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John 10:10

             “... I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.”

I was listening to a Mars Hill sermon today as I was making homemade apple-pear-banana-mango sauce ( I know be jealous! ) And one of the great points was how the Jews missed who Jesus was because they we’re looking for the Messiah that fit “ what they wanted”, not what the Messiah actually was. The speaker went on to say how Jesus said in John 10:10, that he has come to give us a “full” life, or abundant life some bibles read.  Yet what we take from this verse, what we “want” it t mean are sometimes very different from what it does mean. It doesn’t mean that we will live a easy, covenant life, that allows us to live out our dreams surround by happiness and wealth.  The speaker went on the say how  a full life or an abundant life with Jesus, is a life full of joy, pain, struggle, failure, peace, strength and truth but all “more” then our life without Christ would allow us. 

I have heard a lot of talks lately about this, about living the “full/abundant” life, and how in the midst of our broken hearts and world JESUS is there to help us experience the MOST of life.  The speaker today even said that when we live a full/abundant life that we stop running from our problems but turn and face them head on, we want to find healing in the wounds, and peace in our wars. .

I was driving the other day and I was thinking about my time table for the week and all the work I had to get done, and about a convo I had with friends the day before about how YoungLife isn't just a ministry- but its a way to live. And strangely I was thinking about the “walk-on character” (skit) I had done the week before and how that character was so ridiculous but would have to make a come back this week b/c the kids thought she was funny. So I was thinking about all these things all at once and it hit me.... The life I live is SO ABUNDANT with peace, JOY, sorrow, struggle, frustration, embarrassment, beautiful moments and failure ... b/c everything I’m doing matters...   Let me take a moment to say I know that not “everything” I do is great or good, or even right... but the point is I feel it with the same intensity,  because it all matters!  Its why when I say something dumb to a stranger or miss a golden opportunity to share Christ with a kid, I  feel so awful or regretful.

Its the same reason that when I come out as a “walk-on character” for YL and the kids are laughing and talking about it for the next week I feel joy and excitement that MAYBE just maybe my life, my humor will be something that kids remember and in that Jesus can grab them, or at least stick with them till something else opens up for them to grab Jesus! 

    

    I love C.S. Lewis’  The Chronicles of Narnia. I feel like I came away from reading them ( and re-reading them) with a sense of closeness and understanding of God’s heart for me in a way no sermon has ever touched me.  There is a a part at the end, in the very last book, where Narnia has come to an end and the children has entered into this new world. They are so sad that Narnia is gone, but then they start to notice that this new world is very much like the old one that just ended...

 

“ Why they’re exactly like. Look there’s Mount Pire with his forked head and there’s the pass into Archenland and everything!’  ‘And yet they’re not like,’ said Lucy. ‘ they’re different. They have more colors on them and they look further away then I remembered and they’re more.. more.. o I don’t know...’ ‘ More like the real thing’ said the Lord Digory softly.” (The Last Battle pg193)

Then somebody says this to them:

“ ...of corse it is different; as different as a real thing is from a shadow or as waking life is from a dream” ( pg 195)

I know C.S. Lewis is comparing this new world to Heaven, but I feel like this also can be used as example of life.... when we live a “full/abundant” life IN Christ the colors are so much deeper and life is so much more REAL. 

I take time to write this all out because I feel its important. I think that too many times we don’t life the “full/ abundant life”  with Jesus because we “want it to be something else”... we want to have our cake and eat it too.. we want to buy things and not think about where they came from or at what cost to the environment or to slave labor it might have taken.  I’m not trying to make anyone feel guilty for anything, but what I’m trying to say is maybe.. just MAYBE the harder life, the life where we have to sacrifice, and feel pain and deal with the broken hearts and damaged environment in this world... maybe this life, this conciseness , would allow us to CHOSE more often the ABUNDANT life  that Jesus really has for us! 

I know I sounds a bit crazy... I know some of you are like “ well it started off nice..” haha But no really I’ve been reading the bible, looking for passages and stories for my YL talks so that I can tell kids WHO Jesus IS..... and I’m not finding the stories that make me feel like I’m “living too much”, in fact I am constantly being challenged by the words of Jesus...  AM I really willing to sacrifice everything to follow Him?  “ O but Fluffy, Jesus didn’t really mean that, he’s just using it as an example of commitment to him...”   Ya I know, but what kind of commitment am I saying that I’ll give him if in my heart I know I’m not willing to really care about the poor and oppressed b/c its so overwhelming and stressful and I’d rather just drink my coffee and play on facebook.... ouch 

Jesus,  I don’t want you to be “who I want you to be”, I want you to be WHO YOU ARE”, Please help me see you in that way! 

To come full circle I was listening Mars Hill and the speaker was talking about the book of Isaiah, and how the people  cried out and said ‘ Lord we offer sacrifices and prayers and yet you do not answer us.... and the speaker said in a modern para-phase ‘ Yes Israel, its b/c you do it upon the back of the under paid and neglected’.... 

O how I want to live a full/abundant life IN ALL AREAS, no matter how painful, or how convicting ... because I know it will be MORE..... and I want more...

(this is copied from my webpage http://web.mac.com/ylmoshi )