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The other day this photo arrived in my inbox. Photographer Kent Lindsay, a frequent listener to The God Journey, said that this photo came to mind as he was listening to one of our recent podcasts, Conversations That Matter. He wrote that he found such peace in this photo because it reminded him that the kingdom of God is an unforced reality that is spilling out in the world and we are merely children letting it fall on us. With his permission, I get to share his photo with you. (You can find out more about his work here.)

I love what he wrote and as I looked at the picture I, too was captured by it and reminded that God’s purposes in the world are so much bigger than any of us. Who of us can cap the great force of his love or direct its flow. We certainly don’t control it and dare not presume to claim ownership of anything God does in or through our lives. All that’s good in the world is simply God’s life and love spilling over onto kids, in whom he delights. Is it not enough that we simply revel with him in the moment, and not be tempted into thinking of ourselves more highly than we ought to think?

This may be what Jesus meant when he said, “Unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 18:3) Participating with God in our world has less to do with personal achievement, but simply being willing to watch for the flow of his love, and play in that reality as circumstances unfold around us. There’s great hope and peace in that.

As the new year begins let me share with you a chapter from my latest book, In Season: Embracing the Father’s Process of Fruitfulness. If you haven’t read them earlier, you can read earlier parts of the book here: Introduction and Chapter 1.

Chapter 2

I am the vine; you are the branches.
If a man remains in me and I in him,
he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.
JOHN 15:5

I was born into a family of farmers. My father owned and lived on a vineyard, as did his father before him. I grew up among rows of grapevines that stretched toward the horizon. I have worked in the vineyard during the heat of summer and the frigid cold of winter. It was in the vineyard that I began my spiritual journey.

This is why John 15 is one of my favorite passages in Scripture. In it Jesus uses the metaphor of a vineyard to teach his disciples how they could follow him into a relationship with his Father that would make them fruitful and fill them with his own special brand of joy. As a farmer in a vineyard, a student of Scripture, and someone who has been on a life-long adventure of growing to know the Father, I want to invite you into the vineyard with me to learn what so many have missed. Jesus really did offer each one of us a relationship with his Father that is more real than the breath we take and more natural than we dare believe. My favorite time in the vineyard is the waning days of winter.

It is still only mid-February, but in the short winters of California’s San Joaquin Valley, spring is just around the corner. The ever lengthening days are already clawing at winter’s grip. In the late afternoon the long yellow rays of the setting sun have surrendered to violet-tinted shades of pink. Though it was a warm afternoon, the evening chill comes quickly. I zip up my coat against the light breeze, pulling the collar up around my neck and thrusting my hands into the pockets. Lights from distant farmhouses have already begun to twinkle against the fading landscape, and out of the diaphanous shroud of evening ground fog that obscures the horizon, rows of grapevines curl over the hills and completely surround me.

The vines are all neatly trimmed, their branches gently twisting around the wire strung from the posts that stand as sentinels beside each vine. The hard work of winter brings surrealistic order to the vineyard. Should anything in God’s creation be so tightly clipped and neatly arranged?

The vineyard is at rest, waiting patiently for the glory of springtime and another season of fruitfulness. I guess that’s why I like this time of year so much. In the moments just before darkness settles in, the wispy fog and the neatly trimmed rows combine to grant me that marvelous gift of secluded peace. Except for the softened whine of a few cars far away, the only sound I hear is the crunching of dirt clods underfoot.

Only a few months ago the air was filled with dust, voices, and churning of tractor engines that mark the frenzied drive of harvest to get the raisins in before the first rain. A few weeks from now those same noises will fill the air as the process of fruitfulness starts all over again. But now it is quiet. And though a glance from a distant farmhouse might lead someone to believe that I am alone, it is not so. I have come here at this time to walk and talk with the Father.

This has been my cherished prayer closet since I was a young boy. It is a sanctuary of greater reverence than I’ve known in any cathedral built by human hands. No place on earth more quickly draws me to him, because it is here that we first met, and here we have met so often. This is where I began my spiritual journey.

This is my father’s vineyard—a thirty-five-acre ranch in the heart of California’s Central Valley. For almost all of his first sixty-five years he lived and worked within a mile of this very spot. The farthest he ever traveled, interestingly enough, put him in another vineyard, this one in northeastern France, where he was wounded in battle just before New Year’s Day 1945.

