Abide

Scripture: John 15:1-8

Abide… its a strange word. One I’m sure you haven’t used today. I know I wouldn’t have if I was not writng this post. We do not use abide much in today’s language. Which is probably why it struck me so much as I was praying with this scripture. Jesus says Abide with me and I will abide with you. Clearly it is something people who follow Jesus would want to do.

What is abiding?  In my personal definition it would reflect hanging out, or spending time. In college I would abide with my roommates. Of course there really was not much choice in the matter since we occupied a room together. In our dorms two rooms would share one bathroom, and all four of us got along pretty well so we moved all the beds to one side and made a room just to hang out in. In this room all of our friends would come to just hang out and abide. We would talk, watch movies, and play video games late into the night. (We might occasionally do homework but only when we absolutly had to.

This is a picture of abiding. It is being with others, sharing life. We do not often consider our life with God in the same manner. We often deligate our spiritual life into one corner of our existance and only pull it out on certain days or when we have extra time. Jesus wants us to hang out though. He wants t be in he same room when we are laughing at rediculous movies, he wants to argue with you over who gets the top bunk, he would even like to assist you when you are having trouble with work or a relationship. Jesus wants to hang out with you.

I find that strange, that God would want to hang out. I’m ok with Him wanting a day where we sing songs to Him,I’m ok with giving money to the church for ministries that help others. It is hard for me to picture Jesus wanting to kick off the shoes and chill with me while playing the latest video game. Yet it is what happens as we draw closer to Him. We get more comfortable our discussions get deeper and deeper till eventually we can tell what each other is thinking.

Often in the dorm room we would all get hungry and would pile into a car to get food. We’d enter a restraunt as a group and everyone there would know we were from the college. (I’m sure the various t-shirts from the bookstore had something to do with it). Many places got to know us so well that we would not have to show the school ID to receive the college discounts. We would go together and abide together.

When we are hanging out with Jesus we beging to recoginze His voice, we begin to know when a suggestion to do something is one to actually act on or think about. If we were not abiding we would never know the difference. As we abide with Christ people beging to notice that there is something different about us. Just like the people at the local restraunt can pick out the students.

What does abiding look like for you? Do you have a space that makes abiding easier? How often are you there? Abide with this scripture again and just enjoy some time hanging out with Jesus.