“Leave a legacy…Make an Impact…Change the World…” These are all power statements of this generation’s leadership.
Jesus captured these sentiments in the word that he used “fruitfulness.” You want to be fruitful, (Leave a legacy…Make an Impact…Change the World…”?) Here’s how. Through the pen of his good friend John, a first-hand, intimately close observer, Jesus’ words were recorded.
John recorded the benefits, but with a critical caveat, ‘you can’t do this on your own.’ In fact, ‘without this connectivity to Jesus, this direct personal connectivity, you can do nothing.’
John’s metaphor was that of a grapevine’s branch. The branch is just the conduit, the conductor, and a transfer-err of the source’s urge. The branch is not the life source; it only carries the source to the end result, the fruit.
My upbringing, my world-view, was to go and make an impact. Go where? Well, anywhere, but here. This view carried with it a sense of urgent, of purposeful, of grandiose and significant activity. It was always ‘over there,’ it always had a large, ‘one day’ component. Many people that I know did this. Some were successful. But, this mindset also carried with it the sense of ‘someone more skillful, more trained, more…anything more than myself should do this.’
John says, “No, no, no. You don’t get it. If you want to be fruitful, (Leave a legacy…Make an Impact…Change the World) get intimately connected, get properly adjusted, pruned, and let the life source, the love, flow through.”
This is everyone’s personal and private challenge. This is everyone’s call, responsibility and possibility.
What is the life source? Love, love from God. ‘Just the way you have been loved, love others.’
The result? MUCH fruit, (Leave a legacy…Make an Impact…Change the World) fruit that lasts, fruit that changes people and circumstances.
How do we know these words are true? John was there and gave first-hand written testimony; perhaps the closest account that we could have?
You don’t have to ‘wait for,’ ‘one day,’ ‘maybe.’ You can do this now. You can start today.
John recorded that Jesus said so. (John 15:1-17)
