SLOW: NOTHING

THE PRAYER         

• Find a quiet space.         


• Breathe deeply and recognise God with you in this moment.         


• When you are ready, speak to God about this time together.         


• After you've finished praying, go through the following passage a few times slowly and thoughtfully (preferably out loud).      


• Allow God to meet you in these words.

God, investigate my life; get all the facts firsthand. I’m an open book to you; even from a distance, you know what I’m thinking. You know when I leave and when I get back; I’m never out of your sight. You know everything I’m going to say before I start the first sentence. I look behind me and you’re there, then up ahead and you’re there, too - your reassuring presence, coming and going. This is too much, too wonderful, I can’t take it all in! Amen. Psalm 139: 1-6 (MSG)

THE FIRST READING

Read this passage slowly (preferably out loud) as you allow God to meet you in these words. Pay attention to anything God might be saying as you do.

“I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing." John 15:1-5 (ESV)

RESPONSE

Take some time to respond (write down, draw, pray, etc.) to God’s prompting in the first reading of the passage. What is he highlighting and saying to you through this?

THE SECOND READING

Read the passage again (slowly and preferably out loud) through the “lens” of what The Spirit highlighted in the first reading. Listen for anything else the Spirit might be saying.

“I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing." John 15:1-5 (ESV)

THE REFLECTION

If I’m afraid of anything it might be this: I’ll get to the end of my days and realise that I wasted my one and only life on things that didn't really matter. That I spent so much energy building castles of sand that seemed significant in the temporary, but ultimately amounted to nothing in eternity.

It’s a sobering thought, isn't it? So how do we avoid this? How do we make sure that we’re busy with work that pleases the heart of God? How do we make sure that, in living the story of Jesus, it’s his story that we’re living and not our own? In sharing our faith, how do we avoid the mistakes of the past where so many simply used the name of Jesus for their own agenda? How do we hold out Jesus instead of holding out ourselves?

According to Jesus, as is the case with so much of our friendship with God, the answer is found in abiding. As we have described it, abiding is that posture of the soul that is constantly turned toward God. The life firmly planted in the true vine of Jesus. But how does abiding achieve this? How does setting our gaze toward God change our nothing into something?

I believe it is because of saturation. When a sponge has been in water for a long time and you take it out, the water comes with it. It’s been saturated. This effect is so comprehensive that a saturated sponge is less known for its “sponginess” and more known for its “saturation." The water becomes the main event. The sponge becomes the vehicle.

The Holy Spirit is the river of living water that carries the very personhood of God, the present power of God for the healing of his world. In the practice of slowing, we acknowledge the fact that we are drowning in that water and then we choose to stay there. We saturate our hearts and minds in the reality of the Spirit, so that everywhere we go, God pours out of us in increasing measure. This is how our misguided nothing turns into his divinely orchestrated something.

By abiding.

I know. It's counterintuitive. In a world of so much brokenness, our impulse is to act. I think that mirrors the heart of God. God is not indifferent to the suffering of his world. However, he knows who we are and he knows who he is, and he knows the deep darkness of the world into which our lives must flow and bring light. 

As a result, his first word to us is not go (go will come soon enough) but “wait." Slow down. Abide in me. Not just for a moment, not even for moments, but increasingly and with practice, for a lifetime.

It is only in our abiding that our nothing becomes his something.