The Abundant Life

Just realized that it has been 4 months since either of us has posted to this blog. It was just a very busy time. Actually, now that it's over and done with, I'd have to say that the whole year was actually a very hard one, one of the hardest in recent memory. It was a year of transition - a very frustrating and prolonged search for a house (that ended up very well), transitions in relationships as many of our friends have moved on to different relational circles, and major changes in work. I think the house hunt and the work challenges made things hard, but experiencing such major shifts in our safety net of community made it all the harder.

The most common thing Ian and I would say to each other throughout the entire year was that we needed a change in our lifestyle. Sleep-deprivation and stress were becoming a bit too familiar and our kids were absorbing some of our stress and acting out in school. The Christmas vacation was therefore a welcome time of rest.

Both Ian and I have had traditions of journaling. Each of us also have a practice of reflecting on the past year during the Christmas break and establishing some goals or a theme for the upcoming year. Toward the end of last year, we started talking about upcoming goals and found that many were similar. That set a direction for my thoughts on a theme.

It was an experience in Atlanta that gave me a mini-revelation on what our theme should be. We decided to attend Ian's parents' church for Christmas Eve service. I grew up in a traditional church setting and, much as I love the cultural relevance of Mosaic's Sunday gatherings, I have moments when I miss the comfort I sometimes feel in an established church. The church we went to on Christmas eve is REALLY traditional - stained glass window, wooden pews, a pulpit up front...even a pipe organ. It felt great to walk in to the smell of clean carpet and coffee and see people dressed in their Sunday best. We dropped our kids off in child care facilities equipped with age-appropriate furniture and picked up candles on our way in to our seats in the balcony of the sanctuary. I was already encouraged by the environment by this time and grew even more excited to see an orchestra set up on the stage. We launched into a number of familiar Christmas hymns, accompanied by talented singers and great orchestral arrangements. I was moving into a reverent mood, certain that the evening would prepare me for an encounter with God.

Then the pastor spoke. He talked about the people who missed the first Christmas and drew some parallels between them and people nowadays who miss Christmas (and Christ). It was a very good message with good reminders about the distractions that can pull me away from God. But something didn't resonate with me. He kept talking about how the reward of becoming a Christian was that we would get to be with God in eternity. I know that's true, but I think there's more to life than waiting until after we die to experience the richness of God. So right there in this beautiful setting with everything designed to focus us on the Christmas message, I had a different passage pop into my mind. It was from John 10

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.

or

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.

I quickly found my way to the passage in my Bible to confirm that I remembered it correctly. It burned itself in my mind until I could talk to Ian later that night. He agreed that the idea of the abundant life captured what he also wanted to pursue and so decided to adopt a shared theme for our family for 2011 of "The Abundant Life". We're not quite sure what that means, but we know that God wants us to live better than we have this past year and that we as a family need to be pursing that life here on this earth and not just wait until we're dead to experience abundance. So even though that wasn't quite the message the pastor had, I am so thankful that everything we experienced that night set us up for what we were actually supposed to gain.

So I've been meaning to blog about our theme for the past few weeks. I want to get this thought out there into cyberspace so that the handful of people who read us could hold us accountable to our goal of abundant living. But I just never got around to it.

But something happened tonight to inspire me to blog. We went to church tonight. Our pastor, Erwin McManus, has launched a message series called Narrative. Our church is going through a period of transition and Erwin wanted to start out the beginning of the year by starting over again, sharing his story and the passages that shaped him. And tonight he chose to speak on the same passage, John 10. And the same idea - that this life is supposed to be different when we choose to follow Jesus. It is not guaranteed to be pain-free, but can be shaped by the intimate connection that God offers.

So I am very excited about this year. Ian and I are going to make changes in the way we approach work, exercise, diet, child-rearing, rest, sleep....and whatever else we need to do to experience the abundant life that Jesus wants to offer us. Anyone else with us?

Clarice