After the war he purchased the farm next to the one on that he was reared. This vineyard provided for his family, but more importantly, also provided the opportunity to teach his four sons about God and his ways. I’ve learned more about God in this vineyard than in all my years of Bible training and study. I learned from the lessons Dad taught us and that he backed up in the integrity of his own life and experience. I learned about the cycles of the seasons, of God’s faithfulness, of overcoming adversity, and of surrendering to his will. Most of Dad’s lessons came from Scripture, but many others came from his lifetime of growing grapes.

And I grew to know God in my long walks through the vines, usually at dawn or dusk. I read Scriptures and learned to voice my concerns to him, telling him my deepest secrets. Eventually I began to hear him respond—simple stirrings, gentle insights, and eventually deep convictions; the voice of God superimposed over my own thoughts. I could know what was on his heart in the same way I was letting him know what was on mine.

I remember the first time I touched a presence bigger than myself. I wasn’t more than eleven or twelve years old and had gone for a long walk. I was standing in a row of vines some distance from the farmhouse and made a simple request. “God, if you’re real, would you show yourself to me?”

Honestly, I didn’t mean at that exact instant, but in the next moment a soft breeze wafted through the vines. My skin began to vibrate as I sensed something or someone was coming close. I looked about anxiously to see if any of my brothers had followed me out into the vineyard, but they had not. The air became rich and clear and my mind filled with thoughts about the God I’d always wanted to know.

He seemed to surround me and flow right through me. My heart pounded, the hair on my neck stood straight out. At first it was pure delight, but the more I questioned what was happening, the more fearful I became that a voice would speak or a vine would suddenly burst into flames. I wasn’t ready for that. Eventually the fear overwhelmed me and I ran back to the farmhouse as fast as I could.

What had I touched? It was a presence undeniably distinct from my own. It felt wonderful and scary all at the same time.

And though I promised myself I’d never do that again, I would soon find that my desire for him would overrun my fears and I’d find myself again praying that prayer. He didn’t ever show up like that again, but he continued to make himself known to me in ways that endeared my heart to him as I continued to grow.

That’s why the vineyard has always been my special place, and it is no wonder to me that when Jesus wanted to reveal the reality of living in his kingdom he made rich use of farming and, in particular, vineyard illustrations. No other metaphor offers such a rich source of instruction, encouragement, and challenge. The passages of Scripture that deal with vines and grapes are among my favorite. I have not only studied them but also lived them, and they have changed my life. The vineyard of my childhood is not so different from those that Jesus would have walked through with his disciples and spoke of in stories.

On that last night before his impending trial and excruciating execution, he wanted to prepare his disciples for life with him beyond his death and resurrection. Where did he take them? He brought them to a vineyard to teach them their last lesson. Among those vines he spoke of a greater vineyard beyond space and time—his Father’s vineyard. He told them that he alone could make them fruitful and in doing so would put his joy in us so that our joy might be full.

Fruitfulness and fulfillment are the themes of the vineyard. Who doesn’t want joy and peace deep enough to hold us through the worst circumstances, and a sense of purpose that comes from knowing our lives make a difference in the world? For many, however, these promises remain only an elusive mirage. Though many things in this world promise fulfillment, they only bring moments of happiness that quickly fade to emptiness. None of them offer the enduring joy and peace we were told they would give us. So people are not surprised when religion’s joy seems fleeting as well, when the joy of salvation quickly gives way to the rigors of discipline.

Sadly, most think they are the only ones who feel that way. They look around not knowing that others are pretending as well. Even those Christians who try to convince others that they have found the secrets of fulfillment and fruitfulness often prove by their own personal stress, immorality, or spiritual emptiness that they have not. Religious activity will never lead to the fruitfulness and fulfillment Jesus promised his followers. When Jesus led them to a vineyard he wanted them to know that the way to the fullness of life lies through the reality of a relationship—not the dictates of a religion.

I have long since left the ranch and moved to more urban settings. My days are no longer filled with vineyards but with computers, automobiles, and other machinery of our technological age. It is easy to be seduced into the mistaken notion that spiritual growth lies in carefully observed principles and rituals, rather than the more organic realities of a growing relationship.

