‘He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers.’

Being found by, or in, the river is a good place to be. The psalmist writes in Psalm 46:4 ‘There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God’.

But ‘the man’ has had to make choices about where he stands, about who he sits with, about where he spends his time and where he seeks strength and refreshing from. Doing the right thing isn’t always easy. We may be misunderstood. We may be unpopular. There may be great cost to some of the decisions we will have to make as disciples of Jesus.

The easy option, often, is to find our own strength by the things we achieve, from the praise of those around us, from the relationships we are in or from the position and status we enjoy.

Jesus uses a different picture but with the same underlying theme in John 15:1-8. It is the picture of the vine. Once again it is about where we choose to draw our life from.

‘If a man (or woman) remains in me and I in him (or her), he (or she) will bear much fruit’

Here is God’s promise to us – fruitfulness, success and prosperity. But, once again, it’s not always the easy place to be. In order to bear fruit we will need to undergo some pruning. Some of the sharp edges around our lives will need to be removed. We’ll find ourselves in difficult circumstances, often, with difficult people. Pruning can be painful but the result is greater fruitfulness.

Often we hear preachers proclaim all the amazing things about the Christian life. These are all true. It is an amazing way to live. But the route to this amazing life is by death.

Each day we have a choice. As for me, I want to be found in the river!