Christian Living

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“You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last…” John 15:16, NIV


I wasn’t a good football player at school. It has never been my sport. When it came to being picked by a team at school football games, I was often the last person. At the time, it was deeply disappointing, even disturbing. It brought this really bad heart out in me towards team captains. But of course, there was no point; you can’t get a dolphin to run. She swims gracefully instead. That was me, wanting to do the thing I wasn’t made for.

Most of us go through life like that, feeling misplaced and a bit (perhaps even a lot) disappointed with how we are made. This reflects in our attitude and perspective of life when we become christians; we act as if it all depended on our effort to make it work.

Praise God; it has never been His way! You and I are not made dolphins but asked to run. We are asked to swim, just what we are good at. You just need to receive what the Lord says about you, “I chose you”.

I picked you to be on my team, is what the Lord is really saying in John 15:16 (paraphrased). Wow! I am actually picked this time— so are you!

I guess it’s not that easy to accept this if you have always been at the end of a long line, hoping the team captain would choose you.

Well, they didn’t pick you because, like me, you couldn’t play football well. And they couldn’t do anything about your ability either. But Jesus picked you not because of your ability to kick the ball well; he picked you because he enables you to do the work. What a difference.

He picked us and literally set us up to produce fruit. If we accept the choice he made of us, we will, and that is not a matter maybe or if but WILL, bear fruit.

In this game, it depends on His ability to succeed. we simply need to choose to join him. And boy, the fruit bearing will take care of itself!

Does not a tree simply rest in the ground and extends its roots, leading to fruit bearing?! So it is with us.
In England, where I live, we hardly need to water plants because it is almost always raining here.

There is a beautiful apple orchard in the back of the office where I work. The apple trees produce beautiful red apples every year without fail.

Whenever my eyes get tired of gazing at the computer screen, or when my well of creativity dries up, I go for a walk in the orchard to enjoy the beauty of countryside and breathe some fresh air. Sometimes I pick an apple, wipe it on my trousers to clean the dust and eat it. This orchard produces yummy apples. I wish you were here to taste them.

We all can, like the apple trees, simply accept the choice God has made for us to be on his team and produce those lovely juicy apples in our lives.

What do you choose, his choice and appointing of you, or else? It’s a mental shift we all struggle with at times. But even that can be overcome, if we ask him to help us!

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