Become Radical Like JesusSample

DAY 2: ABIDE

Pruning is a ruthless act. I discovered this when I helped with a vineyard in Italy. We had to cut the excess branches—some as long as ten feet—down to a fraction of what they were beforehand. I kept asking, “Is this right? It feels like I’m killing this vine.” And my guide kept saying, “You’re not killing it. You’re making room for the sunlight to get to the branches that actually have buds and will produce grapes.”

While I cut away the vines, I reflected on all the pruning the Father had done in my life. It felt ruthless, as if he were killing me. God had used all the trials I had faced—fatherlessness, violence, isolation, fear, near-death experiences, a ministry financial crisis—to cut away my self-reliance and pride. He was pruning the sins and distractions of my soul, so that the light of his Son could produce rich fruit in and through me.

As the heat of the Italian sun beat down, I couldn’t get the words of Jesus out of my mind: “‘I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit.’” John 15:5

Lessons from the Vineyard

Jesus shared this lesson (John 15:1-8) with his disciples on the night of his betrayal, right after he had washed their feet and they had eaten their last supper together. Jesus used the word abide eight times in this passage. Clearly, it’s important to him for his followers to stay, to abide in him.

Just as Jesus comes to dwell inside of us through his Holy Spirit at the moment of salvation and never leaves, we are to abide in him perpetually, continually, relentlessly.

Ordinary people become extraordinary—dare I say radical—when they learn the secret of abiding in Christ. Because when they do, it will no longer be them living, but Christ living through them.

The Hand and the Glove

How does abiding help us live a radical life?

My friend Zane Black illustrates it this way: “When I put my hand in a glove, it’s almost as though the glove comes alive. It can do what my hand can do. What’s true of the glove is true of us. In and of ourselves, we can do nothing. But we can do anything Christ can do because it is him working through us!”

May you abide in Christ as he abides in you.

Radical Like Jesus Challenge

Find a way to set reminders throughout the day to abide in Christ. Ask his Spirit to fill you and live through you.