There are lots of things which I don’t want to run low – gas in my car for instance or ice cream in my freezer or of course Lipton Green Tea Citrus or toilet paper or duct tape (the solution to all things broken). Also, furnace filters, water softener salt and toothpaste, shampoo etc. – these are things I dread to discover I have run out of at the very moment I have need of them. Imagine realizing that you are missing a critical ingredient to what you are baking when you are already in the middle of the process and all the stores are closed, or that seeking solace, you fling open the freezer door only to find it empty of ice cream!

This is why I don’t like to run low on anything critical, because the next step after running low is always running out and then it is too late. Why is this on my mind now? Because for the past week or more I have been battling with my cell phone battery. It was happening so slowly at first, I hardly noticed. But then it became impossible not to notice – the battery was not holding a charge like it used to do. It was taking longer and longer to charge the battery fully and my phone is feeling very warm to the touch while charging. Now it will no longer charge to 100%, no matter how long I leave it plugged in and if I need to unplug my phone to take it with me, the charge is not lasting long at all. At this point it dawns on me, if I can’t unplug my cell phone from the wall, it has essentially become a land line.

I have ordered a replacement battery and am anxiously awaiting its arrival, wondering if it will get here in time, before this battery completely gives out (or burns up – whichever occurs first). In the meantime, I am dependent on a phone that is not dependable because its power source is always running low, never fully charged and has even run out several times, leaving me with no phone service, wondering how we all survived before the advent of cell phones.

Admit it, some of us can remember a time before cell phones if we think back far enough. How did we ever manage our lives without being in constant communication? I wonder if things would have gone differently for Deborah Kerr and Carey Grant in “An Affair to Remember” if they could have communicated via cell phone and he wouldn’t have mistakenly thought she was a “no show” and didn’t love him? Cell phones are no doubt changing the course of history one relationship at a time, perhaps – but not if their power source (battery) is running low.

Now that my cell phone is constantly losing power and dying, I am experiencing that feeling of being cut off, stranded, isolated – until I can get somewhere where I can plug it into a power source and attempt to revive it. I gotta say, lately I have been feeling a little like my cell phone battery – as if I, too, am running low. And like my battery, I can’t seem to fully recharge. I get a little lift, but it doesn’t last long. Soon my running low has become running out and then it is too late.

For my cell phone battery, the answer is to plug it into an electrical outlet and let it receive the energy it needs to power my phone. For me, I am reminded the answer is similar. I need to find a source of power to attach myself to if I am to be revived, before my running low completely runs out. I find the answer in John 15 where Jesus says to His disciples,

“Remain in Me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in Me. I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in Me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from Me you can do nothing. If anyone does not remain in Me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; . . . If you remain in Me and My words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you.” (John 15:4-7)

Some translations say, “abide in Me” or “live in Me and I in you”, making it really clear to me that Jesus, as the living Vine, is my source of life and He will supply me with everything I need to live this life. I just have to stay connected to Him so as not to run low or run out. His supply is infinite, so I won’t ever run low, but instead I will overflow, “bearing much fruit” as He promised. I will be fully charged at all times, not lacking anything, as long as I am a branch connected to the source of power, the source of life, the Vine, which is Jesus.

Unlike my phone’s battery, I never have to run low because I can abide in my power source continuously, since He is omnipresent. I don’t have to unplug and wait until I can find another power source with which to connect. Jesus says, “I will never leave you, nor forsake you.” I have the joy of this constant connection, empowering me to meet each day’s challenges fully charged. Actually, Paul describes this power in Ephesians 1:19 in these words,

“and His incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of His mighty strength, which He exerted in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age but also in the one to come.”

That is unimaginable power – resurrection power! I never need to live depleted and drained of power. When I find my battery is running low, that’s a warning to me that I am becoming separated from the Vine and beginning to wither. But when I am connected to the Vine, I never run low, only overflow with God’s good gifts of forgiveness, love, compassion, hope, kindness and more, which He pours out continuously through all His fruit-bearing branches. Thank You, Lord, for Your infinite supply. I need never run low as long as I remain in You.

“but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” (John 4:14)

sincerely, Grace Day