the abundant life

John 10:10. the thief comes only to steal, and kill, and destroy; I came that they might have life and might have it abundantly.

Jesus came so that we might have life. And not just life, but the abundant life. So, what exactly is the abundant life?

Today, I set out on a little trek to explore the village. For those of you who do not know, I just arrived late last night in Fuzhou, China, and will be writing more about my experience here. So, anyway, with Kayla on my back and Bible stowed in her pouch, I wandered down the dusky dirt roads. Schoolgirls perched on bicycle frames with hanging baskets cycled past me, while the faster mopeds with little children sitting dangerously on their parents laps unprotected purred, stirring up sienna-burnt dust clouds. There were no street signs so I made turns at my fancy, in between dilapidated shingled huts and around hollowed houses of wood. The road ended up leading to a bridge over river and I found a shady spot to sing with Kayla, occasionally stopping to mark up my journal with my new mint-green and fuchsia-pink markers.

The question on my mind being – how do we grab hold of the abundant life? What does it mean to fully live?

My journey started with Psalm 27:4. Out of all the things King David wanted, the one thing was:

It starts with beholding His beauty. Do we ever wonder why the world has color? Or why the universe even has other stars apart from the Sun? Or why the Sun is a lot more glorious than it needs to be (apparently, we only use up 0.000045% of the Sun’s energy!)? He created beauty in the world and then created us to behold His beauty. He died so the veil could be torn so that we could behold His beauty. It is the capturing of beauty in the face of a dying baby, or a sunset of majesty, or a widow of 4th stage breast cancer, that we come to know Him.

To know, not just a superficial knowing of name, but the deep, experiential ginosko of Philippians 3:10. That we would know Him, not just in HIs power – the glory, the healings, the miracles – but also in the fellowship of HIs sufferings – in the dirt, the grime, the muck, the loneliness. The knowing that comes from beholding Him, then walking through life with Him.

When we know Him, it produces a radical love – just like how when we start to know someone intimately through marriage, we love them even more. Not a tempered love, but a radical love that compels us to do something radical with our lives. a love that defies logic and reason, but empties of itself to have all of the other. It is that kind of perfect love that casts out all fear.

1 John 4:18. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment and the one who fears is not perfected in love.

And without fear, there is true freedom. The dance-in-the-rain fearless kind of freedom. The freedom that comes from truly knowing Him.

I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me shall live even if he dies. And everyone who lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this? – John 11:25-26.

I believe it is this beholding beauty – knowing that produces love – that casts out fear – that leads to freedom – is truly the abundant life. The only question is then, are we living it.