Jon has this ridiculous habit that makes me want to lock him in a closet and play “Baby Shark” on repeat until he cries. He will change the words in a song I love ever so slightly and sing it constantly until it seeps into my subconscious making me sing it his way from then on. Let me show you an example.
You know the song, “Honey, I’m Good” by Andy Grammer? “…nah, nah honey I’m good, I could have another but I probably should not…” Well, Jon replaces the “should not” with “shouldn’t” and nothing makes my skin crawl more.
I tell you this to let you know how much it bothers me when people sing the wrong words to songs and why I was so concerned when my brain kept adding a few extra words to one I’ve been listening to. If you’ve been in a church the last few weeks, you’ve heard it, too – it’s “Nothing Else” by Cody Carnes and it’s a game-changer.
(And hey, if you haven’t been to church, never a better time to start than when everyone’s attending in their living rooms. Shameless plug.)
Now, when blasting it in the shower (my go-to kids-can’t-come-in spot), it was driving me crazy that I’d be nodding along and suddenly insert a few extra words to one particular line. And it was happening every dang time I sang the song.
Here’s the line with my addition in []-
“I’m sorry when I’ve come with my agenda / I’m sorry when I forgot that You’re enough / Take me back to where we started / I open up my heart [and cling] to You”
After hearing yet another business would be closing today and thinking about the employees we’ve been so thankful for now losing their jobs, I hit a breaking point and took a few minutes to listen to it again. This time, I remembered something and ran to the basement to find the exact one I needed in the sea of teen angst journals (I was quite the note taker and rant writer in my younger days) and I found it. The notes on a message I’d heard in 2012 at a leadership summit (not there to husband-hunt, scout’s honor).
“I am the vine; you are the branches…” John 15:5
Have you ever seen a vineyard? Picturesque, right? Vineyards are beautiful examples of lines and symmetry all playing together to grow something awesome. My wine-loving friends would agree. But have you ever looked closely at the way the branches intertwine and find their way back to the main vine? It may be picturesque from afar, but not up close. It’s messy, tangled, shadowed, and disorganized, plus underneath are all the pieces that have fallen.
Take a branch away from its vine and what do you have? A stick.
There’s no life in a stick…no fruit, no purpose, no future or hope in a lifeless piece of wood.
Without the vine, without Jesus, we are simply sticks, but that’s not how we were created.
We weren’t created to lie on the ground in hopes someone would come along and repurpose us for something useful. We were created for connection, relationship, and most importantly to rely on the One who made us in the first place.
We were created to cling.
These weeks give us a chance to do what we were created for – however messy it may be, however tangled, shadowed, disorganized….however inconsistent, imperfect, or unsure we may show up, it’s a chance to show up and cling to the vine.
Every minute spent during this quarantine can be an opportunity to be what we were made to be – a branch, not dead, but fully alive connected day in and day out to the One who made us and cares for us.
The only guidelines you need are right here:
“I’m sorry when I’ve just gone through the motions / I’m sorry when I just sang another song / Take me back to where we started / I open up my heart to You / I’m sorry when I’ve come with my agenda / I’m sorry when I forgot that You’re enough / Take me back to where we started / I open up my heart to You”
Don’t go through the motions, don’t have an agenda, know that even during these weeks of uncertainty, He is enough. That’s it, we can do it, friends – we’re all in this together. If you’re not sure where to start, shoot me a message, I’d love to chat.
