Jesus has come so we can have life to the FULL…abundant life…because He loved us enough to die for us to have it.

He did not lay His life down for us to limit our choices…to be a damper on a party…to put a cap to all you can do or all you can be…He came to give you life, a real life.

This is what He tells us in His map-the Bible…this is His voice that speaks to us to tell us where to go and what to do. If we are not paying attention to where our guidance is being given we will miss His directions and become lost, lied to, and abandoned by the thief who came to destroy us.

We suddenly go back to the concept of rewards versus consequences…that what we do NOW has an impact LATER.

This conclusion blog brings me to the personal topic of maintaining the status quo… Suddenly, we go back to the concept of rewards versus consequences.

 “Status quo”  is defined as the “existing state of affairs”….keeping things the way they are…maintaining a state of normalcy. Examples of living life this way are:

• Don’t rock the boat
• Don’t make waves
• Play it safe
• Keep your nose clean

Most of us might say that that sounds kind of boring doesn’t it?

It certainly  doesn’t sound like “abundant living” does it? But, I would imagine it sounds like being a “goody two shoes”…sounds like what a “Christian” should look like maybe? Clean living, not making a scene, not being reckless…

We, and most others who don’t know our Lord well, often forget that that was NOT Jesus AT ALL! As Christians, we are to follow Him, we are to be like Him…and HE WAS A REVOLUTIONARY.

Jesus most definitely rocked the boat- He made HUGE waves and then He either walked on the or calmed them by a mere word!

Jesus ticked people off and challenged their thinking continuously- didn’t we just talk about Him calling the religious leaders a bunch of sheep??

Jesus flipped over tables.

He hung out with His friends continuously for 3 entire years.

Jesus made people so angry and unnerved that He was KILLED for it.

 BUT Jesus loved those who Him like NO ONE HAD BEFORE and THAT legacy of life changing love LITERALLY changed the world and keeps changing the world today.

He was in NO WAY a representative of maintaining the “status quo”.

The reality is, that although the status quo sounds “boring” I think it is a world in which we are far too comfortable living in…we are just blind to it. Like Jesus said, we have no idea what it is we are seeing that is right in front of us.

What do I mean?

We may say we want to not “play it safe” and we aren’t afraid “to make waves” but what are we doing that is so different from those around us that make us appear so different from anyone else?

I used to want to “just fit in”. It started in middle school and was perfected in high school.

I wanted to have someone to sit with on the bus….preferably that they would ask me to sit with them.

I wanted to feel like I belonged at any table in the lunch room.

I wanted people to like me…to be proud of me.

The truth is that “standing out” does not exactly help one “fit in”.

I began to compromise my values, opinions, priorities, and beliefs in order to fit it and be liked very  slowly at first.

It may have started with the language I used- when I was with my friends only, of course, did I let the curse words slip.

It probably increased to certain movie choices I suddenly began wanting to watch.

I watched TV shows that I quickly changed the channel of when my parents came in the room because I knew they would not approve.

I stopped going to church when my parents were no longer “making” me go.

I stopped praying before dinner.

I stopped reading my Bible.

My “status quo” suddenly became all about me. How can I fit in? Who is talking to me or about me? What can I do next? Who can I use to get me there?

My status quo brought me to a place in my life where my needs and my desires were all that mattered…

And they left me feeling insecure, jealous, frustrated, not good enough because I was always comparing myself to others and seeing where I fell short.

I remind myself of the earlier verse:

1 Corinthians 10:23-24 ²³“I have the right to do anything,” you say-but not everything is beneficial. “I have the right to do anything”-but not everything is constructive. ²⁴No one should seek their own good, but the good of others.

Living for myself, maintaining a “normalcy” that allowed me to fit in and not stand out caused me to feel empty after time. The inside of me was chaotic. I tried to stay busy, have lots of friends, travel, shop…I seemed to have it “all” at one point: good job, money, house, handsome husband, two kids and a dog…it looked all good on the outside…

But it did not feel like “enough”. I wanted more. And I felt like I was less.

The status quo, maintaining “normalcy, fitting in…was NOT abundant living. I think, no- I know, I fell for the liar who snuck into my sheepfold the sneaky easy way and whispered in my ear in a voice that I thought I could trust…and he tried to destroy my life just like Jesus said he would do over 2000 years ago.

Turning to Jesus at a point of when nothing seemed to matter anymore was what saved my life and changed my family’s future.

Choosing to not only LOVE God but to also KEEP HIS COMMANDMENTS has put me into a place in my life that says “I CAN do all things” because it is Christ who strengthens me. I have a hope for a future that I never have had before.

I have stopped limiting what God is capable of doing and have realized that if He can raise His friend Lazarus from the dead, if He can make a blind man see, if He can calm a storm, if He can walk on water, if He can change a murderer into the biggest Jesus freak of all time (Paul of course!), if He can choose to lay down on the cross, take the beatings, take the abuse, take the rejection of His friends, choose to die a horrific, suffocating, excruciatingly painful death and then RISE AGAIN three days later, reveal HIMSELF to HUNDREDS of people , and THEN –in front of witnesses- ascend into Heaven….then I think He IS the God of the impossible and can do anything including take care of little ole me.

Life is so much more than living the status quo. Life is so much more than limiting your capabilities and possibilities. Life is so much more than wasting today because you think tomorrow will be better-you will be older, wiser, have more money…these are all excuses to put off until tomorrow what can be done today.

A lot in my life has changed since I decided to live for Jesus. The biggest is that I live life to the fullest now and try to take every possible opportunity to do what I can that I believe the Lord desires me to do. I dream bigger dreams of accomplishing things that I never dared think about when I was younger and scared.

At the end of my day (my NOW), at the end of my life (my LATER)- I want to say this as boldly as I can-

John 10:11 says that Jesus came to give us abundant life…when we are given something, it becomes our choice whether we take it from Him or not. You can have the fullest life you can imagine while living what appears to be a normal life in an every day town.

You do NOT have to settle for the status quo living, you do NOT have to compromise who you are, what you believe to fit in, you do NOT have to believe the lie that says you are too young, too old, weak, ugly, broken, that you will never accomplish all you want, that your dreams are silly, that what you are good at doesn’t matter, that making “good money” is what will make you happy and is the ultimate goal…

You can CHOOSE life at any time. You can choose to follow your Shepherd that will keep you safe. You can listen to His voice that will never put you in harm’s way.

You can change your direction, your sense of purpose at any time… You can talk to your Shepherd at any time and learn to listen to His voice. You can choose to live life recklessly by following the revolutionary Himself-Jesus Christ!

 Believing in Jesus is one thing…living for Jesus is EVERYTHING.

 

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