A Cheap Substitute for the Abundant Life

If you caught my Instagram this morning, you would have seen a beautiful photo from my son’s rock climbing this weekend on the “Billy Goat Trail” in Potomac.  You might have also read my recap of a thought from a devotional my husband and I read today.  It said, very loosely quoted, that a busy life is not a substitute for an abundant life.  So true – but, sadly, I think the enemy has not only duped many into trading the abundant life for simply a busy life, but also into being content with their busyness.  But the abundant life that Jesus promises is much more than full calendars and long to-do lists.  Even daily planners filled with good and meaningful activity, or service, is not the key for an abundant life.

The abundant life is found in fellowship with God.  Without that fellowship, all of our activity – even our ministry work – is simply busyness.  George Muller, the 19th-century evangelist most well known for his Ashley Down orphanage in England, once said, “The primary business I must attend to every day is to fellowship with the Lord.”  He went on to say that whether he served the Lord, shared the truth, encouraged believers, or “behaved as a child of God” in many other ways, it was lacking (empty) if he was not first “nourished and strengthened in his inner man.”  That is as true for 19th-century Christians as it is today.

I  proclaimed on Instagram this morning that I want the abundant life.  And I know that life is possible whether I am a young mom with seemingly not enough hours in my day or a retired empty-nester with more than a couple of extra hours in my day; however, it begins for me – for all of us – with spending personal time with the savior.  I don’t want to settle for busy for the sake of being busy.  Nor do I want to accept busyness as a cheap substitute for a life lived abundantly with Christ.  Keep me busy, Lord – useful and serving – but only as it is a part of the abundant life you have offered.  

John 10:10  “….I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.”