A Season to Abide
It’s amazing—finally being back in Tuscaloosa. But as great as it is being back, it’s strange in a way. Every season here is different. The same people come back together for another semester, but we’ve all had our own summers, our own struggles. Mostly this is good, but in a lot of ways it’s hard coming back to the same place, falling into the same things.
We have to relearn how to do life here. And even though this place has not changed, I have. So that makes everything different. And even though I’ve grown, I don’t want to come back only to relive last year. I don’t want to struggle in the same ways I struggled before. I don’t want to be hung up on the same questions I couldn’t stop asking.
That is all too easy and all too tempting—to keep on doing what we’ve been doing, wondering why it’s still not enough.
Today I was reminded of a truth that I had forgotten over the past year. And I’m convinced it makes all the difference. That no matter where we are, who we have become, or even where we are going, we can be fully at rest, completely assured, steadfast, and abundantly joyful if we hold onto and live out these words:
“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 bears fruit, He prunes it so that it may bear more fruit. You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you.
Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing…
If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples. Just as the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you; abide in My love…These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full.” John 15:1-11
When you’re tempted to fall back into old ways, draw near to Him. When you wonder how you’re going to make it, come close. Abide in Him and with Him.
To abide is to draw life and energy from Jesus, the only true source of life. To become detached from Him is to seek life, satisfaction, and strength somewhere else, but to abide is to stay connected. The Greek word means, “to stay in a given place, state, relation or expectancy; continue, dwell, endure, be present, remain, stand, tarry.”
To abide is to bear fruit—walking with Him, moving when He moves, staying when He stays. It’s being expectant for what He has to say and what He might do. It’s holding on to Him, enduring with Him. It’s dwelling in His presence, resting in His love, remaining with Him.
It’s not easy, but it’s active. Because we know that without Him, we flounder, we struggle, and we fall. But with Him, we are steadfast and strong. It’s in this closeness, in this state of abiding, where the Father, our vinedresser, cuts away the harmful things and prunes the dead things in us, not to cause pain but growth, to allow for something new to be born.
I needed this so badly. Because in the moments I’m tempted to settle for what’s comfortable and known, He reminds me that there is more. There is so much more for the struggles I face, so much more than for unanswered questions and unfulfilled dreams. There is more life to be found and more joy to abound—if I’d only stay connected to the One who does these things.
And when I’m this close, I see differently. This place and these people are different, not just because this is a new semester. But because I’m connected to the King—who’s filling me, changing me, drawing me, and leading me from season to season and from glory to glory.
