III.

THE LIFE ABUNDANT

"I am come that ye might have life, and that ye might have it more
abundantly." —John 10:10.

HEN the Christ Spirit — the I AM POWER — comes

into our we realize that we are living
consciousness,
the life eternal here and now, and that we are living in
Eternity now, and Eternity is not an existence waiting for
us beyond the Valley of the Shadow.
When one realizes he is living in Eternity now, he
orders his life to get the greatest value out of it. He recog
nizes life as a composite of experiences and gleanings, out
of which he completes the Pattern of Existence. We should
therefore live our life to the fullest and get the full enjoy
ment and the full value out of every moment that passes
through our particular experience.
When Jesus said, "I am come that ye might have life,"
do you think He meant physical life alone? Those He
came to minister to had physical life already, but He came
to show how to bring forth the love, beauty, wisdom and
utility of life in the largest expression possible on this
plane. He came to point the way to the fuller, richer life
of love and service, the life which recognizes itself as part
of the All-Life, the All-Power, the All-Presence, the All-
Abundance and the All -Wisdom.
He knew that souls, in order to progress faster in their
evolution toward divine perfection, must have full expres
sion and the power of creation, and that they must not live
in a rut of slow monotony. Life is necessarily action, and
the highest, fullest life is that which in all its activities and
interests has for its main incentive the largest service to
others.
19
20 Life Abundant for You
The Life Abundant! What does it mean? It cer
tainly does not mean lack of any kind or description. It
means health, joy, beauty, love, harmony and abundance,
and above all, the capacity to create and express what is
always in agreement with the strongest urge of the soul.
It means capacity to appreciate what we have received,
what we have now, and what we know we will be able to
create and attract to us in the future.
God wants His children to have the Life Abundant, but
each individual soul has to choose what makes for the Life
Abundant in his own individual case. Jesus said: "Fear
not, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give
you the Kingdom."
The Life Abundant is fullness and satisfaction in those
things we personally desire, for that is what we need in
our next step to progress. But the fullness of life may
mean one thing to you and another thing to me. Happy
is the man or woman who chooses wisely.
God undoubtedly desires His children to have fullness
of life and expression, and freedom to have this fullness of
life according to our own standard, and if it is not the true
Life Abundant we choose, but instead only satiety along
some side-line of existence (off the main road of Progress) ,
then the Guiding Power within will soon show us where
we have chosen unwisely, and after we have the needed
experience will guide us to some new environment or ex
perience. The Life Abundant is made up of experiences,
all valuable and necessary in the School of Life, for action
is the keynote of progress. Action should be judged, how
ever, according to its usefulness to ourselves and the world
at large, and the less time we waste in useless or unneces
sary action, the faster the progress. This the individual
must always decide. God wants us to have the Life Abun
dant, which is divided into three distinct divisions —
preparation, service and realization. In the preparation we
have to have proper equipment to get the best out of life,
and this means the best education we can get, not only
academic but also in the aesthetic side of life, such as art,
 The Life Abundant 21

beauty, music, philosophy, etc., so we may be able to

appreciate life in its fullness, and add to the beauty of it.
The soul must have harmony and beautiful surroundings
to bring out its best, and the more we can individually con
tribute to these (as well as the more practical utilities of
life) , the more we are contributing to world progress.
But whatever your life, or your aim toward progress,
remember Action is necessary. We cannot progress by
standing still, or allowing the brain power and the many
talents God has given to each soul, to rust and deteriorate
for lack of expression. Act and progress, even though you
fall occasionally. The harder the fall, the quicker and
higher we rise again. We cannot further our own lives
or anyone else's by standing still, neither can we retain
what we have already attained; for by standing still we
make a rut, and ruts are not productive of growth on any
plane. Someone has aptly said : "A rut is a young grave,"
and in this statement there is food for much thought.
To progress we must live, and the more of service we
crowd into a day, the more we shall have lived and learned.