How's the connection?

About a year ago Amber and I made the switch to go from cable TV to just buying an antenna for our house.  Two great things came out of that.  One, we saved money in our budget.  Two, I got to climb up on the roof and try and be Mr. Home Improvement for a little while.Before I got up on the roof I wanted to make sure the connection was good.  I didn't want to go through the process of putting it up and then realizing its position wasn't in the right place for it to be as functional as it should.  I realized I should do this AFTER I had already tried to bolt it to the side of our house...which didn't work.Long story short...I got it all bolted in on the roof after we had tested it and realized we were not getting all the channels we should have been...The connection wasn't right.There was something missing.The position was messing with the effectiveness of the antenna.The solution was simple, but frustrating.  I needed to move the antenna so we could get the connection that was supposed to be there.  It was frustrating because I had already gone through the work of bolting it in, adjusting it to how I thought it would work best.  But when we turned it on, it didn't accomplish everything it was supposed to.  The connection was affected by the position.In John 15, Jesus tells His disciples:

Remain in me, and I will remain in you. For a branch cannot produce fruit if it is severed from the vine, and you cannot be fruitful unless you remain in me. “Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing.John 15:4-5 (NLT)

Jesus reminds them (and us), that our fruitfulness is a byproduct of our connection.  We can't do anything without Him.The challenge that most of us face is that we try to be the VINE vs. being the BRANCH.  We want to be in control.  We want to call the shots.  We want to be fruitful, and we want to make it happen.I've never seen a branch sweating or grunting to bear fruit.  It is simply what they do because of the connection that they have to their source.  I live near apple orchards.  I never hear trees straining to push fruit out.  It doesn't happen that way.  I wish I could say the same about myself and other Christians that I have met.We want to bear fruit.  We strain, we grunt, we push to make it happen.  That is the problem.  We try to be the source of our fruitfulness instead of allowing our connection to Jesus be the source of fruitfulness in our lives.How's your connection?