"I Came that You Might Have Life and Have it More Abundantly."

I've been reflecting on John 10:10 in advance of our iCompass event tomorrow and wanted to share a couple of thoughts. I think we can look at our lives through the lens of this scripture passage and get different answers and perspectives, depending on our life situation.

1. We Are Beloved
First this passage says to me that we are Beloved by God. He wants to give us the gift of abundance if we are open to receiving it. We don't have to earn it. He wants to give it to us freely.

2. Abundance vs. Scarcity
Second, the passage is counter-cultural in telling us that God will satisfy our every need if we remain in relationship with him - - in a relationship where we acknowledge that everything we have is a gift from God and there is abundance all around us every day. This is counter-cultural to the thinking today that the economy is bad, terrorism is bad, and the financial markets are bad so we better hunker down and take any job we can get and not take any risks and live with a mindset of scarcity until the whole thing blows over.

3. Following the Narrow Gate Gives Us Abundance
While God's love is not conditional, he rewards those who are obedient in following the narrow gate and do not listen to "thieves and robbers." I take this to mean, God rewards those who choose to live Christ-centered lives. This reward is always there if we choose to receive it. Those who get sucked into the culture of death in America and around the world, are unfortunately listening to the lies of the devil. This culture says that you should work to earn an abundant life of possessions here on earth, while Jesus promises us an abundance of treasures from his Father in heaven.

4. We Don't Need to Achieve it Ourselves
So the fine line here is that if we live a life in obedience to Jesus, he provides the abundance. In contrast, our culture tells us to work to earn and save our own abundance and look our for ourselves.

Obviously there is no sin in living an abundant life, but the question is did we earn the abundance or was it a gift from God? Of course we need to participate in the world and share our talents with others, but the end of the day, who gets the glory: us or God. That's where sin comes in, the same self-seeking sin Adam & Eve struggled with in the Garden.

Books like The Secret will tell you that if you just have an abundant, positive mindset every day then good things will come your way. So does that mean that families dying of HIV in Africa, or people in refugee camps in Palestine don't have the right mindset? I don't think so.

5. Finding Abundant Freedom Through the Narrow Gate
The truth about this passage to me seems to be about praising God each day for the good gifts he does give us. Thanks for my good health, thanks for the new job, thanks for the intimacy of a friend, thanks for easing the pain of a terminal illness.

As you can see, one person's abundance, however, is not the same as your next door neighbor's. God does not care about helping us keep up with the Jones'. He cares that we love him, are in relationship with him, thank him, and praise him for the daily gifts he gives us.

Following the "narrow gate" is hard though. And sometimes it sucks. As St. Paul talks about, "We hope in what we cannot see," and "Hope does not disappoint." We hope in Jesus despite the dry, lonely, desolate, painful times in our lives that we can't control.

In John 10:9, Jesus says, "I am the gate. Whoever enters through me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture." He wants us to live in the freedom of relationship with him and his Heavenly Father. I think that freedom is the abundance he is talking about. He's not talking about abundant possessions necessarily. He wants us to "have LIFE and have it more abundantly." Amen.