I remember when I was training my dog to "stay" I would hold my hand up in front of her face and repeat the word "stay" over and over. As long as she heard me saying, "stay, stay, stay" as I backed away, she would stay. But as soon as I dropped my hand or stopped saying, "stay" she would get up. It was as if it were more difficult, or even impossible, for her to stay if I didn't keep telling her to stay.
In the first 10 verses of John, chapter 15, Jesus uses the word "remain" 11 times. That's more than once per verse! (Don't cringe, Rod...yes, I counted!). We are to remain in him and he will remain in us. We must remain in the vine. We will not bear fruit unless we remain in the vine. Over and over again, the command to "remain". Could it be because it is difficult to "remain" if we are not told to do so over and over again?
Eventually my dog learned to stay for longer periods of time but she always did better with more than one reminder to "stay". She never needed to know why I wanted her to stay, just that I wanted her to. Jesus, on the other hand, lets us know clearly why we need to "remain". He is the source of love, the conduit to bring us love and life directly from the Father. Without remaining in him, we are without life, useless. Yet he realizes that it is hard for us to "remain".
I want to keep that reminder in front of me all the time- that picture of Jesus holding up his nail scarred hands encouraging me to "stay". It's good to know he's willing to tell me more than once.
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6 comments:
This has always been one of my favorite passages. As we were talking the other night, coupled with John 14. I know I'm simple minded, but when something gets recorded and scored, it demands my contemplation. So Johnny Cash for John 14, and Apt Core for John 15. I've listened over and over. More than 11 times.
Thanks for this golden nugget.
Guess I'm like your dog and need more than one reminder to stay.
"Woof,Woof"...(translation-"Many thanks for the words of wisdom today.")
Remain, a foreign concept to me. In real life I have not stayed anywhere for very long, and I have been in a lot of everywheres. It is not a familiar life experience to stay. I even didn't get to stay with my original family as long as most teenagers do, having been sent to a boarding school 2000 miles away from my family at a very youthful age. I never got to stay with one of my parents even when I was living at home because she was very unavailable. I did not get to stay in any given house more than 4 years,often just 2, and I had to give up good friends everywhere. So for me to now stay in the city I have been in for a very long 5 years feels weird, for me to know and be around the same good friends I've made is a very different experience and I realize that I don't know how to stay with them in the same way it was early on, and I certainly have transferred this over to the One Who is going to stay with me forever, stay closer and more intimate than sometimes I am comfortable with. Actually what I just said was very polite and full of baloney, I am terrified of staying and intimacy. So I hear Him say 'remain', and I hear other souls ask me to please not close the barricade between me and them and stay in their/our orbit, and I am just willing to look through my peephole and might just crack my door so you can maybe see one eyeball. Am I capable of staying with no fear and no paranoia? No way, but can I trust Him to make a provision for my heart to remain, . . . y e s with verlangen.
You do not sleep and You always keep what you have begun.
The song's been played and the promise made will not be undone.
No shadow of a turning, You're the same today as yesterday.
You know, it's God that can be trusted to "remain" with. Yet, it's so much easier for me to trust people. Yet it's always people who let you down when you hang on them. Why do we get it so backward, I wonder?
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