1: “Think of a pleasant wine-tasting memory,” John Mark Comer writes in The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry: How to Stay Emotionally Healthy and Spiritually Alive in the Chaos of the Modern World.
What is it that is underneath every thriving vine?
A trellis. “A structure to hold up the vine so it can grown and bear fruit,” John Mark notes.
A trellis is to a vine as structure is to constancy.
When we adopt a rule, a practice, a habit, or a set of practices, it eventually changes who we are and how we show up in the world.
John Mark is a Christian minister. But the lessons here apply to different faiths as well.
“If a vine doesn’t have a trellis,” he observes, “it will die.”
If our faith walk doesn’t “have some kind of structure to facilitate health and growth, it will wither away,” John Mark notes.
“Following Jesus has has to make it onto our schedules and into our practices or it will simply never happen,” he writes. “Apprenticeship to Jesus will remain an idea, not a reality in your life.”
2: But here’s the catch: We are busy. How do we find the time?
“Anytime I teach on a rule of life and some of the core practices for life with Jesus, I hear the same refrain,” John Mark shares:
“That sounds great, but I just don’t have the time.” “I’m in grad school.” “I work a demanding job.” “I have little kids.” “I’m training for a marathon.” “I’m not an introvert like you.”
He writes: “Honestly, excuses. And I get it: I live in the same world. They are good excuses.
“I used to smile and nod and let the awkward moment pass, but the older I get, the more I feel the courage to push back a little,” John Mark writes. “Sometimes I’ll graciously ask, ‘Are you really? How much time do you spend watching TV?” (This usually spawns a different kind of awkward moment.) ‘How much time do you spend online or on social media? Shopping?'”
One idea? Keep a time log for a week. One thing we are likely to discover is “how much time we give to trivial things,” he notes. “Most of us have more than enough time to work with, even in busy seasons of life. We just have to reallocate our time to ‘seek first the kingdom of God,’ not the kingdom of entertainment.”
Pow.
“The hard truth is that following Jesus is something we do,” John Mark explains. “A practice, as much as a faith. At their core the practices of Jesus are about a relationship. With the God he called Father. And all relationships take time.”
What if things aren’t going great in our marriage? Imagine our “spouse comes to us and asks for more time together, simply to enjoy each other and get back on the same page,” he writes.
“He or she asks for, say, one date night a week, thirty minutes a day of conversation, and a little time on the weekends. Basically, the bare minimum for a healthy marriage.”
If we say, “Sorry, I don’t have the time” (all while giving thirty hours a week to things like TV and the internet and your fantasy football league),” it’s likely our husband or wife will say, “Well, then, you’re just too busy to have a spouse.”
Meaning we will need to overhaul our schedule, or we’re likely headed for a divorce.
Is being faithful any different?
“We get out what we put in,” John Mark observes. “This isn’t some legalistic guilt trip. This is an invitation. To the life we actually ache for. A life that can be found only by moving through the world shoulder to shoulder with Jesus.”
3: Most of what we know about Jesus comes from the Bible, specifically from the four Gospels.
“Essentially, the Gospels are biographies,” John Mark writes.
“Think about biographies in general,” he suggests. “Why do we read biographies? Usually, they’re luminaries of some kind, and we read their life stories not just to know about them but also to become like them. (Or possibly to make sure we don’t become like them.) To emulate their success or avoid their failure. In reading about them, we hope to better understand ourselves; in reading their stories, we hope to make sense of our own…
“We don’t just look at what he or she said or did; we look at how he or she lived the details of day-to-day life.”
Then, we typically go to work copying these habits, routines, and values with the hope that we will see similar results in our lives.
“So, this person went to X law school, we go to X law school,” John Mark writes. “He or she reads an hour a day, we read an hour a day. He or she skipped breakfast? We throw out our bananas. The person was famous for an afternoon power nap? We buy a couch for our office.
“We copy all these details because we know the person we will eventually become is the cumulative effects of thousands of tiny, seemingly mundane, or even insignificant details that in the end function like compounding interest and create a life.”
But here’s the rub. John Mark observes: “Very few followers of Jesus read the four Gospels that way. We read them as cute sermon illustrations or allegorical pick-me-ups or theological gold mines.
“Again, not bad, but we often miss the proverbial forest for the trees. They are biographies. I would argue that these stories about the details of Jesus’ life have just as much to teach us about life in the kingdom as his teachings or miracles or the more major stories of his death and resurrection.
“I mean that,” he reflects.
What if we were to attempt to emulate Jesus? What if we chose not just to listen to what he said, but also to adopt his lifestyle?
“These habits, practices, or spiritual disciplines are how we follow Jesus,” John Mark explains. “How we create space for emotional health and spiritual life. Again, they are the trellis. And like all habits, they are a means to an end.
“This is where well-meaning religious people (like myself) go wrong,” he says. “When the spiritual disciplines (Bible reading, prayer, Sabbath, and so on) become an end in and of themselves, we’ve arrived at legalism. Therein lies death, not life.
“The end is life to the full with Jesus,” John Mark suggests. “The end is to spend every waking moment in the conscious enjoyment of Jesus’ company, to spend our entire lives with the most loving, joyful, peaceful person to ever live.”
Which brings us back to the trellis metaphor.
“The point of a trellis isn’t to make the vines stand up straight in neat rows, but rather to attain a rich, deep glass of wine,” he writes. “It’s to create space for the vine to grow and bear fruit.
“And unlike other types of habits, the practices of Jesus aren’t just exercises for our minds and bodies to grow their willpower muscle and cultivate character. They are far more; they are how we open our minds and bodies to a power far beyond our own and effect change.”
More tomorrow!
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Reflection: Am I treating spiritual practices as lifeless routines, or as intentional structure that helps me flourish and experience meaningful growth?
Action: Choose one simple habit this week—like daily reading, prayer, or rest—to turn into a trellis for my life, making space for spiritual and emotional fruit to grow.