We are organisms, not machines. Our spiritual growth patterns have more in common with the four grapevines growing today in my backyard than they do with the computer on which I am typing. That is why when it comes to spiritual growth, Scripture makes such vivid use of the images of a vine growing in a vineyard and the ever-shifting seasons that influence its growth.

Let’s go to the vineyard together, you and I. Let’s walk the rows with the Father of the vineyard and watch his vines grow and bear fruit. We’ll even get to stop, pull back the leaves, and behold the marvelous process of bringing a vine to fruitfulness. Let him teach you the lessons of the vineyard and show you the secret of finding the fullness of joy and fruitfulness that he promised to every believer—including you!

___________________

This is Chapter 2 of my new book, In Season: Embracing the Father’s Process for Fruitfulness. Copyright 2011 by Wayne Jacobsen and used by permission. Available from Lifestream.org

Well, everything is ready to share some richly welcomed days with our family. What I love most about this season is when all the preparations are finally done and time slows down so we can simply relax and enjoy each other. Grandchildren make that even more special. Also, Sara and I will be taking a break between Christmas and New Year’s to enjoy our family and be personally refreshed, so the office will be closed during that time. Orders won’t be filled again until January 4. I’m sorry for any inconvenience this will be to any of you and hope you’ll hold whatever business email you have until then. We truly need some time away from computers to let our souls refresh.

I also did an interview for the Encouraging Others Through Christ Podcast with Cliff Ravenscraft, which you can access by clicking on the link above.

Finally, last week a friend of mine quoted a Martin Scorsese interview with Fast Company magazine about how much support creative people need. I chuckled when I read the quote since it had never crossed my mind before and it seemed like a strange thing to say. Then almost immediately I realized why. The reason I’ve never felt the need for support is because I’ve had so much of it over the years. I have never known the lack of it. Sara has always been so encouraging about most of the scatter-brained ideas that run through my head, especially those that led us down this Lifestream trail. My family and extended family have also encouraged the creative side of my life. And though I get angry letters now and then from people who would prefer that I shut up, I get far more emails and comments from people that encourage me to keep writing and speaking the things that are God has put on my heart. These days that support and friendship literally comes from all over the world.

Thinking through all that, I found myself undone by the incredible people God has placed around my life. No doubt this road has not been easy and there have been seasons filled with pain. I’ve been betrayed by people who take my help, then turn around and lie about me. I’ve been forced out of relationships with people that I dearly loved through gossip. We have watched a lot of work washed away by the selfish actions of others. But God has continued to open other doors, offer us other friendships, and we seem to always have more opportunity than time to do it all. And through it all I have been able to enjoy the beauty of long-term friendships with people who have had a profound impact on my life.

So as we arrive at year’s end, I want to express my gratitude to so many of you who continue to hold a place in your heart for Sara and me and the tasks Jesus has asked of us. For the people who have prayed for us, sent us notes of encouragement, given us your counsel and wisdom, welcomed us into your homes and lives, supported us, sent us financial gifts, loved us, and simply maintained a friendship with us, thank you. Without you we would not have been able to be a part of the incredible things Father allowed us to participate in this year:

We are blessed by our relationships with so many people. We are grateful for all God has allowed us to be part of this year, and look expectantly into a year ahead. And, we want to bless you and your family. May his love overwhelm you now and in the year ahead and grant you all the support you need to journey on in him and do what he has asked you to do in the world.

And if you missed our Christmas card, scroll down to the next post. You won’t regret it!

With all our love and prayers,

Wayne and Sara.

Art and words from A MAN LIKE NO OTHER, available at Lifestream.org.

To all those who read these pages, to our friends and fellow-travelers around the world, we are so grateful for the lives God has linked us to around the world. May you spend treasured days with loved ones, and laughter and joy enough to fill your heart. May you know the riches of his love and the joy of friendship from others on this journey as you celebrate the most awesome act of God in his Creation—sending his Son among us to redeem the world from its enslavement to darkness.

A light came into the world, and we have beheld his glory! And one day his kingdom will triumph over all.

May you and yours have a joyful and peaceful Christmas and a blessed new year.

Responses to A Man Like No Other have continued to come in and I’m really blessed at how people have taken to this book and are sharing it with others. The mix of paintings and writing have done exactly what we prayed they would do—capture people with the glorious reality of what Jesus came to do in us as he lived among us. So many are using it devotionally, savoring one story at a time and letting Jesus come alive in it. Some are reading it individually, others as families.

