Reflect the Abundant Life Read John 10:10 I vividly recall my first trip to the mission. It was actually a Christian run shelter for the homeless in an urban downtown area with a sign out front that read: The Hands and Heart of Jesus Mission One could check into the mission at 5:45pm each evening. A church service was held from 6:00pm – 7:30pm. Supper was at 8:00pm and everyone was to be in bed with the lights out by 10:00pm. You had to be gone by 7:00am the next morning; there was no breakfast available. I was there to drop off a donation of blankets, hats, mittens and socks. I was surprised at how quiet it was and mentioned this to the man at the desk. He replied, “Well, everyone is at church right now.” I said, “Wow, that’s amazing that every single person attends the service you offer; it must be a very positive experience.” He stated matter-of-factly: “Well if they don’t go to church they can’t eat or sleep here. We take the spiritual needs of these people very seriously.” I was horrified. Here was a shelter professing to offer the hands and heart of Jesus, but giving something far different. Can you imagine being hungry and exhausted, knowing that you had to sit through an obligatory worship service before you could get food and sleep? How could you focus on Jesus when your stomach was twisted in hunger pains? More importantly, how does this attitude and behavior reflect God? “As water reflects a face, so a person’s heart reflects the person.” Proverbs 27:19 From that point I became determined to be holistic in ministry. I realized that no matter what I preach, the way I live my life reflects my truest beliefs, so I became intentional about integrating different parts of our human make-up into what I preach, what I teach, what I practice and what I model. I am far from perfect at it on any given day, but I’d rather strive to make my life and ministry reflect what I truly believe about God than settle for anything less. “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they might have life, and life abundant.” Jesus speaking in John 10:10 Notice that Jesus didn’t say that He came so that we might have abundant spiritual lives. He came so that we might have life abundant; He is talking about life in general. Since the church is not a building but a grouping of individuals let’s look at how living out the abundant life as individuals can influence the community of faith. ______________________________________________________________________ Our lives are made up of the following components: * Physical * Mental * Emotional * Sexual * Spiritual Let’s look at each of these individually. ______________________________________________________________________ Jesus came that we might have life and life abundant. How are we living out this abundant life in our PHYSICAL selves? “Your body is one of your prime sources of guidance, and it also helps create what you need. Take time today to attend to your body in special ways. Make it feel attractive, loveable, respected and appreciated.” Penney Peirce Checklist: _____ Eating healthy foods _____ Getting enough exercise _____ Taking vitamin or other supplements as needed _____ Watching our weight _____ Scheduling regular checkup’s and procedures recommended by health professionals As an overweight lesbian who is overdue for a teeth cleaning and mammogram, I am not throwing stones at anyone! Awareness can be the first step in a healthy direction. We also know, of course, that there are both long term and short term effects of not caring for ourselves physically. How we care for ourselves physically is a direct reflection on our selves and on our relationship with God. ______________________________________________________________________ Jesus came that we might have life and life abundant. How are we living out this abundant life in our MENTAL selves? The saying, “It’s all in the mind” is very true. Our minds direct our choices, our attitudes and our actions. No wonder it’s so important to care for our mental health! My mother used to tell me that once I got an idea in my head I just couldn’t let it go. She was absolutely correct! I have learned that sometimes these ideas are healthy and positive and sometimes they are negative and destructive. Whenever I find myself incorporating what Mom called, “stinkin’ thinkin’” into my thoughts, I pray for God to help me re-adjust my attitude. I have found these two things to be true: 1. I am always at choice in how I act and react. 