Dear family,
Another year has turned, and I find myself, as I do every January, both grateful and a little tired. Grateful for the mercies that carried us through the last twelve months; tired, if I’m honest, from carrying so many of my own plans. So this year I want to write to you about the one resolution I believe is worth keeping.
It isn’t to pray more, or read more, or serve more — though all of those are good. It’s simpler and harder than that. It’s to abide.
“Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me.” — John 15:4
We are so easily fooled into thinking the Christian life is mainly about effort — about gritting our teeth and trying harder. But Jesus doesn’t tell the branch to strain. He tells it to stay. The fruit comes not from the branch’s striving but from its connection to the vine. Our first work this year is not to do more for God, but to stay close to him.
Practically, that might look very ordinary: a few unhurried minutes with the Bible open, an honest prayer on the commute, a Sunday you protect instead of trade away. Small things, kept faithfully, over a long time.
I don’t know what this year holds for you. Some of you are stepping into it with joy, others with dread. But the vine is the same in every season, and he holds the branch — not the other way around. Let’s stay close to him, and to one another.
With love and hope, Pastor David
