Is the Abundant Life for You?

The dismantling of our checkbox list reveals itself to be the pathway to abundance.

I thought it was a lie. A smiley face to put on for Sunday morning, to tack on for Bible Study. Abundant life, what does this even mean? A checkbox list of accomplishments, acquisitions, firsts. Checked boxes of fleeting satisfaction chalking up to nothing. The pursuit of more that leaves a trail of nothing but next.

Sounds a bit like Solomon’s rant in the book of Ecclesiastes. Solomon, the man of great wisdom. Solomon, the man of great wealth, of women too numerous to count, the one who finally built the temple. Was his life not abundant?

I often wonder, would Solomon have written the book of Ecclesiastes if, instead of wisdom, he had requested to know the heart of God?

King David writes, “Delight yourself in the LORD and He will give you the desires of your heart” (Psalm 37:4). What does this mean to the abundance seekers? To the momma who longs for a baby that doesn’t come? To the one who prays in the dark for her prodigals, her broken ones to return? What does this mean for those who have lost more than they knew they had, their lives now nothing but a handful of shattered dreams? For those whose prognosis is too difficult to share? To those wading in a season of waiting for so long they remember little else? Abundant life? Desires of the heart? Is this more than a pasted smile for Sunday morning? And what did the wise Solomon miss?

I could reweave my story and write that I pursued God to know God. I pursued God because He took from me something that I wanted, something scribbled on my checkbox list of abundance, and I wanted it back. Me in pursuit of abundance looked like an empty, tired, joyless Solomon. What if instead, I had pursued the heart of the Father?

It takes very little effort on our part to get the attention of the Father.

Our initial pursuit of Jesus reveals itself to be a response to His long-suffering pursuit of us.

Our crying out the name of Jesus reveals itself to be our ears finally responding to the sound of His voice calling out to us.

Our knock, knock, knocking reveals itself to be our response to Him wearing down the other side of the door to get through to us.

Our fractured dreams and plans for abundance, the cracks to which His light enters our self-constructed fortress designed to keep Him out of our way. The dismantling of our checkbox list reveals itself to be the pathway to abundance.

Love that breaks through. Breaks through, it isn’t exactly easy, nor it is without the agony of letting go. The agony of allowing our hands to empty of what they tightly cling to, our ideas, our plans, our dreams, our empty.

Perhaps you would like to say, well, He wore you down. He stole your dreams. He brought so much disappointment to your door, you gave up, gave in to His plan instead of your own. Perhaps. But perhaps He knows us more than we know ourselves. Perhaps only He understands the desires of our heart, in the secret places, the places we cannot perceive without His light. Perhaps He alone created us for exactly what He prepared for us. Perhaps He created us exactly for Himself.

Perhaps He is who He says He is.

I can testify to the goodness of God. I can testify that through the breaking and letting go, He became my abundance. He is more than enough. In the hurting, in the tiredness, in the overwhelming circumstances of everyday life, He presents me with abundant life, abundant living. He is the sustaining delight of my heart.

How did I get here, and how do you know I am not pasting a smile on my face for a blog post, setting aside my natural tendency for cynicism for a few likes? And do you want to live with confidence and deep satisfaction in the God who has created a hole in your innermost being that only He can crawl into? I cannot give you the checkbox list, of course I can’t. Life is not a list of checkboxes, it is more complicated than that. But I can share with you lessons I learned along my broken, tear stained way.

• Take a look at the promises given in scripture and determine that if God is who He says He is, you will have yourself these promises (Exodus 3:14). If God’s word says there is abundant life in Him, you will have yourself abundant life in Him (John 10:10). If God’s word says that He answers those who cry out to Him (Psalm 18:6), you will have yourself an answer from Him (Psalm 120:1). If God’s word says that He is found by those who seek Him, you will seek Him and find Him (Deuteronomy 4:29). Determine to discover if this God is who He says He is. Go about the business of finding out.
• Get your nose into the word of God (Hebrews 4:12, John 1:1-2). This will require more than an instagram follow and a podcast listen (both good things, but not enough). This will mean dusting off the paper version and moving through pages. Welcome the words into your mind like you welcome a midwest August rain. Soak in it. Search it. Question it. Dig into it. If it is what it says it is, powerful like a double edged sword, you are in for an adventure of a lifetime.
• Begin to lay every hurt, disappointment, shame, bad decision and ounce of remorse at the feet of Jesus (Psalm 51). What does this mean? Spill the beans, tell Him everything. He already knows, but it will be something healing for your soul to tell Him. Whisper, shout, cry, write, run, walk it through and give it to Him. If your sticky hands can’t seem to let these things go, lay them down again and again and again. When you remember something you forgot to tell Him, shout that one up too.
• Ask Him to reveal who He is to you (Acts 17:27-28). (I think He loves this one, to show us who He is). Keep asking.
• Ask Him to help you understand just how much He loves you (Ephesians 3:18-19). And if you aren’t sure what love is, because you’ve been hurt too many times by those who said they loved you and it was some kind of mixed-up, broken version of love, ask Him for a double portion of understanding.
• Keep at it (James 1:4).

Your path will be different than mine, for we are different. Our checkbox lists, plans, dreams, hurts, choices and disappointments are different. But the hole in your heart, it is fit for the same Jesus. If I am able to authentically taste abundant living, it is for you as well.

Abundant life is not a one time gift, there is no finality to it. It is an everyday, opened hand kind of living. Hands and hearts open to let go and open to receive. The more you receive from Him, the more He gives (Matthew 25:29), the more you want. And you end up with this beautiful back and forth pursuit of the living God, not for what He gives you, but for more of Himself. It seems to be a little like falling in love, on a grand cosmic kind of scale.

How would Solomon’s book read had he asked to know the heart of the Father, rather than for wisdom? No one in all the earth was wiser than Solomon (1 Kings 10:23-24). I think maybe, Solomon would have lived fullness of life reflecting an abundance of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Galatians 6:22-23) centuries before it dawned on Paul to make a checkbox list.

“I have come that they may have abundant life, and have it to the full.”

John 10:10