Home Worship & Creative Leaders Worship & Creative Blogs Abiding, Fruit-Bearing and Zappos

Abiding, Fruit-Bearing and Zappos

Every genuine Christian desires to be fruitful. God places that desire in our hearts when we’re born again. We want to be productive for God’s glory.  Once we were selfish, pleasure-seeking rebels living futile lives. Then Jesus saved us.  Now we don’t want to squander our lives, but make the most of them for God’s honor.

What’s the secret to bearing fruit for God? It’s not to get up and get cracking or to put our hand to the plow and dig in.  Jesus tells us the secret in Jn 15:7-8:

If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples.

God begins to answer our prayers from the moment we’re born again.  But as we abide in Christ and his Word, it shapes us so that we walk like Christ, talk like Christ, and pray for things Christ would pray for.  God then answers our Word-shaped prayers because they are according to his will.

Zappos is an online shoe store known for doing whatever it takes to help customers. They train their Customer Loyalty Team to meet the customer’s needs – no matter how long it takes.

Jennifer S. holds the record for longest phone call – 4 hours.  A woman called to exchange some shoes and told Jennifer she had a condition that made her feet unable to feel anything.  Sometimes while walking her shoes would fall off and before she realized it, she’d step on rocks and sharp objects, and cut her feet. Sometimes she’d lose her shoes.

She told Jennifer all about her problems.  Jennifer asked lots of questions – what color she wanted, where she’d be walking, etc – and found pair of outdoor slippers that would velcro around her ankles.  During the call they talked about everything from dogs to stories from the woman’s childhood.  She finally bought the slippers.  Jennifer said, “That’s why I like Zappos, because there’s no script…you can actually connect with the customer, you don’t have a call time, you can talk to them as long as you need to.”

– Zappos thoroughly trained Jennifer and she absorbed the Zappos mindset.
– She could ask Zappos for whatever she wished to serve a customer (implied)
– She was productive – she made a sale
– She “glorified” Zappos – she made Zappos look great

Note the parallels to JN 15.7-8:

– As Christ’s word abides in us, we absorb Christ’s mindset
– We ask God for whatever we wish (and our wishes will line up with God’s will)
– God makes us productive – we bear fruit
– We glorify God – the fruit God produces displays his greatness

So abide in Christ and his Word – then pray and you’ll see God make you fruitful.

Hear Jennifer S. tell her Zappos story here.