What’s an abundant life?
Describing himself as the Good Shepherd, Jesus promised, “I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.”
Don’t know about you, but for a big chunk of my life I misunderstood that promise.
I grew up in the middle-class USAmerica, where “abundant” carried certain cultural connotations. And I looked around at a whole lot of people who seemed to be Jesus followers, especially in other parts of the world, and their lives seemed to be anything but what I understood as abundant. No 3-bedroom house in the suburbs with a 2-car garage. No retirement plan. No trips to Disney World.
Of course, that’s not what Jesus was talking about at all. As examples, he used birds and flowers. He assured us God knows our needs and will fulfill them.
Birds. Flowers. Sheep. Not the sort of animals we associate with strong, independent, upwardly-mobile people building their dream lives.
Service. Sacrifice. Humility. The last, not the first. It all sounds backwards, but that’s the abundant life Jesus promised.