An Abundant Life

What does it truly mean to live abundantly? Most of us instinctively think of abundance in terms of what we can accumulate -- more money, more comfort, more security. But John 10 flips that assumption entirely on its head. Drawing on the deeply familiar image of a shepherd and his sheep, we are invited into a richer understanding of what life can look like when we follow the right voice. The sheepfold was not a foreign concept to the original audience, and its meaning runs deep even for us today. There is a shepherd who knows us by name, who goes before us, and who -- unlike the hireling who flees at the first sign of danger -- laid down his own life to protect ours. The thief comes to steal, kill, and destroy. But Christ came so that we might have life, and have it more abundantly. That word 'abundantly' carries extraordinary weight: over and above, exceeding, surpassing, uncommon. This is not a modest promise. It is a sweeping one. And it reorients everything about how we understand the purpose of our faith journey.