“I am the true grapevine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch of mine that doesn’t produce fruit, and he prunes the branches that do bear fruit so they will produce even more. You have already been pruned and purified by the message I have given you. Remain in me, and I will remain in you. For a branch cannot produce fruit if it is severed from the vine, and you cannot be fruitful unless you remain in me.

“Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing. Anyone who does not remain in me is thrown away like a useless branch and withers. Such branches are gathered into a pile to be burned. But if you remain in me and my words remain in you, you may ask for anything you want, and it will be granted! When you produce much fruit, you are my true disciples. This brings great glory to my Father.

“I have loved you even as the Father has loved me. Remain in my love. When you obey my commandments, you remain in my love, just as I obey my Father’s commandments and remain in his love. I have told you these things so that you will be filled with my joy. Yes, your joy will overflow! This is my commandment: Love each other in the same way I have loved you. There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you slaves, because a master doesn’t confide in his slaves. Now you are my friends, since I have told you everything the Father told me. You didn’t choose me. I chose you. I appointed you to go and produce lasting fruit, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask for, using my name. This is my command: Love each other. –John 15:1-17 NLT

Have you ever stopped to wonder why we make following Jesus so complicated? We have systems, methods, habits, and so much more that are all designed to make us more like him. Wait a year, and the next personality will have the greatest step to take next that will unlock your spirituality to a new level – and for some, it will be a helpful step.

Yet a marathon is run one step at a time. We lace on our shoes, warm up our muscles, and begin the journey by plodding across the start line knowing that there are tens of thousands of steps ahead of us. One foot in front of the other, one breath at a time.

Scripture circles back on itself constantly as we progress through the story. Stories of individuals stepping forward in relationship to God, and then failing miserably. Stories of abundant promises, and decades (or centuries!) of waiting for the fulfillment. Decades spent out in the desert, sometimes more than once.

Imagine waiting for over half of your life to find the fulfillment to a single promise from God. It offends our modern sensibilities that demand an answer now, and impatiently waits for the deliverability of the next thing we’ve ordered. We’ve become a people who have forgotten the importance of endurance and patience in our own growth.

Moses

Moses’ life is an extraordinary one. Born in Egypt, he is saved from Pharaoh’s edict by a cheeky, courageous mother who sets him out onto the Nile river with the hope of survival. He is adopted into his would-be murder’s family, and raised as a son. Then, as a young adult, he stands up for his people and himself becomes a murderer, slaying an Egyptian for beating an Israelite. Having earned a reputation, and realizing that maybe he wasn’t the hero he thought he was, Moses flees out into the wilderness, where he remains for 40 years.

Decades of tending sheep. Sleeping under the stars. Only the bleating of the animals to keep you company, drowning out the howl of the wind over the landscape. Time to turn inward, reflect, and root yourself deeply.

Then Moses has an encounter with God in a burning bush, and we meet a man who is still deeply insecure. He won’t speak boldly because of a ‘speech problem.’ God tells him not to worry about it, but worry has already overwhelmed him. Moses is afraid to step out on his own and trust that God really has his back. Egypt is still deep within him.

Despite this, he goes to Pharaoh with his brother and enters into a conflict of cosmic proportions. The Israelites are miraculously driven out of Egypt, and then baptized through the waters of the Red Sea ensuring they can never return to the place that threatened to keep them enslaved in body, mind, and soul. Yet the claws of that land were not so easy to remove.

Faced with crossing another body of water, and conquering a land that was promised to them, they baulked at the giant people. The strong fortresses seemed insurmountable to a group of farmers and brick-makers. They had spent so much time being told how worthless they were, they had begun to believe that was their true identity. Despite what God was speaking over them, they believed they could never succeed.

So they spent 40 years in the desert. Forty years of purification; of God proving to them that He was faithful, even when they were not. Forty years of the same shoes, time around fires, time to forget the identity that had been drilled into them over centuries. A time of trial, and a time of healing.

Through this all, Moses led them. He was far from perfect, but the time in the desert taught him to trust in God, love God, and lead others with a stalwart faithfulness. Finally, after 80 years in the desert, Moses understood.

His final words to the Israelites are potent:

“Listen, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord alone. And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your strength. And you must commit yourselves wholeheartedly to these commands that I am giving you today. Repeat them again and again to your children. Talk about them when you are at home and when you are on the road, when you are going to bed and when you are getting up. –Deuteronomy 4:4-7

Love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all of your strength.

A Mission of Love

There are so many systems we want to apply to the church and our own lives today. Systems of organization, liturgies for worship, methods of reaching out to the world around us. It all boils down to one thing: love.

Falling more in love with Jesus everyday is our goal. Casting our gaze to him and him alone, deepening our relationship with the God who loves us. It is there that we find healing from our wounds, our identities, and our sin. When we are soaked in the love of God, and He calls us to do something that seems impossible, we don’t have to worry like Moses – we have allowed Him to speak our identity.

When falling more in love with Jesus is our daily life, then loving others comes naturally. We are rooted in a secure relationship that will never move, so we have nothing to fear from others. No whips can drive us, no sea can impede us, no desert can kill us. We have a King who saves, a God who parts, and a Saviour who nourishes.

We’ve been learning more that systems will come and go. But loving Jesus will also be the foundation.

How is Jesus trying to love you more today?