by Sean Graham
Religious words and phrases often lose their meaning because of misuse, overuse and ridiculous use. Abundant life is one of those phrases. For those of us raised in the church we’ve heard it hundreds, if not thousands of times. But what does it actually mean? Is it an actual possibility for us as individuals? What will it take for it to become a reality? Did Jesus actually mean it, or was it just a concept? The phrase has always captured my imagination and kindled my hope. But to experience abundant life there are some major hurdles we must leap; culturally, religiously, epistemologically. In the end, the abundant life is either lived or it becomes a redundant concept. I, for one, aim to live abundantly. What follows are some catalyzing thoughts that can become lived realities.
Abundant life is recognising that the values of this society: consumption, more, economies of scales, consistently improving your standard of living, is a terrible trap. It is waking up from the “slumber of empire” (Walter Bergman), which is the notion that every empire has an idea that wants you to fall asleep to. Ours is that of consumption, comfort, more. When religion chooses to partake in our culture’s value of consumption, then I agree with Karl Marx’s statement, “religion is the opium of the people”. Our Western empire has captured our imagination into believing the definition of freedom is “more”, we can do whatever we want, have it all, get more - but that’s not freedom. That is a lie and a trap for our imagination and our living. It is not the abundant life, it is the addicted life.
Abundant life involves simplicity, which is a conscious choice to rebel against the values of our current society. It requires being misunderstood by our neighbours because it requires us to live within the limits of enough.
The abundant life involves receiving your brokenness as a grace. Meaning, receiving your pain as a gift, learning to trust the pain, that it will create life in you, not the death that we are so afraid of, for the simple reason that God doesn’t waste anything. Abundant life requires a dignity that humble responsibility creates within us. It is that we never run from anything in our lives, but we live in the tension of that which is finished and yet undone. It is accepting that we will die unfinished, yet rejoicing in that fact because every day is new and an opportunity to become. It’s where grace has finally levelled the playing field for everyone in your life, including yourself. Grace is about discovering the beauty and horror of forgiveness. Forgiving yourself for all you have done, being able to look it in the face and make peace with it, like Christ has. To be able to look at what others have done to you, and to make peace with it, just as Christ has. Grace is allowing the pain to become pure joy. Here we find no more hierarchy, no right or wrong, just people able to name what is ugly, but not judge it. Name what is beautiful, but not consume it. This is the sweet spot where love occurs. It is the ability to see God in everyone and everything.
What is written above merely scratches around the circumference of the idea of abundant life. It is just that big, that overwhelming and that abundant.
Ephesians 3:18-19
And you may have the power to understand, as all God's people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is. May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God.
For further reading on what it would take to live the abundant life, please refer to the 19thTheses of Walter Brueggemann.
http://soupiset.typepad.com/soupablog/Brueggemann_19_Theses.html
Additional reading, fully developing the idea of the Slumber of Empire, is the book: Prophetic Imagination by Walter Brueggemann
http://books.google.ca/books/about/The_prophetic_imagination.html?id=VBUg98Ty6MAC