Usually at this time (4:50am) I am still asleep. I do like waking up early, but not too early or I’ll go to bed at a crazy early time as well which works in winter, not so much in summer. So it takes something for me to not only arise early from my slumbers but also to feel compelled to write something. The title of this entry hopefully indicates what compelled, but allow me to slap more meat on the bone.
I wake up to music, whether playing on some system or in my head. Ever since I can remember, more often than not when I become conscious that I’m awake there is a song. This morning the song was piercing – the track Abundant Life sung by the Ron Winans and Friends collective as lead on this song by Bebe Winans and then Marvin Winans on the reprise. It is the reprise that would not leave me without saying something.
Marvin states “Just think about it. None of us deserved what God did for us. There’s nothing that we can give God that can measure to the grace of God. We gave God a whole lot of things, we gave Him our hurts, our pains, our sorrows. And He turned around and gave us abundant life.”
I seriously reflected on that again. For what I had to offer and what He gave me, blows my mind continually. No wonder I’m grateful. Then I ask what that looks like – what is abundant life? When I consider the typical life of a Christian, am I looking at life in its fullness? These are questions that used to bother me, especially in the light of some people’s interpretation that equated abundant life with trouble/hassle/debt free living, void of sickness and full of the best things that material life had to offer on tap ‘by faith’.
Thankfully even though I don’t dispute the possibility of that being an expression of life to the full, when I consider the early church and the adventures of church pioneers one thing that is not prevalent is material riches and trouble/hassle free living without pain or sickness. What I do witness is a deeper resource of joy and contentment even inthe inner and external struggles they face. A joy energised and sourced in their growing knowledge of jesus Christ and its impact on their life choices and pursuits. A contentment in the sufficiency of Christ in all situations that allows them to maximise the present with hope for the promises that God has in store for those who diligently serve him.
What does that look like? That looks like the joy of celebrating our 8th wedding anniversary and reflecting on God’s amazing faithfulness and goodness in our lives. Though having no elaborate celebration and still looking after the youngest daughter in need of maternal affection, and care, there is deep and overwhelming joy at how God has been good to us in good and bad times. That depth of connection with God in all things and his presence and character through all things and how we are in the light of that is my growing understanding of life to the full. There is no room for boredom in that picture, and any sense of dissatisfaction is just a spur to know and enjoy God all the more in every situation. It is a foretaste of eternal joy with Him in the Kingdom fully established.
I cannot think of a more attractive picture than a group of followers in their struggles and issues still displaying that joy and contentment in God through patient and loving relationship with each other to bear witness to others that God is real not in what we say, but how we live together.
For His Name’s Sake
Shalom
dmcd
Life With CD 