Here are some of the recent comments from my emails:

“I was expecting a coffee table type of book with great pictures and a few words. The pictures turned out to be brilliant but the retelling of His story is way more engaging than I had expected. Much more than just great artwork to be admired.”
Mike in Florida

“I just received your new book, “A Man Like No Other”, and it takes my breath away. Not only is the art work stunning, your story telling brings tears to my eyes and joy to my heart, as you bring out deep truths. I wish I could give one to everyone on my Christmas list. I am being blessed by this beautiful work of art.”
Renee in Oklahoma

After we opened to the first page and felt goose bumps, we’ve chosen to savor each page and only read one page a day. The artwork is a feast for the eyes and the accompanying article helps us ponder the gospel in a fresh way. What a treat for our souls and spirit! Bravo!
Otto in Europe

My wife & I have been enjoying the thoughts conveyed and the conversations that are spawned between us as we read together through “A Man Like No Other”.
Gary by email

“The Miracle Worker” wrecked me tonight & left me in awe of Jesus… humbled, reflective, & deeply grateful for his mercy, patience, forgiveness… his love, compassion, & healing touch in my life. There’s no adequate way to thank him. but I tried. My favorite picture of Jesus in the book is the one on page 35. Its unreal what this picture does to me. Truly. I love ending the year on this book.
Renee in Texas

A Man Like No Other
The Illustrated Life of Jesus
By Wayne Jacobsen, Brad Cummings, and Murry Whiteman
128 pages, Windblown Media, $24.99 • 128 pages • 8.5 x 11.5 • Hardback

Available from Lifestream.org

I love the stories I get to hear and be a part of as people grow in the Father’s love, even through the most unexpected changes. I met Daryl years ago when we were both vocational pastors in Visalia, CA. We’ve stayed in touch through the years and have even crossed paths at a number of different locations around the US. I have walked with him through his wife’s unfaithfulness and then divorce. Watched him start a new business venture and then his business partner betray him. I watched him pass over some pretty shaky theological ground, and yet Daryl kept coming back to an unrelenting desire to follow Jesus and to find his security in the Father’s love.

This has not been an easy journey and it didn’t end up where either of us thought it would, but it has ended up in real freedom and life. This is part of an email he sent to me the other day:

Dear Wayne,

Father is so good as I can sense that through His love and patience he taught me about just relaxing in to His love. I really can’t explain it, but through this long and sometimes seemingly brutal process, I have experienced His faithfulness and love. I’m okay each day, and enjoy each day.

Over these last 10 years I’ve been kinda expecting Father to bring restoration. A restoration of a new wife and family, a home, my finances, job, etc. Well, He hasn’t done that, but I believe He has brought a spiritual restoration. Now this is what I can’t really explain. In the simplicity of my life—-one day at a time, one moment at a time–it is filled with laughter and the security of His love and faithfulness.

I have been working part time at Home Depot now for almost a year now. Father has provided this job and I know it is what He has for me now. I am renting a room fairly close to work, and have been blessed with some amazing friends who are “church” to me. It makes me laugh, because I see many things differently than they do as we are quite diverse. I understand that Father is pulling me into being with those who passionately love Him and seek Him, even as they are at different places in their journey. I mean really, Father? I know I’m supposed to be with them right now and it just makes me laugh. They are passionately studying the “Torah”, and doing the Messianic Jewish thing. Really??? Yes… really.

Right now my life consists of going to work and coming back to my room and getting to spend time with Father. Very restful. A reclusive hermit (smile). I’m getting the sense that a lot of things are happening around us, and some amazing things are about to happen. In fact the sense is very strong. And a lot of what I’m seeing and experiencing seem to support this. However I reserve the right to be totally wrong. I’m comfortable to wait and watch what unfolds.

There are a lot of things I would like to do other than being a part-time flooring assistant at Home Depot, but Father will reveal what His agenda for my life is in time. I’m thinking all that I’ve gone through is getting me preparing me for the next step in His plans. In the meantime, I’m just enjoying each day that He gives me, rejoicing in the simple things. this has been very humbling, but freeing. I find I don’t have to prove anything anymore. So I’m a “failure” in life. Yes, and so what? I’m poor, yes, and your point is? I no longer have to compete. I can just be me. Beloved son of my Abba. No one fights to be least and last. It’s freedom. Really gaining my identity as the adopted beloved child of God. I used to talk about this but it becomes more of a reality when all the other things that I could base my identity were gone. Status, career, reputation, education, intellectualism, and being a “spiritual kind of guy”. When I come to the end of myself, I’m free to be just “His Beloved Child”.