2. If I need to adjust my mental awareness I need to first adjust my attitude “You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.” Ephesians 4:22-24 How we care for ourselves mentally is a direct reflection on our selves and on our relationship with God. ______________________________________________________________________ Jesus came that we might have life and life abundant. How are we living this out in our EMOTIONAL selves? I believe that all emotions are gifts from God; it’s what we do with them that can make a difference in how we reflect our selves and our relationship with God. I see my emotions as a temperature gauge that reflects my current state of being. When I feel myself starting to run hot I ask myself these questions: * What am I feeling right now? * What happened to cause me to feel this way? * What was the trigger for me? * What can I do about this in the moment? * What can I do about this over the long haul? Just asking these questions can be like adding coolant to a hot engine. Remember, however, our emotions can run hot for positive reasons as well as for negative reasons. Some of the hot emotions can include: anger, joy, hate, love, anguish, and fear. Some of the cool emotions can be just as vital to our lives. These might include: apathy, relief, peace, reverence, dismay, and gladness. Of course there are other emotions that run in between hot and cold! For those who think that there are basically only three emotions: Happy, Sad, Anger, let me assure you that there are lots more! Here are some of the emotions listed in the Psalms 1,2,4,5 and 6: Delight, anger, fear, rejection, relief, distress, shame, joy, peace, hate, reverence, deceit, rebellion, gladness, faintness, agony, anguish, love, sorrow, dismay, disgrace, exhaustion Scriptures tell us that some of the emotions Jesus experienced were: anger, compassion, frustration, betrayal, sadness, patience, abandonment, love, and concern. As a quick note before moving on, it is important to state here that many of our emotions come out of stress. Our bodies do not know the difference between good stress and bad stress. Therefore, we should not be surprised that our body reacts the same way to joyful news as it does to sad and disheartening news. Our emotions are a powerful force in our lives. It’s important to keep them healthy! How we handle ourselves emotionally is a direct reflection on our selves and on our relationship with God. ______________________________________________________________________ Jesus came that we might have life and life abundant. How are we living this out in our SEXUAL selves? Growing up I heard two basic ideas about sex: * Sex is dirty * You should hold out and save your virginity for the person you marry Here’s what I came up with out of those ideas: Sex is dirty; save it for the one you marry. God created us to be sexual beings. There are those who argue that sex is only for procreation, but here’s my argument: If it’s only for procreation then why did God make it so enjoyable? After all there are other systems in our bodies that provide results but aren’t necessarily pleasurable or stimulating. The church has been particularly negative on the subject of sex. It is the religious who have tried to frighten young people with stories about hair growing on their palms and self-inflicted blindness, supposedly resulting from masturbation. It is the church that has reduced LGBT people to their sexuality. The scriptures that have been used incorrectly to speak out against homosexuality all contain sexual references. “Because of this God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion.” Romans 1:26-27 Of course is we read back to discover what “this” is, we learn that this text is, at least in part, about idol worship and people doing what is unnatural for them. We must also remember that while homosexuals are accused of being abominations and perverts, heterosexuals are reduced to being “vanilla”, and staying within the bounds of the missionary position. Neither is true neither is healthy. I believe that our sexuality is a gift from God. I believe that God created a variety of sexual orientations and each is to be revered and respected. In turn we are to treat our sexual partners with respect. Healthy sexuality is respectful Healthy sexuality is loving Healthy sexuality is mutual “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body.” I Corinthians 6:19-20 How we conduct ourselves sexually is a direct reflection on our selves and on our relationship with God. ______________________________________________________________________ Jesus came that we might have life and life abundant. How are we living this out in our SPIRITUAL selves? A priest, a rabbi and a minister go fishing; they get into a boat and out onto a lake where they bait their hooks, cast their lines and wait. After an hour with no luck, the priest stands up, moves to the side of the boat and crosses himself. With his rod and reel in hand he steps out of the boat and walks on the water over to a place about fifty feet away. Standing there on the water he casts his line and immediately has a fish on it! The rabbi then stands up, moves to the side of the boat, and says a blessing in Hebrew. With his rod and reel in hand he steps out of the boat and walks across the water, with a high-five to the priest as he goes by. About a hundred feet from the boat he casts his line and immediately has a fish on! The minister sits there in astonishment as his two colleagues catch fish after fish. He has never walked on water, but doesn’t want to look faithless! So carefully he stands up, moves to the side of the boat and says a prayer. With his rod and reel in hand he steps out onto the water and kerSPLASH, down he