No Going Solo

Often, Christians can fall into a “me and Jesus” mode where we think our spiritual life is a solo enterprise. That’s the American way of course - the Long Ranger mentality of self-sufficiency. That that’s not how Jesus see things. He puts it like this:

No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. - John 15:4-5

All the way through this passage, Jesus uses the plural for the word ‘you.’ It’s not you (individually) and Jesus. It’s YOU (plural) and Jesus. It’s a community venture. We’re in it together. When it comes to our spiritual life - which is nothing besides our real life - if we’re trying to make it on our own, we’re not going to make it. There’s too much pressure in this world, too much brokenness in our own hearts, too many obstacles inside and outside of us. We’re going to go down.

This is how our friend Debie Thomas puts it:

Branches that refuse to cling to the vine die. My problem, of course, is that I don’t believe this. I don’t want to believe it, because it’s inconvenient. It implies that my life is not my own. That my choices affect people I don’t even know. That I am bound to the community of God’s people whether such boundedness suits my temperament or not. - Debie Thomas

Who is your spiritual community? What might it take to make one small move towards spiritual community this day? Talk with Jesus about those things.