I’m really grateful my fish aren’t dead.

Let me explain……my roommate and I keep two goldfish, Dwight and Lyman, that we’ve had since September. It’s been fun having fish, and we feed them consistently. However, I lapsed. For over a month, I just “couldn’t find the time” to change their water. Day after day, I watched them drift towards the surface, searching for oxygen and becoming more and more listless. They needed my attention and care; I was in charge of maintaining their lives, and I was failing. 

In a similar fashion, we as Christians have been given much to steward and take care of: our time, our finances, our relationships. When we neglect these things or use them for our own purposes, we are not obeying Jesus’s instructions to be good and faithful servants. When we don’t love, when we blow somebody off for selfish reasons, and when we simply fill our time with things that aren’t important, we cease to bear fruit, for we are not connected to the Vine when we don’t obey Him. 

We must abide in Christ. We must be good stewards. We must “find the time” to read the Word, pray, be still, and meditate on the promises of our Savior. Otherwise, our lives will shrivel into dead, vain, conceited affairs with nothing to show when the Master returns. Jesus died for more than that. And so, I am spurred to love, serving and kindly being patient even when things are ridiculously hard. John 15:12 puts it into proper perspective–we love until the end of the line. 

May our eyes be fixed upon our returning Savior, the One who calls us out of selfishly neglectful lives to obey and love.

–Kaitlyn