goes. He comes up for air sputtering and spitting feeling like a complete idiot. He climbs back into the boat and sits there dripping wet. Seeing that the priest and rabbi are still catching fish, he gets up again and moves to the side of the boat. He mutters that one word prayer we all know so well: HELP, and with his rod and reel in hand he steps out of the boat and onto the water. KerSPLASH, down he goes again. This time as he comes up for air he hears the rabbi say to the priest, “So do you think we should show him where the rocks are?” This is one of my all time favorite fishing stories, but even more importantly one of my all time favorite spiritual stories. I believe that religion and spirituality are different from one another. It is our spiritual lives that connect us to the Spirit of God. There are tools that can assist in that connection, but it is the connection itself that makes us spiritual people. I have learned that religion can give us the rules, but spirituality is about finding the “rocks”. Spirituality is deeper and sometimes we need spiritual direction and guidance to find our way. Religion tells us the way as a people, but spirituality is about finding our own way as individuals. “This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom, but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words. The one without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to this person and he/she cannot understand them because they are spiritually discerned. The spiritual person makes judgments about all things, but is not subject to another’s judgments. ‘For who has known the mind of God that he/she may instruct another?’ But we have the mind of Christ.” I Corinthians 2:13-16 Listed below are some things that might help you find the “rocks” in order to walk your own personal spiritual journey: * A spiritual director * Rituals (lighting candles, smudging, rosary, special prayers, etc) * Spiritual Retreat * Daily Devotional and Prayer Time * Observing the Sabbath * Worship * Journaling * Nature Hikes * Music Jesus came that we might have life and life abundant. If you want to know what Jesus believed all you had to do was watch how He lived His life. He was forever healing those with physical, mental, and emotional needs. He talked about the need to care for ourselves sexually in a healthy manner rather than degrading our bodies and thus our spirits. He talked about the need to put God first in our lives and He modeled for us how to do that. Jesus knew the importance of walking His talk and that is what made Him so very different from the prophets of that day. Jesus knew the need to live out: * His love for God * His love and respect for all creation * Honesty and Integrity * Forgiveness and Compassion * Gratitude and Humility * Trust and Faith in God * Kindness and Hospitality In His actions as well as His words, Jesus reflected God. In the same way I believe that we reflect God by the way we live our lives and care for the physical, mental, emotional, sexual and spiritual aspects of our lives. If others are watching us today, how are we reflecting God? ______________________________________________________________________ Let’s go back to something I said earlier in this study: Since the church is not a building but a grouping of individuals, let’s look at how living out the abundant life as individuals can influence the community of faith. It’s this simple: If the individuals are striving to be healthy reflections of God, then the church will be a healthy reflection of God. How do we encourage individuals to become healthy and reflect the abundant life? * Teach (workshops, Bible studies, health fairs, special speakers) * Preach (creative sermons) * Encourage (support groups within the church, but also promote and advertise appropriate groups outside the church) * Practice (remember, if you don’t practice you can’t get good at something; practice doesn’t make perfect, but it’ll make you better) * Model (Wherever and whenever possible, model the abundant life) Because the best way to reflect the abundant life in Christ is to live it our in our personal lives and then live it out in the life of the church. . QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION Can you think of a time in your life when you had an experience where someone’s actions spoke louder than their words? What did they think they were reflecting? What were they actually reflecting? How does your care of your physical, mental, emotional, sexual and spiritual aspects reflect upon your relationship with your Creator? Are there any emotions that were taught to you (as a child or young person) that were bad? If so, what emotions were they and why were they believed to be bad? If someone were assigned to watch you for an entire day, what would your attitudes and behaviors reflect about your relationship with God? How does your church promote healthy living? What does it reflect about your church’s relationship with God? What questions were raised for you as you went through this particular study? Copyright © 2005 by Nancy J. Horvath-Zurn, MDiv. Published by UFMCC