It’s easy for Christians to fall into a rut: Church is a thing you do, prayer is a box to check, and faith seems far from “the real world.” This fall we let Jesus himself confront our ruts. “Do you believe this?” he asks (Jn. 11:26).
To believe in Jesus is to experience him. It’s more than logic, argument, and doctrine. It is intimate knowledge of God himself. This fall, let Jesus himself speak to you in his seven “I AM” statements in the gospel of John. How is he changing you? What response is he inspiring in you? To believe in him changes everything.
Invocation
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Ponder:
Ponder the I AM statement: “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” Consider how Jesus said “way,” singular. Ponder how our society is pluralistic – many ways. What do you think when you hear Jesus’ exclusive claim?
Word
John 10:10
“I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.”
Meditation: Finding Abundance by Megan Roegner
There are times that I feel like my life is too full. I am a teacher, a doctoral candidate, and a mother of three children. My hours are filled with work and class and reading and writing and children’s activities and doctor appointments. An empty evening or weekend schedule is truly a treasured gift.
On the other hand, sometimes I feel like my life is too empty. Despite my busyness, I can feel lonely. I crave more time with people who truly understand me. I crave more opportunities to feel like my authentic self.
The hours are filled, but are they filled with things that matter? In fact, it may be true that my life is so full because I keep searching to find that thing that will suddenly make all of the pieces click into place.
When the Gospel writer in John 10 acknowledges that Jesus’s audience did not understand his figure of speech about the door and the gatekeeper and the sheep and the shepherd, I’m right there with them. I have a good head for figurative language, but I can’t make this one balance neatly. I know that I am a sheep, but what is Jesus? The shepherd? The gatekeeper? The door? It seems like he’s all three at once: the caretaker, the guardian, and the boundary.
But the mixed metaphors work. We need all three. There are thieves out there, ready to steal and destroy vulnerable sheep. The shepherd, the gatekeeper, and the door are there to safeguard us, not confine us. Jesus wants us to “have life and have it abundantly” (v. 10), and for this, we need his protection.
In thinking about the abundance of life, I am drawn to two thoughts. That, one, some of the fullness of my schedule can be seen as the abundance of a blessed life: a meaningful job, a challenging education, and a wonderful family. But, secondly, sometimes the stressful busyness I experience is a result of me searching for fulfillment outside of the safe haven of God’s plans for me—oftentimes a prideful desire for achievement and recognition, a temptation to craft an identity outside of being just another humble sheep.
Jesus is our shepherd—he knows what’s best for us. Jesus is our gatekeeper and our door—he is our boundary. We don’t need to accomplish an endless list of tasks to find meaning or to prove our worth: We already have it, abundantly, in him.
Jesus, thank you for being our shepherd and caring for us. Thank you for being our door and protecting us. Help us to live abundantly through you. Amen.
Prayer
Jesus, you said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” In a world of competing ways, show me the narrow path that leads to you. I have tried paths that lead to nowhere. You alone are truth and life. Draw me close to you. Amen.
Benediction
Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen. (I Tim. 1:17)