Not sure what tomorrow brings, other than I go to work, allow the Holy Spirit to live in me, love those around me, and do what He has put in front of me–one day at a time. He is faithful. Deep down I used to wonder what I was doing wrong that my life has been the way it has. Maybe when I get “it”, then I’ll get all the stuff that will make me satisfied and happy. I think I’m finally beginning to get that when you know His love, it can be enough. One day at a time. I can trust His leading, because He is faithful. I sure enjoyed the interview with Mike Steele. Really related to it.

Anyway…. I’m looking forward to where He leads next, and who I get to see next. Looking forward to when Abba crosses our paths. It’s always fun.

No, you don’t have to lose everything to learn to live loved, but when you do lose everything, isn’t it nice to know a love deeper than our circumstances. I’m so blessed at where this friend has landed through a very rocky journey.

I heard from another old friend a few days ago. He told a very painful story of the last few years of their journey, which involved some legal hassles and starting a new business and then losing it. He went back to school in his late 50s to learn a new vocation and now works at a hospital. As I commiserated with him about all he had lost and could not even imagine how he was coping with his new job, he said, “You know, with all we’ve been through and how unfair it was, I know today that I am exactly where God wants me and I couldn’t be happier.”

Wow! Love that! Joy rarely resides in getting what we want, but in finding his purposes unfolding in the reality of our lives. If we look for him in our unfolding lives rather than withdrawing into the cocoon of our own frustration or bitterness, God has some extraordinary things under his sleeve.

I’m waiting at the Dallas airport for my flight home from three days in Louisiana and two in Jasper, TX. As wonderful as these last days were with two very different groups of people, it is always a joy to head toward home and those I love. So this is a day filled with fond good-byes and the rising anticipation of getting home to Sara, Lord willing, later tonight.

Someone asked me this weekend why I do this if I don’t love traveling. I’m going to let someone else answer that question for me. A couple of weeks ago someone gave me the following thank-you note that sums up why I do what I do. I know (perhaps better than anyone else) that the work she describes is not what Wayne does, but what God does in a heart. She was summing up what God had done in her life over the past couple of years of reading, listening, and crossing paths in the world both in her city and mine:

So You Don’t Want to Go to Church Anymore was a life-changing book for me. Reading it was like putting glasses on and looking at something I’ve looked at all my life, but never really seen.

As a teacher, writer, and friend you’ve helped me to see beyond

Beyond religion, the church, and the law.

Beyond the system, the building, the hierarchy, the leader.

Beyond fear and shame.

Beyond the program, the rituals, the schedule, the weekly meeting.

Beyond obligations and expectations.

Beyond “a thing with a name that has to be maintained.”

Beyond the need to fix, the need to do, the need to solve and the need to prove, the need to know, the need to carry, the need to be heeded.

And beyond all these I’ve found rest, joy, adventure, engaging relationships and unfolding seasons and the reality of living loved.

Thank you!

“Seeing beyond” is exactly what I hope our books, articles, podcasts, and other resources do for those who visit here. I couldn’t put any words together to better express the hope I have for people with whom I get to spend time as I travel about.

I so enjoy watching people’s countenances change from their white-knuckled attempts to be “good Christians” to a relaxed follower of Jesus, confident in his work in them. I know these things express what only Jesus can do in the human heart. Unfortunately these things don’t happen in a weekend, but from a process of God reshaping our thought-patterns from the exhaustion of religious obligation, to the simplicity and power of living loved by the Father.

The reason I travel around a bit when I sense he asks me to do so, is to be a cheerleader for others as his work unfolds in them, helping them have courage enough to see the process through and not give up when it takes longer than they hoped and when they can’t yet see the fruit of the incredible work he is already doing in their hearts.

I hope you’re not getting tired of me writing about Kenya. It has been some time since I last brought them to your attention because I know how easy it is for any of us to be fatigued over an ongoing, persistent need. We hear about it every day in our own country with the economic downturn and I also know that many of you have others you’re in touch with in the world that need a helping hand.

