Power and Pace (Part 2)

Who can say, “I am completely happy with the pace of my life right now?” Like you are just one hundred percent pleased with how you spend all your time and wouldn’t do a single thing differently?

Yeah, notice that I’m not raising my hand on that one either. What I am writing to you about here is not from the voice of an expert, but from the voice of a learner. God is teaching me a lot about rhythms, pace, rest, and abiding...which I want to share with you not as a teacher but as a fellow journeyman on a difficult path.

Our culture values connectedness, no doubt. We connect online, we connect on social media, we connect all our devices to one another. We connect at our local gym, book club, coffee shop. We connect our kids to all available extracurriculars. Before you know it, connectedness turns into activity overload, commitment overload, choice overload, debt overload, expectation overload, fatigue overload, hurry overload. 

Jesus also has something to say about connectedness, but it is quite different. 

“I am the vine, you are the branches. If anyone abides (connects) in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit. Apart from me you can do nothing.” (John 15:5)

Connectedness doesn’t mean one thousand things; it means one. 

We need to learn not just how to connect, but how to connect to the right things. Or rather, the right one thing. 

This is not what our culture says. Our world doesn’t say abide, our world says YOLO. FOMO. Go for it. Live large. Do as much as possible as fast as possible.

Christ says abide. Dwell. Remain. Connect. Camp out. Rest. Linger. 

I have an embarrassing pleasure; its called Garage Band. It’s this app that enables you to write and piece together your own songs, including all the different parts with all the different instruments, and you can easily create some decent songs. It basically makes normal people feel like they could start a band if they wanted to, and I am one of those victims. 

The first time I used the app, I had this song in my head that I wanted to create. There was only one problem: the built-in metronome. At first, I just tried to play my song at the pre-set tempo, but it was way too fast. Next, I tried to ignore the click click of the metronome and just play my song to my own beat in my head. You can guess how well that worked. Finally, I took the time to do a google search, watch a YouTube video, and change the metronome setting to the tempo I desired. 

Amazing. That made all the difference in the world. With the tempo correctly set, the song in my head came out beautiful on the very first recording. 

Some of us know the song we want to sing with our lives, but we are trying to play it sixty beats per minute too fast. Friends, that’s not beautiful music. Others of us hear the song in our hearts and are trying to play it at its proper pace, but the tick tick of commitments, assignments, appointments, goals, projects, and activities remains unchanged, and the two do not align. But if we take the time to reset the tempo of our lives, then the music played from our stories will be beautiful. 

You get to set the pace of your life. I hope it empowers you to know that. You get to set the tempo and the pace of your life. 

It is worth it here to mention two different scenarios. Some of your lives are in overdrive because you have overcommitted — you know who you are. (I kindly relate to the people in this camp!) Others have fallen into crazy circumstances beyond your control — and you know who you are. Some of you need to change your circumstances, while some of you cannot. I want to recognize and affirm both groups with the same steady truth: you still get to set the tempo and the pace of your life. 

This is because circumstances don’t have to affect pace. But pace will affect your circumstances. 

In other words, even if you have stressful circumstances, you have the choice to either run frazzled or dance gracefully between all the things you have to do, and the difference comes from the state of your soul, which goes back to power and pace. 

What is the power source of your life?

What is setting the pace of your life? 

This could very well be why in John 15, when Jesus says He is the Vine, he talks right away about the process of cutting off and pruning.

“He cuts off every branch in me that does not bear fruit, while every branch that bears fruit he prunes that it may bear even more fruit.” (John 15:2)

It begs the question of us: What branches need to be cut off in my life? (Maybe a sin, harmful habit, flesh-driven hobby or pleasure, or overcommitment) And what areas of my life need pruning? Where do I need to cut back so that I can be more fruitful? 

It’s counter-cultural, but its true. The world says that if you want to be more, do more. But God created us (and plants as a real-life example) so that the more you cut back, the more fruitful you will be. Don’t we all desire a healthy, productive, fruitful life? Jesus gives us the secret, and it is not another podcast or self-help book. It is not bearing down with all our effort to produce more fruit. The fruit of the vine is not forced, it is rather a natural product of a healthy branch abiding in the vine.  

In our need to produce, we often fail to connect. But if you do not connect, you will not produce. 

What happens to the branch that becomes disconnected from the vine? It withers up, which is unfortunately the state many people are living in, whether realized or not. Would you take a minute to look at your leaves and the state of your soul and just acknowledge the places where you are withering? This is not to shame you, because the good news is — when you water a withering vine, it perks right back up! But sometimes the process starts with recognizing where we are withering and coming back to our need for the Vine. 

Will you also take the time to reset the tempo of your life? The song that you want to sing with your life is beautiful, not just to you, but to the world around you. We want to hear you play it well; Christ wants to help you play it well. It’s worth the time and the effort for the fruitfulness of your life and the connectedness of your soul.

As I am learning these things, I need tangible reminders. That’s why I planted a small garden on my back porch. My flowers need water daily, and at first I failed to remember this. A few days would go by, I would find them withered, and I would douse them in fresh water to perk them back up. Now, a few weeks in, I’m getting the hang of it. Watering has become a part of my daily routine, and I pray the same thing happens in my soul on a spiritual level.

Lord, call attention to the withering places in our lives. Help us to come back to you, our Vine, as the source of our power and life. You, Jesus, are our “one thing”, and we ask for courage to prune and cut off the branches in our lives that are not producing fruit for you. We long to be connected to you so that we can produce much fruit for you. Set the pace of our lives, Father. Teach us what it means to abide in you and connect to you.