“I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.” John 10:10b
Jesus came to give us abundant life, but do we truly want this?
Jesus had abundant life and so did His followers. There was companionship, laughter, and joy – miracles, healings, and the dead raised from the grave. Cowards found courage and the cold-hearted learned to love.
But there was also rejection, suffering, and the pain of hard choices. Apostles were driven from cities, caught in storms at sea, and stoned. They were separated from loved ones and confronted by unfriendly spirits. There were beatings, imprisonment, and crucifixions.
Death preceded every resurrection. This was the abundant life Jesus offered. This was not the small living many of us experience today. These were great stories unfolding from deep lives of people willing to open themselves up to the full life of Christ.
I once heard a group of sincere, godly women proclaim that they want the life they’ve read in Acts. I agreed with them, but when I drew apart with God, He called me on it.
Do you really want this Acts existence or are you only scanning the apostolic trailer, the highlights reel, the headlines of what it means to follow Me? True disciples follow Jesus into the valley of death, into the prison cell of suffering, and into the shipwreck of the self, denied. You dream of the Acts life, but those who follow Me bury their dreams in the dirt like mustard seeds and there they wait in the dark while I do My work within them.
Yes, the life that springs forth from them is like a mighty tree that bears fruit in its time. But first, there is darkness, damp earth, and death.
Jesus drank deeply from the full cup of God’s plan for Him and it cost Him everything. The day between the crucifixion and the resurrection is a yearly reminder the we must be buried with Him to rise with Him. Most of us are willing to settle for only a tiny percent of the full life Jesus came to bring. Jesus calls us to the full life. An Acts life.
Follow Jesus where? Into death. Death of self. Because death precedes every resurrection.
Do I want abundant life? I want to want it. I’m praying for the courage to receive it. I don’t want to remain stuck in the small story of my small mind, my stunted soul, my lesser life. I want to follow Jesus into His great story; my mind transformed, my soul expanded, my life lived to the full.
What about you? Do you want to remain trapped in your small story – operating from a lesser calling? Or are you willing to follow Him to live the true fullness of the Jesus life?
We might all worry less about being small-minded and concern ourselves more with avoiding the smallness of soul that keeps us from following Jesus wherever He leads and follow Him into resurrection.
Lori Stanley Roeleveld is an author, speaker, and disturber of hobbits. Her latest release is The Art of Hard Conversations: Biblical Tools for the Tough Talks that Matter. She speaks her mind at www.loriroeleveld.com.
