The Vine and the branches

Things in Paris are getting pretty monotonous. Save for the 8 am classes...I don't know if I will get used to those. Civilization classes started last week so in addition to grammar classes in the mornings and phonetics classes in the late afternoons every other week, I'm also taking History of French Art, Poetry and Song, and Paris. It's like impossible to take notes in the first two and the latter is actually quite interesting and yet repetitive (at this point) of French history courses I've taken previously.

So school's boring. Who wants to talk about school...?

Last Sunday I went to the regular French service at the church we've been attending. The community there is pretty welcoming of us and they have a picnic together after the service every week, which I'd say is pretty legit. However, one of the things that I have written on my list of "What I've learned in Europe" is that my pick-me-up, my calming action, the thing that puts my soul at ease, is singing worship songs to God at the top of my lungs. When you're told that you're supposed to stay in French as much as you can, that can get difficult. I don't know the majority of the songs that we sing at church cuz they are 1) hymns that I've never heard before and 2) they're in French. Harder to focus on the God we're singing to when you're conscious of trying to understand what the words you're struggling to pronounce are.
So I went to the American church after for their contemporary service. (They have 3 services in the morning!) The place looks like any other in Paris. It's practically a cathedral with tall ceilings and stained glass windows and a nifty little platform for the pastor. Then the full band gets up there and the powerpoint comes on the screen with words you've been saying all your life and the music starts up full and strong and suddenly, you're singing "Better is One Day" and your heart soars as high as your hands are lifted and as far as your voice is carried.

I went there again after the French church this morning. The message was on how Jesus is the Vine and we are the branches and we can be severed from the vine if we do not bear fruit. That passage always kicks me into gear and really reminds me of what my place is and why I'm on this earth. It also tied in very nicely to what I've been learning recently..

I legit can do nothing. I have absolutely no strength. If I even think of doing something for the Kingdom of God, all of my strength suddenly gets sapped out of me and all I want to do is sleep. 2 Corinthians 12:9, "My grace is sufficient for you, and my power is made perfect in weakness." That verse has allowed me to keep my head up in the past half year and now so much of what I've learned while in God's classroom is now being put into action while I'm out in God's "co-op", if you will. As I was reminded of this morning, I am not alive if I am not connected to the Vine. There's a reason I can't do anything when I don't have God's strength flowing through me.

I'm an introvert, for those of you who don't know me that well, and for the most part I enjoy spending time by myself, or at least not talking a whole lot when I'm with people. These past few semester especially in Hamilton have opened me up a bit more, I think, and I have realized how many people there are who love and care for me and that honestly makes me feel so incredibly blessed! And now that I'm on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean from all of you, I've realized how much I've come to depend on those communities. It's back to how it used to always be: just me and God. It's good to be connected to other people, but if we're not connected to the Vine, there's really no point. It's reshuffling my focus and reminding me again of what it is to be in an intimate relationship with God 24/7.