But the Kenyans I know are never far from my heart. These are not just brothers and sisters, they are my friends. Weekly I hear of their struggle, their hopes, and the pervasive need for the simple things of food, clothing, and shelter that they face every day, and even more so the end of this year as the effects of last spring’s drought continues to overwhelm their lives. I am constantly reminding them to look to God as their provider, not Lifestream, but I also know this is a corner of the world where God has asked me to be involved, so we continue to support his people there.

I am excited by the transformation we are seeing in them as they are learning to live loved. Two months ago we shipped them 24 copies of The Jesus Lens DVDs to help equip those who are wanting to help others learn to live loved as well. With each email I receive, I see forward progress in their thinking, their lives, their ministry to others.

This year through the generosity of many of you we were able to build an orphanage. Since it was completed in March we have also been underwriting the expenses for staff and food even though contributions have slowed to a trickle. Our commitment to them was to do so for another fifteen months in hopes that by then they will have a way to fund it on their own. We’re also looking for ways to help these kids move into homes and be loved, rather than stay in orphanages.

I just wanted to remind many of you that this is an ongoing need and we are looking to Father on their behalf, seeing how he will provide for them. If you have any extra in this season, or simply feel called to help us support them either with a one-time contribution, or a monthly donation over the next fifteen months, that would really be a help. If you want to know more about this project or the AIDs recovery home we also support in South Africa, you can see our Sharing With the World page at Lifestream. You can either donate with a credit card there, or you can mail a check to Lifestream Ministries • 1560-1 Newbury Rd #313 • Newbury Park, CA 91320. Or if you prefer, we can take your donation over the phone at (805) 498-7774.

I get as many questions about parenting outside the traditional congregation as I get on any other topic. It seems many believe there is a right way to raise our children and if we can learn all the principles involved we can guarantee that our kids will be good examples of what it means to follow Jesus by never making mistakes and always having a Godly attitude. At least we want to save them from the mistakes we made. And that’s a recipe for disaster and self-condemnation if I ever heard one.

To start with, kids deal with the same flesh we all do, and growing up in a broken world provides opportunities none of us can control Besides, God gives kids to rookies. Our only experience in doing it, is when we’re actually doing it, and I don’t know any parent that hasn’t made his or her share of mistakes. That doesn’t mean we can’t do the best we can, but you’re still growing, too. I wish I had raised my kids back then with the knowledge and freedom I have now. No, I still don’t think they would have turned out perfectly, but perhaps they would be less encumbered with the obligations of religion and would have had a better chance to know a Loving Father.

So when I read this a few weeks ago on the Lifestream Journeys list, one that we provide for those who are being touched by some of our things at Lifestream and want to learn from others, I knew I wanted to share it on my blog. So with permission from Pamela, it’s author, I want to share with you this perspective of parenting. She has been at it awhile, raising her children in a religious construct and now loving them as adults. I love the humor, the honesty, and the reality that loving adult kids involves a lot of apologizing for the ways in which we complicated their lives and journeys. If it helps you relax a bit more today in your own parenting and realize that you are never going to get it all right and that parenting is a lot of doing your best when they’re younger, and apologizing when they are older, then it will have served its purpose.

Pamela was responding to another parent who was struggling with raising her own young children:

Truth is, I don’t think there is a parent anywhere who doesn’t–at some point or another–feel completely overwhelmed and incompetent. I know I’ve banged my head on the floor more than once, and cried out to my Dad “What in the world were you thinking to give me children??!! Hello! I am clueless here!”

And, then you have those moments of brilliance when you think “I’ve got this parenting thing down!” I said that to myself after my first-born was about 2 years old. Then, the second child was born. And, nothing I did with the first worked with the second. By the time I got to the fourth…well, the head-banging was almost a daily ritual. Perhaps God gives us more than one child just to keep us from getting cocky… or to keep us on our knees, admitting our powerlessness.

