Abundant Life through the One True Vine

For nearly two years now,  HealthKeeperz has publicly proclaimed that we exist for God’s glory in the care of all people.  In fact, It’s our mission.  

We have made banners that can be seen by all at the main entrance of our offices, and we’ve redesigned our marketing brochures so that our mission is at the forefront.  And most, if not all, staff meetings are intentionally shaped by our mission, vision, and values statements. As a result, I think it is safe to say that the vast majority of employees at HealthKeeperz know what we are about.  

After all this time and so many conversations about our mission and how it translates to everyday life, we can easily, while enjoying the successes of caring for people, forget how these successes happen and how they are sustained.  The mission of HealthKeeperz is not original to us.  It’s been God’s mission all along for us, and He has made it happen for many years!  It’s just that, as of 2017, we have intentionally sought to get in step with what He has been doing all along and what He plans to do in the future.  

So where do we go from here?  We maintain the course by abiding or continuing in God’s love.  What does that mean for us?

In the fifteenth chapter of the Gospel of John, Jesus instructs His disciples in how they are to maintain the course He has set for them and those who will become His disciples through their teaching.  To illustrate this concept, Jesus uses familiar imagery, that of a farmer preparing his grapevine for fruitfulness.  Allow me to summarize the instruction of our Lord.

In the same way that a farmer prunes his grapevine to encourage new growth and increased fruitfulness, so, too, does God prune or bring about changes in our lives so that we are fruitful in accordance with His plan for us.  Changes that promote increase are not always pleasant but are still necessary and beneficial.  For Jesus’s disciples, the Father’s pruning was crucial.  

In the text, there is present another necessity.  “The branches must remain connected to the vine.”  The disciples are the branches, and if they are going to continue Christ’s work of transforming the world around them, then they will need to continue being nurtured by Him, since He is the vine.  They will need the spiritual life-blood of Jesus flowing in them and working through them if they are to yield the desired fruit of God and yield that fruit in abundance.  

Yes, the farmer doesn’t just want grapes; he wants an abundance of grapes!  God not only desires good for you and me, He also wants good for everyone, and He intends to use you and me to do it.  That’s amazing!  Frail, fickle people like us, thanks to our Lord, have a role to play in  the grandest story ever written.  That should get us out of bed in the morning!

As our moment together closes, allow me to encourage you to continue in God’s love through an abiding relationship with Jesus.  And as you experience the life of Christ working in you, others will experience the love of Christ through you.

Soli Deo Gloria (For the glory of God alone),

Chaplain Chavis

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