We’ve talked some lately about what Jesus meant when he said, “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.”
While measuring spiritual truth against personal experience can be faulty, we know that the human experience often includes pain, trouble, difficulty. The scripture speaks to difficulties in life in several places but one stands out tonight:
Consider it a sheer gift, friends, when tests and challenges come at you from all sides. You know that under pressure, your faith-life is forced into the open and shows its true colors. So don’t try to get out of anything prematurely. Let it do its work so you become mature and well-developed, not deficient in any way. ~ James 1:2-4
But if tests and challenges are coming our way, just what is that abundant life that Jesus promised? In the context of John 10, the discussion is about the spiritual realm. Our abundant life is a promise in the spiritual realm.
Life to the full, true?
Tripping over life’s
Circumstances, seemingly
Missing, desiring
His promise, life abundant
Open my eyes, let me see
Truth, his truth, spoken for me
Life to the full, true!
~ Original, 2009
Dante writes ...
As the geometer intently seeks
to square the circle, but he cannot reach,
through thought on thought, the principle he needs,
so I searched that strange sight: I wished to see
the way in which our human effigy
suited the circle and found place in it —
and my own wings were far too weak for that.
But then my mind was struck by light that flashed,
and, with this light, received what it had asked.
Here force failed my high fantasy; but my
desire and will were moved already — like
a wheel revolving uniformly — by
the Love that moves the sun and other stars.
While I am caught up … my friends and loved ones are caught up … in life’s circumstances, we are more than conquerors through him that loves us … for we are completly and thoroughly caught up in Him!
