Abundant Life vs. the American Dream

“The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.”  John 10:10

Abundant life.  It’s something that sounds so appealing, doesn’t it?  So fulfilling and hopeful.  It’s something that Jesus said He came to give to us – what a promise!

But as I look around today, I think there’s some confusion in the Church about abundant life. 

My fear is that the Church is being dazzled by the promise – not of abundant life – but of a Christianized version of the American Dream.  That somehow the goal of our faith is not a passionate, intimate relationship with Jesus and living to do His will.  Instead, following Jesus is a means to end - to end up with what I want, my own “heaven on earth”. 

My friends, this is not what Jesus gave His precious blood to give to us.

The American dream is what everyone wants, after all.  We want the 4-bedroom house with the white picket fence.  We want both us and our families to have what we need AND what we want.  We desire, not just financial security, but financial windfall.  (Which we usually want to happen overnight!)  We want to “live the dream”, follow our passions, become successful (and for many, insert ‘become famous’ here)!

I’m not, in any way, saying that these things are necessarily wrong or bad. Many of us have these things and they are a blessing from the Lord!  But what I am saying is that those things fall far short of being the definition of abundant life.  Attaining status and wealth were never meant to be a guarantee of a relationship with Jesus.  In fact, in some ways, those things can be the very enemy of the abundant life that Jesus suffered and died to make available to each one of us.

I’m reminded of the story of the rich young ruler in Mark 10.  He comes to Jesus with an honest question:  “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”  Jesus shared with him, “You must not murder. You must not commit adultery. You must not steal. You must not testify falsely. You must not cheat anyone. Honor your father and mother.”

But the rich young ruler was a rule follower – he told Jesus he had already done all those things, and from the time he was young!  Yet still he knew something was missing.

So he asks again what he must do.  I bet in hindsight, he wished he hadn’t asked.

“Looking at the man, Jesus felt genuine love for him. “There is still one thing you haven’t done,” he told him. “Go and sell all your possessions and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”

At this the man’s face fell, and he went away sad, for he had many possessions.

Fellow believers in America, I want to ask us to see ourselves as the rich young ruler.  We say we want eternal life.  We want salvation.  We want grace.  We want eternity in Heaven.

We want Jesus to be our Savior.  But friends, we aren’t sure we want Him to be our Lord. 

We want the free gift of eternal life.  But we don’t want it to cost us something.

The Bible says that Jesus looked at that rich young ruler, with all his wealth and possessions, and genuinely loved him.  Just as Jesus genuinely loves us.

But Jesus also told him that if he really wanted to walk with Him, he had to surrender everything of his earthly treasures to truly follow Him.

This young man had followed all the rules.  But Jesus wanted more than his actions – Jesus wanted his heart. Jesus wanted to be Lord and Master of this man’s life.  He wanted the young man to surrender what was most important to him on this earth for the all-surpassing Treasure of Heaven.

Jesus asked.  And the rich young ruler said no.

He was not willing to surrender his earthly treasures.  His stuff had his heart.  So he walked away from Jesus.  He felt bad about it – but not bad enough to change his ways or to give up his riches to follow Jesus.

Have you ever experienced that moment with Jesus?  Where He asks you to give up something that you love?  Something that you may have worked hard for?  Something you treasure?

I know I have.  And it has happened more than one time.  Making Jesus the Lord of our lives is a continual choice.

Jesus will let us make that choice.  Notice He did not run after the rich young ruler to try to convince him to change his mind.  He does the same with us. 

But if Jesus is asking me to surrender - if He’s asking me to let go of something I’m holding on to and reach out to take the hand of my Lord and follow Him more closely. . .

. . .is there danger in saying no?  I think that there is.

I don’t ever want to get good at saying no to Jesus.

I believe that Jesus stands today in front of the American church.  He’s looking at us with genuine love.  He knows all the good things that we’ve done and the ways that we’ve obeyed His commands. 

But He’s standing here asking us if we will also give up those things in our lives that we value more than we value Him.  He’s asking us to allow Him to be the Lord of our lives.

Maybe for some of us, He’s asking for riches.  Maybe for others, it’s surrendering our kids.  Maybe it’s our job.  Maybe it’s our dreams.

I invite you to wrestle with the Lord over these issues.  He understands that we are dust and that we struggle to let go of the treasures and rights that we hold so dear.

About three years ago, the Lord challenged me on my right to spend money the way I wanted to.  And let me tell you, this was especially hard when it came to going out to eat.  I really do enjoy a good meal that I didn’t cook! 
Jesus was asking me to let Him tell me how to spend our money.  To let Him decide where our dollars would go.  It wasn’t about the fact that we could afford to go out.  It was about the fact that I had to let Him tell us how we appropriated our funds.

I wrestled with God because I didn’t realize how much I just did what I wanted with money.  And frankly, I wanted to spend it as I wanted to!  French fries were never so tempting to me as they were in that month that I struggled with surrendering this to the Lord.  I know it may sound silly, but it was hard for me to let go of this!

How grateful I am that the Lord allowed me to wrestle this out with Him.  It took – no joke – a month of praying, arguing, and frustration on my part.  But I remember the moment, on my knees, when I gave my rights to our finances to God. 

In hindsight, I am amazed at His goodness in preparing me for this season when our finances would shrink to so little.  Not only was He asking me to be Lord of how we spent, but He was preparing me for a season I had no idea was coming.
That is the beauty of allowing Jesus to be Lord.  If I had said no, if I had walked away from Him – well, this may have all played out very differently.

When we contemplate surrendering to the Lord what we hold most dear, we are only aware of the loss.  Of what we feel that we are giving up and how hard that it is.

But we are trading these earthly things for the treasures of abundant life.  And not abundant life as defined by us, but as defined by God.  And that is a life beyond our wildest dreams and desires.


More on that in the next blog. . .