Abundant Living 2         Psalm 100         8/21/2005

Last Sunday there was such a positive response about the sermon that I decided to do a follow-up tonight with "Abundant Living 2". In the sermon last week I shared these 3 thoughts about Living the Abundant Life:

1) Abundant living begins with the knowledge that our lives are in the hands of a loving God. No matter what happens for good or ill today God is in our midst and wants what is best for us.

2) Abundant living begins with God, ends with God -- is centered in God. Every day we are given the opportunity to give lavishly of ourselves to touch the world with God’s presence.

3) Abundant living happens in the present moment. In this present moment life is being born and learning to show up for this moment is the blessing of abundant living.

Tonight I invite us to look at three other aspects of abundant living:

1) Abundant living is gratitude living.

2) Abundant living is reverent living

3) Abundant living is compassionate living.

Gratitude begins with the knowledge that all that we are, all that we have is a gift from our loving creator. Our every breath should be one of gratitude to God the giver of life.

Abundant living begins in our waking moments with a "thank you" to God for the day before us. A thank you of gratitude for shelter, food, work & play, for family, family of choice, friends, partners -- the list goes on & on. For all those little blessings that arrive at just the right moment to enrich our lives. Gratitude has a way of chancing away despair, and awakening us to the miracles of God’s presence in the moments of our days.

Saying thank you to God is only one part of a life of gratitude. The other part is saying thank you to the people & world around us. Take the time each day to thank the people in your life for all they do. From the woman in the check out counter, to the person who helped you in a time of need, to your partner or friend who stands beside you every day. Don’t’ miss the chance to say "thank you "... it opens your heart to more of God’s abundant life.

Out of a heart of gratitude that respects the sacredness in all of life compassionate living is born. As I’ve said so many times, none of us is in this alone. When we see another person in need we must help... help with our very presence, our time, our financial resources. Compassion means identifying with the homeless man, with the depressed gay teenager, with an abused woman, with the helpless tree in the Amazon rain forest, or a frightened dog in an animal shelter.

Compassion means we reach out with the love of God to make a difference. Through our actions, in our prayers we help to alleviate the pain in our world. For some of us that means working to help get the right political leaders elected, for others of us it means sending a check to a worthy organization, for others it means working at the Animal Friends, for all of us it means walking along side our fellow human beings until the day comes when every man, woman & child knows true peace & justice.. For when one person suffers we all suffer. To live abundantly is to live compassionately as we make God’s presence real in our world.

All of life is a gift from God -- all of life is sacred. As we learn to live in gratitude for all that has been entrusted to us, we learn to respect ourselves, others, and the world around us. To respect the sacredness of every human being means we treat each other as holy. Our thoughts, our words, our actions should reflect our desire to show honor and glory to God. A number of Asian cultures have the wonderful habit of bowing to each other when people meet, showing the respect -- the reverence -- they have for each other. We bow to one another when we meet each other with care, when we listen attentively when another is speaking, when we look in to the other person’s eyes and see God -- see the sacred.

To live a reverent life is to treat our earth with care. The trees and mountains, the streams and oceans. To use the natural resources that have been entrusted to us wisely is to say thank you tot the Creator for trusting us with this beautiful earth.

As you move through your days bow to the holy by the way you show reverence to all of life.

Abundant living is gratitude living. As you go about your week look for things for which to say " thank you" to God. Take the time to thank the people in your life for all the ways they touch you with God’s presence. Abundant living is reverent living. AS you move through your days bow to the holy that you see in the people and places and things around you. Abundant living is compassionate living. Out of a heart of compassion we touch our world with God.