts out and -- surprise! -- has this wonderful blossom that eventually turns into fruit. I tend to think about the final product of it all -- the ripened apple ready for picking. But by then, the miracle is done, the fruit is old hat. The blossom is the exciting part, the segment where truly the impossible becomes possible.

We'll need to spend a lot of time on fruit, because I've had lots of misdirection and confusion about this, and I imagine others have too. Religious groups have turned fruit into a spiritual quota system. My spiritual adolescence was spent in a church that counted and judged members based on their individual "fruit" -- the number of people who came to Christ through that member. I remember dreading leadership team meetings because the accountability felt like a sales meeting: How many did you invite this week? How many guests at bible study did you bring this week? How many have you baptized this week? At least in sales, there's a bonus at the end of the year. Or you're fired. In the Christianity I was exposed to, that meant that the unfruitful branch was cut off and burned -- a whole new meaning to getting "fired" by God. Removed. Hopeless. No wonder I tried to perform my Christianity. I was trying to save my job.

Anyway, I've learned that there's much, much more to fruit, and we'll talk through it all in the coming weeks, because I sure don't understand it all yet. One more premise for the night, because it's been on my mind all weekend:

TRUST THE VINE. I do (and teach) a lot of community organizing, and so I work with a lot of novice community organizers around the country. When I was one of those novice community organizers (not so very long ago) my mentor shared a phrase to calm both of us down when it seemed like we were getting nowhere in a hurry and everything we had tried to establish was falling apart. She'd say, "Trust the process." That meant that some things were simply out of your control, but that they were set in motion with an intelligent design that always eventually yields results. You don't need to panic and jump in. The process will come through.

The same thing is true about God. It's all about trust. If God says that we should stay connected to vine, and that when we do anything we ask for will be given to us, then that's the process we can trust. If he says that the tree planted by water survives any drought, then it does.

I'm the first one to panic and try to take over -- DO something to fix the situation. And I usually make a bigger mess of it all.

Part of this is simply not understanding the entire process. My mentor never organized by blind faith -- far from it. She carefully and strategically set things up so that people could identify her goals with their interests. It would be ridiculous for her to trust a process she didn't fully put into place, or to trust a process she didn't understand. So understanding the process of how staying connected to Vine yields fruit and flourishing leaves is important.

But the second part is pure trust, which is in low supply these days, at least for me. I've been tricked and duped every which way these past 49 years, and I am leery, to say the least, about almost everything. God has led me on more "trust-building adventures" than I care to share, and I still struggle. I know I'm not alone in this, either.

Romans Chapter 4 has an interesting take on trust:

13 That famous promise God gave Abraham—that he and his children would possess the earth—was not given because of something Abraham did or would do. It was based on God's decision to put everything together for him, which Abraham then entered when he believed. 14 If those who get what God gives them only get it by doing everything they are told to do and filling out all the right forms properly signed, that eliminates personal trust completely and turns the promise into an ironclad contract! That's not a holy promise; that's a business deal. 15 A contract drawn up by a hard-nosed lawyer and with plenty of fine print only makes sure that you will never be able to collect. But if there is no contract in the first place, simply a promise—and God's promise at that—you can't break it. Romans 4:13-15 (MSG)

Ouch. I try to make deals with God all the time. I've even used "fruit" as my portion of the contract. But I certainly have been learning that it's not a "deal" I strike with God. My obligation to get the goods isn't staying on the vine. Quite the opposite. I cling to the vine because that's where all the good stuff is. And it's all there just waiting for me. I CAN trust the Vine -- not, I MUST trust Vine.

So much to understand. so much to learn.