A Confused Branch on the Vine

A couple posts back, my friend Cathy shared something she gleaned from Corrie ten Boom's A Hiding Place. Corrie was in a WWII concentration camp, and in Cathy's words "she realized that it wasn't important if she was a positive force (though she needed to be)--the only importance was in bringing people closer to the Savior so that he could be the positive force. She was only the conductor and he was the electrical force."

So very often I forget that. I try to do it all myself, forgetting that I can't do it alone, and that I shouldn't because there is a much better and more effective way. In the Bible Christ compares us to branches on a vine, able to grow and bloom when we are connected to Him, but doomed to be a withered shadow of our potential if we separate from Him.

I think I struggle to remember and apply this principle because I don't understand it. I trust the Savior and I do my best to apply his teachings, but I don't yet have the vision of how this one is supposed to work. I think I need to go give this some serious thought.

I suspect it's actual a fairly simple principle, and once I finally grasp it I will sit back and say, "Oh . . . duh." I also suspect that I'm already living the principle to some extent, but not seeing it in those terms. Even if that's the case, I think I could be doing better.