Have you seen M. Night Shyalaman’s movie “The Village”? Oh, my! It’s an amazing depiction of parents’ desire to protect their children from evil, and the lengths to which they will go to that end. I have watched so many loving parents erect a border of “yellow flags” around their children, believing that if they can just keep them “contained” in a “safe zone”, then no evil will be able to get to them. But, as others have pointed out, the evil is in our human nature. Of course, that doesn’t stop the powers that be from telling us “if you will just dress ’em right, take them to the right places, don’t let them go to the wrong places, keep them in Sunday School and Children’s Church, don’t let them watch TV, put a bad-word bleeper on the TV, nothing but G-rated movies, have them memorize Scriptures, have family devotions, pray before every meal, say bed-time prayers, go to church some more, only have church friends, only play sports with church leagues, read the Bible, teach them to tithe, go to church some more, don’t let them go to public school, only send them to Christian school… thennnnnnnn you will get perfect children who are angels and never make bad choices and never sin and never get in trouble and never make you look like a bad parent and will go to heaven and won’t go to hell”

And I’ve had my share of well-meaning family members pointing out that my children’s bad choices was because of something I did. When my oldest son was struggling with addiction, and had attempted suicide, my sister said “I just feel like God wants me to tell you that all of this is happening because you took him out of the presence of God.” (i.e. left the congregation she was in.) Whew! That one knocked the wind out of me. At the time, I was so traumatized by everything that was happening that I figured she was probably right. (By the way, Father tells me that it’s not even POSSIBLE for me to take anyone out of His presence! Remember that whole “if I make my bed in hell….” thing!)

The thing is, as broken and messed up as we all are, it’s a wonder that any child survives. My husband and I are on a mission of repentance with our children. As Dad makes us aware of the mistakes and bad parenting, we go to our children and repent to them, and ask their forgiveness. My husband has apologized for specific things so frequently that our oldest son has told him “Dad, you don’t have to apologize anymore.”

Tony responded “Yes, I do…because I have to own this stuff, and I can’t get better until I do.” The coolest thing is that as we respond to the awareness His Spirit brings us with contrition, it is healing our family! To tell you the miracles we watch everyday in our children would take a book!

And yes, seeing them make unwise choices, knowing the painful consequences that are coming their way, is very hard to watch… agonizing, actually. But, my Shepherd just gently reminds me that He is THEIR Shepherd, too, and He loves them way more than I do, and He’s been known to leave the “ninety and nine” to go retrieve that ONE foolish little lamb and bring him safely back to the fold.

My dad used to say that most people only get enough of God to be miserable. The longer I live, the more I am convinced he’s right. If you only think of God as a meddlesome deity who demands that you follow his rules to live in his good graces, you’re probably one of those people. If the thought of having God with you during the day causes your stomach to churn with feelings of failure and inadequacy, you’re probably one of those. And if your Christian experience is nothing more than following a set of rituals, rules, and obligations that you think makes him happy, then you’re also probably one of those people.

Most people didn’t start out that way. They will tell you of their early days of faith when God first captured their hearts. At the beginning, they knew they were loved and they began each day with fresh excitement and anticipation. Soon, others began to teach them what it meant to be a good Christian, and they began the long, slow descent into the rules and regulations of a religion called Christianity. The religion eventually erased their joy. They became content merely to plod along, unconsciously becoming obedient to human obligations instead of faithful to Jesus. This is not the life Jesus offered his followers.

On the night before he went to the cross he told them that his desire for them was “my joy might be in them and that their joy might be full.” That doesn’t sound like laboring under the onerous demands of religious practice. Jesus showed them that his Father was the most endearing personality in the universe and that he loved them more than anyone else on the planet. He invited them into a relationship that would fill them with unknown depths of joy and lead them to completely fulfilled and fruitful lives.

Jesus didn’t come to inaugurate a new religion complete with rituals, principles, and obligations that only serve to wear us out. I’m convinced he came for quite the opposite reason. He came to fill up the space in the human spirit that chases after religious ritual in order to satiate guilt. He wanted to set people free. He did not take his disciples to the temple to teach them this lesson. He took them to the vineyard.

What a strange night it had been! As Jesus served the Passover meal he made ominous comments about the bread being his broken body and the wine his spilled blood. He said that before the morning sunrise one of them would betray him, one of them would deny him, and the rest of them would abandon him. He told them not to be afraid and warned them that he was going somewhere they could not go. Judas fled the room for reasons none of them understood. They left the safe confines of that upper room and headed through the darkness into the Garden of Gethsemane. Suddenly Jesus took the conversation in an unforeseen direction.

I am the true vine.

