Awake and Alive: A 5-Day Plan to Revive Your Faith Sample

Come Alive to Relationship

“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

Not too long ago, I did a funeral for a woman named Jane Thompson. She was eighty- two years old when she went home to be with the Lord. And at eighty- two, she was still hosting a gathering of young adults in her home every week. She simply refused to get crusty as she aged. She refused to look at the next generation as something to lament but rather as an opportunity to herald the majesty of Jesus. But there’s so much more to Jane’s story.

Jane was adopted as a child into a fundamentalist Christian home. And when I say fundamentalist, you’ve got to take the “f- u- n” out of that. There was no dancing. No secular music. And while there may be latent wisdom in some of that, the problem was that it was a checklist of rules. You likely know what I mean about viewing Christianity as a checklist rather than a living, vibrant love relationship. And Jane grew up with the checklist. You couldn’t go to a dance, but you could put on skates and go dance on wheels at the skating rink on Friday night. You were dancing, but you just weren’t calling it that. It’s that kind of weird hypocrisy that always tends to follow fundamentalism. Well, that’s what she grew up in. And she was good at it.

So she got engaged to Bob during her senior year of high school. (It was a different era!) She received the ring at graduation. She and Bob were both in this stream of fundamentalism. By the time Jane was thirty- eight, she was a deacon’s wife. She was playing the piano at church. She was winning at church.

One Sunday, though, after Jane played the piano, she went and sat down with the rest of the congregation. The pastor was preaching the message at this small church, and in the middle of his sermon, Jane heard this whisper say, You don’t know Me. It was the Holy Spirit. The voice continued, You know about Me, but you don’t know Me.

What I love is that it made her angry.

And she talked back, explaining to Jesus why He was so wrong.

She spat this epically long list: “I play the piano. I’m a deacon’s wife. I don’t cuss, drink, or smoke. I don’t tolerate those who do.”

The Spirit whispered again, But you don’t know Me.

Then Jane did one of the gutsiest things I’ve ever heard. That afternoon, she went home and opened up the Gospel of Luke. And she wrestled with Jesus in the Gospel of Luke. And by the middle of the afternoon, she was like, “Dang it. I’m not a Christian.”

Is that gritty or what?

Buckle up, because it’s not over.

She went back to church that same Sunday night. (You gotta be really old to remember Sunday night church. It’s a whole different service on Sunday night. Count ’em: two!) So she was playing the piano, and at the end, when the pastor invited anyone who wanted to know Jesus to come to the front and pray for salvation, she was moved to go to the front. She tried to rationalize it away, telling herself and telling God, “But I teach the youth, and they’re here. They’re not going to understand. Come on, God; I’m playing the piano. It’s going to be really weird.”

And the Spirit said, Let’s go, Jane.

The preacher said, “If you want to become a Christian, come on up here.”

In obedience, Jane stopped playing the piano. And now it was dead silent. And she walked out from behind the piano and walked up to the pastor in front of everybody who assumed she was a mature believer. And then she gave her life to Jesus for the first time. She accepted Christ as a thirty- eight- year- old deacon’s wife who played piano at church. And at her funeral, nine grandchildren testified about G- ma’s faithfulness as the root of their own faith.

I’m curious what you think of Jane’s story. Personally, I think it’s incredible. And I also think it’s rare. I think there are a lot of spiritually dead folks out in the pews, and I think Jane has shown us the good way. I think her willingness to say yes— albeit a reluctant yes!— gives us a glimpse of what God wants to do in lives like ours. In religious lives. In those of us who are churchy. God is calling us, but a lot of us don’t have Jane’s courage. A part of us does know that we’re not connected to Jesus, we’re not attached to the vine, but we silence the part that knows. We hear the Spirit whispering, inviting us into an intimate relationship with Jesus. But rather than get off the piano bench and meet Him for ourselves, we’d rather (in our pride) keep playing the part.

Beloved, if the Holy Spirit is whispering to you that you know about Jesus but you don’t know Him, take courage, for the Spirit is calling your name.

Say yes.

Reflect

1. How is Jane’s story unlike your story? How is Jane’s story like your story? What does that mean for you today?

2. If Jesus is the vine, and you are a branch, what does your connection to Him look like today? What’s the fruit?

Challenge

In John 15:1, Jesus identifies Himself as the “true vine.” And the invitation, to me and to you, is to be connected to that vine. If we’re not, we die. His specific invitation is, “Abide in me, and I in you” (v. 4). Today, I want you to be as gutsy and honest as you’ve ever been. Pay attention to the part of you that may know how connected or disconnected you are to Him today. Let God’s Spirit speak to your heart. Specifically, prayerfully, imagine the garden of your heart. Let the Vinedresser show you the condition of your heart’s garden, and ask Him how you are to tend to it. Listen.