Every time I think I've reached the end of my own ideas as to how things should me moving along and forming, the Lord has at each and every instance reignited my desire and drive. I don't know how many times I've wished to quit and He comes around with a fresh piece of insight or some other thought that I can meditate upon as I make my way back out into the sunlight. Today it was this: "Abide in me..."
Thank God for that. I suppose everyone would hear the Lord's voice in a different way. He made you and it follows that He knows how to speak to you. The above statement came back to my mind in a wide angle way. From the confusion and muddle-headedness that I clear through when I awake to the realization upon waking that I need to go run (I hadn't in a while--too cold) to the distance ahead through the freezing fog. This thought, this command, this statement: "Abide in me" was what I was meditating on before long.
"...and I in you."
Jesus tells His disciples to "abide in me" several times on down the fifteenth chapter of John. It really is simple as that. And I wonder. How do I "abide in Jesus"? How do I, with my million-mile-an-hour mind stay in one place? After I got home and looked up the reference, I realized there was more to it. "And I in you." Firstly, it boils down to "We love Him, because He first loved us." (1 John 4:19) This is the bedrock of our relationship with Christ. And abiding in Him simply means expanding on what it means for us to love Him.
"As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me." (John 15:4)
The fog was freezing. My footsteps didn't plant well and so I ran along slowly, crunching over the bumpy, frozen snow. Once I slipped and fell. But it felt good to go out and do it. To get back into a routine that plays in to the rest of my life. Even with the compactness of the three-and-a-half weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas, life has gotten quite dense. None of the other quotidian cares I face year-round attenuate, it's just that, with all the people and activities layered upon it, I needed some serious decompression. But God is good for it. I will say this, it was my first time running without any music, so foggy was my head. Maybe there's some simple--but not sinful--thing the Lord would have you lay aside for a moment in order to hear a clear word--that in turn clears your head and heart going forward.
"Now ye are clean through the word that I have spoken unto you." (15:3)