It’s Saturday morning in South Carolina. Though it’s before 10 am, it’s already hot and I have a fan whirling. I sip my coffee and watch the birds visit the three bird feeders we’ve placed beyond the reach (at least for now) of resourceful squirrels.
This morning, I read John 10:10: The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.
I pause at the promise of abundant life. Abundant Life. What does it mean?
Our country equates the term with lots of possessions. Yet does stuff produce an abundant life?
The wealthiest 1% possess half the world’s resources. Can these 1% say their possessions have given them abundant life? Sad stories throughout history answer no. Michael Jackson, Marilyn Monroe, Howard Hughes and Earnest Hemingway are just a few who lived in abundance of possessions, yet their lives ended, not reflecting the abundant life Jesus is referring to.
In fact, perhaps abundant possessions inhibit abundant life. Maintaining many things drains much time and energy, leaving little margin for true abundance.
By implication, abundance could also be associated with success, good health and overall good circumstanced. There’s nothing wrong with desiring all these things. However, living a life like this, even if possible, is not what Jesus is talking about.
Possessions or circumstances do not define the abundant life Jesus refers to. His life is more satisfying and stable than either.
Lima Peru
Years ago, during a two-week mission trip to Lima, Peru, the living conditions I saw saddened me. Poverty forced mothers to do the unthinkable, releasing their young sons to fend for themselves on the streets.
Our group served at Casa Hogar, an orphanage designed to feed and educate these “street boys”. Many abandoned children in Lima were already deeply involved in glue sniffing, stealing, and prostitution. Refusing the orphanage’s long-term help, many remained chained to this life. However, the orphanage gave some children a home and showed them the love of Jesus.
Despite Lima’s hardship, its believers showed a quality of love rare in America. The folks who worked at Casa Hogar seemed to be free from pursuing possessions and smooth circumstances. While many toilets still lacked seats, people were more focused on love than on tasks.
We all experienced such a depth of the love of Jesus during our two weeks in Peru that many of us dreaded to return to the “rat race” of the American culture.
We had the audacity to think we were traveling to South America to “minster” the love of Jesus to folks in dire straits. But the love of Jesus flowing through the Peruvians, even the children, deeply touched us.
As I take another sip of coffee, and notice a squirrel repelling down a wire to once again help itself to our bird seed, I write the following words in my journal:
Abundant life is not abundant possessions or smooth circumstances. Abundant life is Abundant love.
The Bible is rich in language depicting God’s love, but nothing surpasses the abundant love Jesus displayed for each of us on the cross.But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8)
But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved). (Ephesians 2:4-5)
As I watch the squirrel wrapped around the feeder, spilling seed everywhere, I conclude that the abundant life Jesus promises us has everything to do with His love.
How does God’s abundant love lead to an abundant daily life for us?
I believe the answer is in John 15.
In verse 9, we get a such an astounding definition of abundant love that only the Spirit of God can fully reveal it to our hearts. Jesus tells us, “Just as the Father has loved Me, I also have loved you.”
I pause for a moment. Jesus loves me as much as God the Father loves Him. This is stunning! If this truth had full access to our hearts, it would penetrate every hardened sinew and blow away every argument of self-hatred. Jesus loves us beyond comprehension, and He showed it by dying in our place on the cross.
The second part of John 15:9 is a command:
“Remain in my love.”
Remain where God has placed us, in the love of Jesus. We did not earn this love; we must remain where God has placed us.
Verses 10 and 12 tell us how.
If you keep My commandments, you will remain in My love. (10)
This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you. (12)
Staying in Jesus’ love involves loving like Him. This is what we experienced in Peru; folks being freed up from chasing possessions and smooth circumstances to love like Jesus despite their poverty and difficulties.
Picture daily life free from the “rat race” grind.
This is an abundant life. Allowing the abundant love of Jesus to flow through us. “From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water” John 7:38.
Abundant life is a life of loving. It’s also a life of joy.
Couched in between verses 10 and 12 in John 15 is the following verse:
“These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full.” (John 15:11)
Abundant life is abundant love and abundant joy.
Challenge
Turn for a moment to your internal task list, that never ending list which seems to multiply as possessions increase. Visualize what possessions and responsibilities require more focus and attention than they’re worth, especially how they impede true living.
This challenge is for me. Too often I avoid loving the folks God brings my way because I have stuff to accomplish and possessions to maintain.
The rat race is a hamster wheel.
Prayer
Help me, Lord! You’ve blessed me beyond measure. I’ve been fortunate to never worry about my next meal, a stark contrast to global realities. You chose me as Your child before creation, showering me with Your grace, forgiving all my sins, and giving me Your Holy Spirit as a guarantee of my eternal inheritance in Your Kingdom.
In You, I have true abundant life, rivers of living water from the source of all.
Yet, I often get caught up in a ridiculous race for worldly trappings, which are both fragile and unfulfilling.
You have already won the race for me. Please grant me the grace to always rest in Your love and love those You bring my way. In your presence is fullness of joy and in Your light, I have life.
I love You,
Amen
Other posts in our series In the Moments:
Sorrowful, Yet Always Rejoicing
Exploring Grace and Joy together
Quiddity. It Could Change Your Life
Finding Joy in Love and Relationships
Joy in the Journey is about the gladness of God’s nearness in the midst of life’s adventures.
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Nonfiction books by the Author:
Because joy is rooted in God and is eternal, it doesn’t ebb and flow with the waves of circumstances. In fact, as we grow in our understanding of joy, we can even experience it more acutely when life is hard. Why? Because God uses trials to conform us into the image of Christ. With this awareness, which gives us glimpses of God’s greater purposes, we rejoice because of His masterful work to free us from needing anything but Him.
For these reasons, and many others, joy in the Lord is commanded in scripture. It’s not just a good idea, it’s vital to our journey as human beings. Rhythms of Joy
Novels by the Author:
What happens when a professor figures out how to send messages to his younger self to try and avoid the suicide of his best friend? Did he change more than he bargained for? Beyond Time
By finding two undelivered letters in an old shack deep in the woods, Cassie and Daniel unknowing set off a series of events which uncover a plot to wipe out a whole family Hope Remains
Please Check out the Cola City Podcast . Discussions that impact the vision of reaching every man, woman, and child in a city.