Eyebrows must have popped up as they looked incredulously at one another. Vines? Why is he talking about vines? Perhaps Jesus had spotted a small stand of vines in the garden. I can imagine him walking over to a grapevine, affectionately taking one of the canes in his hand. He might even have squatted down near its trunk, inviting his disciples to gather around him as he launched into one of the more tender metaphors of his ministry—one he reserved for his closest friends.

He compared himself to a vine, his disciples to branches, and his Father to a gardener. He spoke of the seasons through which his Father would care for them, producing the most amazing fruit. Why was he telling them this story? “I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.”

What an unlikely group for such an incredible promise! Take a look at the men sitting around that grapevine. Which of these eleven men deserved it? Four years earlier, which would you have chosen to dine with a king, much less the Creator of the universe? None of these men had been to state dinners at Herod’s palace, and none were likely to be invited to one in the future. They weren’t outcasts necessarily, but most were nondescript people who you would pass on the street and not give a second thought to. He found some of them on the docks, frustrated fishermen who had worked all night and come up empty. One he found in a tax office, and another
was sitting beneath a fig tree.

Who would have thought such a promise would be given to people such as these? Certainly their friends wouldn’t have, or the Pharisees. Cultures only reward a sliver of people they consider special, and it usually comes down to those with the right talents, backgrounds, breaks, or achievements. These men, however, were ordinary people who demonstrated the same weaknesses we do—anger, jealousy, greed, and incredible thick-headedness—-and Jesus extended to them the amazing invitation to absolute joy.

He paused in that small vineyard on the way to the olive grove in Gethsemane to teach these men—and through them all of us—-how to embrace joy at a far deeper level than their circumstances would ever allow. Joy is not mere happiness—-that temporal feeling of satisfaction resulting only from favorable circumstances. This is a joy that springs from the deepest part of your soul with a knowing that he is with you and his purpose is being fulfilled even in the most difficult times.

Discovering joy is the heart of the lesson of the vineyard. You may seem as unlikely a candidate as the eleven men who surrounded Jesus in that garden, and unless you are convinced that the same offer is yours, you will never pursue it with the fervency necessary to apprehend it.

I’ve met many people who couldn’t imagine that such a treasure could be theirs. Through the hollow glare in their pain-filled eyes they all ask the same questions: “What hope do I have of ever knowing joy? Can God help me find the same fulfillment in Christ that you have?” Some were brought to that point through years of abuse or abandonment, others through the brokenness of sin or after years of disappointed spiritual pursuit.

One such person came to me recently. Everyone who had ever been close to Judy, from her birth parents to her adopted parents, had rejected her. She was a real-life Cinderella, but without the carriage and glass slipper. She believed in God, but believed that God had made her only to help expose the sins of others; her personal pain mattered not a whit to him. She reached this conclusion only after her many pleas for healing had seemingly gone unanswered. Everything she tried had failed, and she was left to the bitter throes of loneliness and bulimia.

Was there hope for her? And just as importantly, is there hope for you? You’ve tried to find a vital friendship with Jesus any number of times, but your experience, like Judy’s, may never have lived up to the promise. Let me assure you at the outset that the promises made in the vineyard are as certain for you as the sun rising tomorrow. God has no favorites; he loves all his children equally. Jesus offered the promise of joy not only to the eleven in the garden that evening, but also to rich young rulers, hardened Pharisees, lonely beggars, and brazen prostitutes. Not all took his offer, but those who did never expressed disappointment.

You need to let go of the past with all its unanswered questions and give yourself a fresh start. It is a process and it will take time as God untwists your distorted thoughts and shines light into your dark places. It will challenge you, but you don’t need to shrink back from him in guilt or unworthiness.

His touch is tender and his love is certain. He did not come to condemn you for the places you got stuck, but to rescue you from them and set you in his glory. All you have to do is keep coming to him with the simple request that he reveal himself to you. There is no brokenness he cannot mend, no pain he cannot heal, and no person he does not invite to the fullness of his life. He desires an intimate friendship with you, and he wants to help you engage in a conversation with him that gives wisdom and comfort to your heart.

That’s why he told the story of the vineyard to a group of people about to face the greatest trial of their young lives.

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This is Chapter 1 of Wayne’s new book, In Season: Embracing the Father’s Process for Fruitfulness. Copyright 2011 by Wayne Jacobsen and used by permission. Available from Lifestream.org