Abundance

An abundance of stamps

Well I’m the enemy of treason
Enemy of strife
Enemy of the unlived meaningless life
– Bob Dylan “False Prophet”

I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.
– John 10:10

My father-in-law passed away this weekend after a very long and full life. Even in the nursing home he lived fully as Parkinson’s would allow, always offering a smile and taking particular pleasure in his favorite dessert – ice cream (sometimes enjoying it three times a day. Talk about living abundantly!)

When someone close to you passes, it naturally makes you think about your own life and if you’re living it to the fullest. I have not always done so, choosing for many years to live a circumscribed life. But the good news is that thanks to my faith, abundant life has become a reality for me.

Faith, according to Martin Luther, is simple trust. It’s not the same as belief. For example, as I may have mentioned in an earlier post, I can’t swim. It’s not that I don’t intellectually believe the water will hold me up, I just don’t trust that it will. If I had trust in the water my life would be much richer and fuller.

I think about the Christian life in a similar way. Many of us believe in God, or in a god, but that’s not the same thing as having faith in God. The difference is important.

Let’s look at it like this –

Imagine (God forbid) that for years you’ve led an unhealthy lifestyle and as a result you have developed an incurable fatal disease. As a stopgap measure, the doctor has prescribed a regimen of medications, which you have supplemented with handfuls of herbs and vitamins. Additionally, you believe that a lack of stimulation will also help, so you avoid being too happy or too sad, and spend most of your time in a darkened room.

Then one day the doctor tries a radical new treatment. And…it works! You are cured; your disease is not just in remission, but completely eradicated. How do you think you would you respond? There are many options to choose from; here are a few –

You could take credit for your healing and attribute your good health to your limited lifestyle and the supplements you took. And then it’s entirely likely you would become a healthy lifestyle zealot, telling others that they have to live exactly the same way you do, and passing judgment on those who don’t.

You could choose to believe that in fact you have not been healed and continue living the pale life of an invalid, morbidly focusing on your health.

You could thank the doctor and not give your illness and healing a second thought, returning to the very lifestyle that caused your fatal disease in the first place.

Or, you could embrace this new life you’ve been given with joy and live it to the fullest.

Which would you choose?

It’s not an academic question, because we all have been suffering from the same fatal illness: sin and separation from God. But, Jesus died and rose again to repair our relationship with God and to bring us life right here, right now. I don’t believe salvation begins after we die, but while we live. I believe that and I trust in that. And that trust makes all the difference. It gives me a completely different outlook on life. Sure I have my struggles and doubts like everyone else, but they don’t consume me the way they used to. And this new outlook allows me to see that blessings are everywhere, even in something as cruel as Parkinson’s Disease.

I truly believe that it’s not the events we experience in life that cause us to be unhappy. I believe it’s how we react to those events. In the end, everything is beyond our control except for our response.

While we may not yet have a vaccine for the Covid-19 virus, the cure for the fundamental human condition has already been found. You are healed. You are free. Go live this new life fully. Have some ice cream!

God bless. Stay well.