The Framework for my Life
I’ve been reading the Bible ever since I became a Christian at 18 years old. For many years it was often a chore to make the time to read it. I envied other young Christians who owned tattered and highlighted Bibles and could be found on a bench somewhere just reading it — those who could remember and quote multiple Scripture verses.
I knew God’s written word was mighty and powerful. I knew it would change my life and give me insight into the character of God and His purpose for my life, but the passion for it was just not there.
Fortunately for me, the story didn’t end there …
A few weeks ago, Renee and I purchased a second-hand rug, and when we went to pick it up, the lady selling it asked if we also wanted a potted vine. We had been looking for some greenery to brighten up my writing space, so we jumped at the chance. The seller had already detached its tendrils and stems from the staircase where it had been climbing for many years.
We brought it back to my office and placed it on a stool in one corner of the room, carefully laying out its very long trailing stems across the carpet. Life got busy, and we just left it there for a while to recover from the move.
However, that vine was lost. It had nothing to hold onto, nothing to reach for — just a vast expanse of flat carpet.
So one weekend, I made a trip to Bunnings and bought a couple of lattice pieces. Renee took on the challenge of delicately weaving those trailing stems through the holes in the lattice.
An interesting thing happened.
A couple of weeks later, the green tendrils that had previously been wrapped around the staircase rails had started to die off. Instead, new green tendrils were just beginning to emerge and were tentatively reaching out for that lattice.
It reminded me of my journey with God’s word. Even at a young age, before I became a Christian, the tendrils of my life had been wrapped around the things of this world — reaching for them and attaching myself to what would never bring me real life.
When I accepted Jesus as Lord and Savior, there was a long season where I felt a little lost. I didn’t know it at the time, but those old tendrils were slowly dying off as I moved away from the former things. But just like my new office vine, for a season there was nothing new to grasp onto — no reason for new tendrils to replace the old.
But because I was faithful with reading God’s word, over time I slowly built a new lattice around me — a new framework, so to speak. And gradually, new tendrils emerged, reaching for that framework and gripping onto it. Weakly at first, but then strongly.
As the framework in my life was replaced with God’s word, my purpose returned.
Now, many years later, I hold fast to God’s word, using it daily to strengthen me and remind me of His great love for me — and how to live a life pleasing to Him.
Don’t be discouraged, my friends, if it seems as though your progress is slow. Keep building that framework around your life. Detaching from the old will lead to what seems, at the time, to be a painful loss. But it’s when our spirits have a new divine purpose that we’ll see fresh new shoots emerge — and we will flourish in Him.
“I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener.
He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit,
while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes
so that it will be even more fruitful...
Remain in me, as I also remain in you.
No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine.
Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.”
John 15:1–4