Welcome to Flourish!

I don’t know about you, but I’m tired.

I am tired of always going. I am tired of people needing things from me. I am tired of the traffic I drive in every day. I am tired of feeling like I’m on a treadmill. I am tired of being tired. And I don’t even have kids at home anymore.

When they were home, I was even more tired. Tired of rushing home from work to get someone to practice. Tired of cooking dinner. Tired of eating out. Tired, quite frankly, of being a mom and a wife at times.

Lately, I’m tired of our Christian-bashing culture. Sadly, it isn’t only non-Christians bashing Christians. We are not very nice to each other. We have a black eye and we have given it to ourselves.

There is a ginourmous disconnect in the lives of so many of us who sit in a worship services professing to believe in and even follow Jesus Christ. In the 2016 election cycle I was astounded by the venom being spewed by people who professed to love Jesus. I want to run and hide when I see news reports of “Christians” behaving badly.

I recognize I sound mighty judgmental. Andy Stanley once made a comment in a message that we are most likely to be bothered by (judge) someone’s behavior because it hits close to home. We see in them what we, ourselves, are just as guilty of. I am bothered by the disconnect I see in the body of Christ because I am achingly aware that the disconnect is evident in my own life. My heart carries a burden that those closest to me have not seen the evidence of Jesus Christ in my life enough to want him in their lives. I do not always live a life that bears out the witness of the power of the Holy Spirit. I say I believe it but I often fall very short of actually living in that reality.

And it shows. It shows when we don’t live a life that draws on the nourishing power of the Holy Spirit.

The Bible clearly says that my life, and yours, should bear abundant fruit born out of nourishment from the True Vine. I am tired of feeling like I’m dying on the vine instead of flourishing.

Can you relate at all?

During one of my most tired times I was reading the words found in John 15 that most Bibles label The Vine and the Branches.   This time, in Jesus’ words, I distinctly understood that I wasn’t supposed to be tired all the time. There is more to life. I am, no, we are supposed to be influencing our world. We are supposed to be bearing fruit that changes, not only our lives, but the lives of others.

Jesus’ words to his disciples challenge me. We are not supposed to be merely surviving. We are supposed to be thriving. Flourishing. Bearing fruit and living a life that brings Glory to God.

God intends for his people to flourish! Click To Tweet

This study is our journey toward discovering how to flourish. How to live in a way that our lives bring Glory to God.

Most posts will include some questions that you can use on your own for personal reflection or please feel free to engage in this conversation with your small group. It is my greatest desire to simply share what the Lord teaches me with you – so please share it with your friends.

If we can get even a smidge of what Jesus was teaching his disciples in this passage right in our own lives, we’ll change the world. For the better. I am so glad you are here!

John 15: 1- 8 New International Version (NIV)

The Vine and the Branches

“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. You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. 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.

“I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.”