by Brittany Underwood and Sheeba Philip

John 15

“I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. 2 He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. 3 You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. 4 Remain in me, as I also 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.

5 “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. 6 If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. 7 If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. 8 This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.

Sheeba Philip: Through this idea of the Lord is the vine and we are the branches, and apart from him, we can do no good thing that we're so dependent on him. And abiding in him is where we find our rest and we find our joy. And I think given particularly this season we're in with covid and the strain of leading a business and life during this time, for me, that idea of what does it mean to abide and the Lord rest in him and understand that he is it. Everything is around him. And my dependency on him is so critical that I see him as the vine, the one true vine. So that to me has been my source of hope and encouragement during this time. 

Ephesians 3

20 Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.

Brittany Underwood: God can do more than we can ask, imagine or dream. And I think for Sheeba and I, we've been in prayer from the time that covid hit. Saying, Lord do more than we know to ask or imagine or dream. And we know that you're the God of big things that moves mountains on behalf of the widow and the orphan and those that you love and to build your kingdom. We're your hands and feet and blow us away by what you do, not by what we do, and just teach us to be faithful to what you put in front of us. And so I think just believing that God is so much bigger. Bigger than covid, bigger than our current retail environment, and that he's opening up a new way, a new path, and he's done that for Akola over the past six months. For us, we've transformed our business in ways that I think we needed to do, that we wouldn't have done without covid. And I've watched God just do crazy things for us that we didn't deserve and we didn't earn and didn't come out of any brilliant strategy session.

He just put it in front of us and knew we needed it to get through the season. And so I've just been blown away. I mean, every day I think I've learned to just say, like Lord just work miracles and to anticipate them and believe that every day he is working on our behalf and working on behalf of the poor and trusting in that and not being afraid and having courage and just excitement in the journey even when it's tough.

[Photo by Max Harlynking on Unsplash]