Day One: Resolved to Connect

Well, it's January 1st, 2010. Let the vine-connected experience begin.

To get through the year, I'm going to lay out five premises that will drive me. All five need much further exploration, but I think the week-long prelude and ponderings (and study) have led me to these, and they need to be introduced now. No doubt more will be added along the way. I'll start with the first two today:

1) TOES IN THE WATER. To flourish and bear fruit, you've got to be connected to the Source. That's the botany. The branch can't survive when torn off from the Vine.

Psalm 1 describes this a different way. The tree that flourishes is planted next to the water. It doesn't take much botany to understand that the closer to the source of life for a plant -- water -- the better the plant will do. The leaf doesn't wither, because it's always well fed. Jesus tells the woman at the well that "Anyone who drinks the water I give will never thirst—not ever. The water I give will be an artesian spring within, gushing fountains of endless life."
John 4:13-14 (MSG)

So -- staying dry and withered is a condition with only one solution: get those roots in that water. Since I don't have roots, I'll imagine sinking my toes in when I get dry. You should have heard me all day today -- every time something gave me stress or concern, I kept saying to myself: Toes in the water! Hope it sticks with me all year.

2) THE WATER IS RIGHT THERE. Sticking my toes in when I feel dry is one thing. Believing that the water is right there for me is another. Behind premise #1 is a bigger challenge: I've got to trust that there is truly a stream of water right there for me, waiting for me to dig my roots in deep. I must know that I won't be disappointed.

This is no easy task for me, thanks to two false premises that I am resolved to conquer this year, because they've kept me parched for far too long:

a) Not for me: Somewhere I picked up this belief that having an endless supply of everything I need available to me out of sheer love -- unearned and given without condition -- may be available to others but is not available for me. I think I've spent way too many years trying hard to prove myself worthy enough to have it, and finding way too many reasons for why I'm disqualified for it.

b) Gotta find my own: Since I was very young, I just figured that good things didn't come to me freely. I had to fight and connive and earn good things. I had to make them.

I don't know exactly when these premises originated and clung to my thinking, but I know I've had them for a very, very long time. They are both without Scriptural basis. And I could probably find hundreds of experiences in my life that, if I fully looked at them objectively, would prove these premises false.

But the funny thing about beliefs is this: once you believe something, your eyes become trained to see from that basis. Experiences look like what you believe they are or can be. So you prove your beliefs right. So the only answer is to start believing differently -- to remind myself as many times as it takes, "hey -- dummy --the water is RIGHT THERE. Toes in, man!"

Eventually, I hope to say it without calling myself "dummy." Baby steps.

One Scripture that has stuck in my head a lot this year has been Hebrews 11:1.
1 Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.
Heb 11:1 (NIV) In other words, quit using your eyes and ears to look for evidence. The evidence isn't in life's circumstances or surroundings. In fact, it's the opposite. If you believe the water is there, even if you can't see it, it is there. And the more you believe, the more you'll start to see it.

That's a lot more to talk about on that one. We'll get there.

So -- toes in the water. The water is right there. I'm a tree planted by streams of water. Here we grow.