Remain

Powerful words tonight from Tom Schmidt at church. I was really engaged for his talk.

Firstly, Tom asked us to think about what we do with our time. What is the thing that we are spending the most of our time on. Work, study, church, etc. He then asked us to think about what is the thing that our mind spends most of our time on. I found this rather fascinating, because the point is that I can spend a huge amount of time at work, but actually, my mind is only there a portion of that time.

The third thing he asked us was to think about what is the thing that our hearts spend the most amount of time on. This was a bit of a strange concept, but it made sense none the less. What are the things that grip me, or concern me. What are the things that I delight in, or experience heart break over?

Finally he asked us what do we do when we are at rest. What are we doing when our heart, mind and body are coming to relax. Is it drinking tea? Or going to a special place? What do we do to come back to the centre and realign everything.

We read a passage from John 15, in which Jesus talks about the vine and the branches (John 15:1-17). Actually, Jesus talks about a lot of things in this one passage. It kind of leaves you wondering where it's all going. What Tom highlighted for us though, was the word "remain".

This word appears eleven times in this passage. Remain. I looked it up in my fancy definition of the original word thing that comes with my phone.

Remain, abide: to tarry, to not depart a place, to be held, to continue, to endure, to remain as one, to wait.

Jesus is inviting us, asking us, telling us, that the best thing for us to do, is to remain with him. The challenge for us, for me, is do I believe that? Do I believe that the best use of my time is to abide with Jesus? We live in a culture that says if we are not switched on, or constantly consuming than we are somehow wasting our time. It is hard for us, in this day in age, to remain with Jesus. To simply switch off, and be with him.

I found this to be so true. Currently, even if I have five minutes to myself, I find I have to grab my phone and check the updates, the statuses, the RSS feeds. I find it so difficult to simply rest. Yet this is what I need to do. To remain, to wait, to trust that Jesus has what I need.

Something else I found rather striking about this was the fact that our heart, mind and body are connected in it. It's hard to try to turn off one, let alone all three but it is becoming increasingly apparent to me that in fact, our physical body is related to and connected with our spiritual health. Sure I can sit down and try to think about God, but if my body is not in a position that is ready to let everything else go, then it's no wonder that my mind is filled with distractions and diversions.

I feel compelled this week to be grappling with this. To be turning it over in my mind and wrestling with it in my heart. I want to dwell on this thought. To remain in Jesus. In his presence is where I want to be.