Have you ever heard the phrase, “work like a dog”? Whoever came up with that expression had never met my dog, Harley. Harley wouldn’t know what work is. He loves lying around on the lounge, eating chicken, and getting his tummy rubbed. Harley has won the doggy lotto living with us. But the thing about Harley is that he loves to escape. If someone leaves the door open, he runs out and disappears down the street.
Now, I don’t really think there is much going on in his little doggy brain. He seems so excited when he escapes the house; however, I don’t think he has thought it through. Where is the chicken he is going to eat? Where is the lounge he is going to sleep on? Where are the people who are going to rub his belly? If he runs from his family, he ends up all alone, working hard for what he previously received as a gift.
We often make the same mistake with Jesus. We are quick to run out the door, thinking living by our own rules is freeing. “I can do what I want!” we say. But we end up all alone, working hard for what we could have had as a gift.
You see, living on your own is exhausting. You have to live life in your own wisdom and in your own strength. You are continually searching for things to give you the life you want, trying to invent your own purpose, and trying to discover your own meaning. There is no rest there. It is a never-ending cycle that leaves you burnt out and empty.
In John chapter 15, Jesus says:
5 “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.”
Jesus invites you to come and be connected to him, grafted into him. Branches have no independent life of their own; they are totally dependent on the vine. Jesus says that is what we need most—we need to be completely dependent on him. He doesn’t say this for his own good, but for ours. He says it so that his life can be your life, so that all the life of God the Father can be yours, and so that all the joy and all the hope of the Father can be yours as well.