John 15:5 – Jesus said, "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." (NIV)

I suppose each of us has had days when it doesn't matter what we try to do: it always turns out wrong. I had one such day not too long ago. I was working on something and it just wasn't coming together. The more I worked on it, the more frustrated I became.

Finally, I decided to put it aside and I said to myself, "Well, there's at least one thing I know that I do quite well." So I went away and did that one thing, feeling pretty good about myself. I finally managed to get it all put together, and it did look pretty great, so I went to run it off on the photocopier. Would you believe it – I ran almost all the copies off upside-down! I couldn't believe it! In the end, the one thing that I thought I could do well, I did upside-down. "Okay, Lord, I can't even do that right!" I could have sat down and cried, but instead I burst out laughing. "All right, Lord, it's not to be me doing these things, it has to be Christ and me together doing these things."

After that very humbling experience, I went back to what I was having problems with in the first place. Would you believe that everything just began to fit together perfectly? The only difference this time was my focus — it wasn't me doing it, but Christ working through me! It is just a subtle difference — but it makes a world of difference!

Prayer: Loving God, thank you for those humbling experiences where you stop us in our tracks to remind us that it is not what we do, but what you can do through us that counts. Help us always to be open to what you want to do through us in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

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About the author:

Ruth McCowan <rbmccowan@shaw.ca>
Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
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