Last week I flew from Charlotte to St. Louis to present a workshop at the 24th Annual Westberg Symposium. What I put together was a Christian model for health eduction and self care. My objective was to equip the parish nurses who attended to educate their parishioners about the spirituality-health connection and to better care for themselves. One of the topics I spoke about was the importance of staying close to Jesus, based on the verse John 15:5.
As our plane landed in St Louis and the captain indicated it was permissible to turn on our phones and computers, almost everyone on the plane immediately powered up their phones to check their messages or emails or to make a call to someone. After the plane reached the gate and I stood up to get my bag out of the overhead compartment, I glanced around to see how most of the plane was connected to another person or to the rest of the world through their digital device. Because I had been reviewing my material for the talk, the idea of staying closely connected to Christ was fresh on my mind.
I got to thinking as I stood there, imagine what a difference this world would be if all Christians were as intent on being and remaining connected to Jesus as we are to other humans.
Jesus taught his followers –
“I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.” John 15:5
If you want to make a difference for God today…. if you want to have the fruit in your life that he calls you to have, stay closely connected to Jesus… to the Holy Spirit inside you…… becasue apart from him, you can do nothing of significance for his glory.
Have a great day today… as you stay close to Christ!
We work so hard to stay connected to each other, but for our own sake. Imagine if we both stayed connected to Jesus and all our other connections were to benefit the most important of connections – Jesus! Wow, that would be different.