LIFE TO THE FULLEST

LIFE TO THE FULLEST

Choking through our sobs, Patricia and I bid Madeline, our oldest daughter,  goodbye in front of her student apartment building in New York . At the last moment I lay my hands on her shoulders and blessing her and praying for her safety, happiness and wisdom. I get choked up thinking about it now, actually.Corny and embarrassing, but it was the best I could do in the moment. One last prayer for our baby, our oldest, our sweet girl, as she left the nest.  

Jesus’s  prayer in John 17 seems as if  he is trying to get one last prayer in for the people he loves. What I especially love about the prayer is that it is the same prayer we pray for our loved ones- especially those of us who have children.  Jesus wants the best life for his followers- his children. Jesus says, in verse two, “And this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.” The most common interpretation of the words “eternal life” is to relate it to some kind of afterlife. All throughout John, though, “eternal life” is meant to be read as “life to the fullest.” 

Jesus wants wants us to life to the fullest through him and with him right now! Brian McLaren, a writer I like a lot, says in his book, The Secret Message of Jesus that this life “a life that is radically different from the way people are living these days, a life that is full and overflowing, a higher life that is centered in an interactive relationship with God and with Jesus. Let’s render it simply an extraordinary life to the full centered in a relationship with God.” 

Jesus doesn’t want to save us from the world by granting us access to some kind of eternal life on streets paved with gold. Even better, Jesus wants us to have life to the fullest through his way- a way that lives from the the reality of a self-giving love that sits at the center of all things.