How to Get the Most Out of Life

How to Get the Most Out of Life

John 10:10b

            I have a “refrigerator” magnet on the desk lamp in my office.  It says, “Life is all about how you handle plan B.”  Good line!  Gilda Radner expressed the same thought when she said, “Life is about not knowing, having to change, taking the moment and making the best of it, without knowing what’s going to happen next.”

            When you wake up each morning, no one hands you a script and says, “This is what will happen to you today—what you’ll say, what you’ll do, and what people will say and do to you.  Follow the script and everything will work out.”  Instead, we improvise our way through life, minute by minute, hour by hour, day by day.  When we start out in the morning we don’t know what the day will bring.  We may start with a plan (Plan A), but we can agree with Robert Burns that, “The best laid plans of mice and men gang aft agley.”  So…Plan B.

            I think Andy Rooney got it right.  He said, “It’s those small daily happenings that make life so spectacular.”  It’s the unexpected moments of joy—and of sadness or sorrow—that fill our lives with meaning.  When I began serving as a division director in a local community college, I read, “I used to be upset by all the interruptions in my job until I realized that the interruptions were my job.”  I know I didn’t quote that exactly, but that’s the idea.  From that moment, the door to my office was always open to everyone—student, faculty member, colleague—anyone who dropped by found me available.  I learned to welcome the interruptions—the distractions, because they were what made the job enjoyable and rewarding.

            Another lesson that changed my workday was a mild heart attack—mild because I missed less than a week of work.  When I returned to the office, I became much more prompt about leaving at the end of the day.  At 3:30 (the time my contract said I could leave), I piled my unfinished work in the middle of the desk, where it sat, waiting patiently for my return the next morning.  I went home with empty hands and a clear conscience, ready to enjoy whatever the evening brought.  The next morning I attacked the pile with fresh energy, fresh insights, and a fresh spirit.  Ashley Montagu said, “The idea is to die young as late as possible.”  I want to do everything I can to make that happen.

            Jesus understood life and how it should be lived.  Life is to be lived to the fullest.  When he said, “I have come that you might have life, and have it more abundantly,” he wasn’t talking about some future life in some paradise.  He was talking about here—now!  This is the life we are to live abundantly. 

When William James said, “The great use of life is to spend it for something that will outlast itself,” he took the same position Jesus did.  This is abundant life.  This is what Jesus’ life was.  His life was spent so our lives would be more abundant.  It’s our turn to spend our lives in pursuit of something that will bring abundance to someone else.

Too many people miss out on abundant living because they wait to enjoy life until it’s too late.  They want to make sure the kids are grown and settled, the mortgage is paid off, the retirement account is full, and all the trials of life are past.  It doesn’t work that way.  “Life,” someone said, “isn’t about waiting for the storm to pass.  It’s about learning to dance in the rain.”

It may be a strange image for some of us, but Jesus knew how to dance in the rain.  He was constantly under pressure, teaching his disciples, healing the sick, offering comfort to those in need, sparring with those who opposed him.  Yet he found time for little children, for dining with friends, for wedding parties. 

Jesus calls us to do the same.