Life In Abundance
……… I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.” John 10:10
If you had asked me when I was young to tell you what being born again means, I would have told you that it means to walk around looking angry, pale, hungry, thirsty and poor all at once. I thought it meant detesting beauty, color and success. Detesting life in general. Walking on eggshells around God so his feelings wouldn’t get hurt because he in turn would immediately condemn you to life in hell. Constantly being downcast and wearing an internal sackcloth because of the burden of your sin. Judging people on God’s behalf.
This is what it looked like from the outside looking in and naturally, I wanted none of it. In fact, I stayed so far away from it that I ironically had many close encounters with death trying to ‘live’.
Learning about Christ, the sacrifice he made and the immeasurable love he has for me has taught me that my life in him should always a moment of celebration. Granted that in the flesh we always have ‘stuff’ thrown at us but we ought to know that we are fighting from victory because the battle has already been won. The word of God in 2 Corinthians 2:14 says that ‘But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and through us spreads and makes evident everywhere the sweet fragrance of the knowledge of Him’(AMP).
My awesome Pastor, Apostle Moses Mukisa always preaches that we ought to schedule our moments of celebration since the moments of mourning schedule themselves.
Where I come from, when village folk gather they drink ‘bushera’- a local brew. It is not uncommon during these gatherings for someone to start “ekizino” our traditional dance. Others join in clapping, dancing, singing. If you have seen Bakiga dance, you know how much energy is expended as they jump off the ground and then back with a thud, stirring up a dust storm. At the end of the dance everyone just “kugwa hari”-falls there laughing. Bushera is non-alcoholic by the way, so the happiness is not alcohol-induced. My tribemates need no specific occasion or reason to celebrate.
The thought of God, and his humongous love for me is a moment of celebration that makes me want to break out in Kizino even when I’m alone and even when there is no music The knowledge of his love breaks addiction, depression and sin.
In other words, Christ came that I may be generous, joyful, healthy and an economic powerhouse. That I may also spend every Saturday afternoon with my friend Vivie having fun with our children; dancing and eating and joking that if we died people would say; “cause of death: food.”
One day I met someone who was telling me that they came to my church and that one of the things they didn’t like was how loud the worship session was. I laughed and told them that I used to, and now still occasionally go to the disco and spend the whole night dancing with my friends on deafening sound. I would be happy if they even took it a notch higher at church as I immerse myself in worship, in celebration of the one who gave his life that I may have an abundant life as a wife, a mother, an employee, a sister, a daughter, and a friend. In celebration of the one who came that I may ‘laugh in a Benz.’
