Are You Living a Full Life?

I think each of wants to know as our life grows closer to being complete that we have accomplished something worthwhile during our time. For some of us, this is symbolized by a number in a savings account. Others view accomplishment as what they are able to leave behind for their children. Many of us find value in everything we’ve collected over the years. Yet, some of us, simply want to know we’ve lived a “full life.”

Reading the Bible on a daily basis has been part of my relationship with Jesus throughout the previous five years. As a theology student, this has meant a collection of 13 different Bibles in seven different translations over the past five years. My Bibles have also become a significant part of journaling. Each one has been used throughout a season or two of my life to fill with notes, questions, and letters I’ve written to God.

Last year when I made the decision to come home to the Catholic Church, this meant buying a couple of new Bibles. One is a St. Joseph edition that I never write in. The other is a NAB revised edition Study Bible that is still being written in and highlighted on a daily basis.

I’ve read the book of Genesis more times than I can count since late 2012. With the decision to focus my theological studies on the Old Testament last December, this has meant reading through the Pentateuch again, the first time with my NAB. I’ve written several articles on verses throughout Genesis and Exodus before, but Genesis 25:8 has never grabbed my attention the way it did while reading my Catholic Study Bible.

“Then he breathed his last, dying at a ripe old age, grown old after a full life; and was gathered to his people.”

I had to stop and read the verse over a few times. As I mentioned earlier, I’ve read the account of the death of Abraham before. For some reason, I felt the need to look into the verse a little more. I grabbed a few of my other translations and looked up the same verse. I really wasn’t sure what I was looking for, but something had my attention. In the NRSV, my favorite translation because it’s my C.S. Lewis Bible, I found:

“Abraham breathed his last and died in a good old age, an old man and full of years, and was gathered to his people.”

Unsatisfied with what I read, I turned to one of my ESV translations, the translation I read when I first discovered a personal relationship with Jesus. I found the exact same verse as the NRSV provided. I looked through a few other Bibles and read a couple commentaries before finally returning to my Catholic Study Bible.

The words “full life” grabbed my imagination and wouldn’t let go. That’s what I want. When I’m laid in a box and everyone meets to eat fried chicken and talk about all the trouble we got into when we were kids and too young for it to go on our record, I want someone to say, “It took Jeffrey awhile to get it, but once he did, the man lived a full life.

I spent some time journaling about what a full life looked like to me. Then I spent some time studying the life of Abraham. From when we are first introduced to Abram in Scripture, he is obedient to God’s call in his life. He leads his family on a journey to a place that has yet to be revealed to him. Abraham fulfills his part in the Covenant of Circumcision that God has established with him. He even goes as far as offering his son as a sacrifice to God.

Yes, Abraham acquires many great possessions through God’s blessings in life. God fulfills every promise that He made with Abraham. That being said, I don’t think these “things” are what made his life full. I’m not making an attempt to brag or toot my own horn, but when I am on the straight and narrow in life, there’s nothing I’ve ever had to go without that was needed. Even the majority of my selfish wants have only been a phone call away when I’ve been sober and trying to do something with my life. However, I’ve never experienced the feeling or thought of, “I’m on the way to living a full life.”

If my life were to end within the next 24 hours, there’s no way the word “full” could be used to describe it. There has been very little obedience. Only recently have I grown comfortable with the phrase, “Thy will be done.” Anytime God has prompted me to follow Him, I’ve needed to know where we were going, how long it would take to get there, and how much money I was allowed to spend on the way.

This is starting to feel more like a journal entry than an article that is going to hopefully be published, so I’ll wrap things up. I pray that something I have written has made you question the fullness of your own life. Who have you pointed towards the cross? Can anyone you know look back and say their life is amazingly different because of something you did? Better yet, when you lay down at night, can you say without a shadow of a doubt that you know God smiles every time He looks at you?

That’s the kind of fullness I want my daughter to remember me by. I want someone to tell her someday that they couldn’t go more than a couple of hours without sticking a needle in their arm until they read something I wrote about Jesus. I want to introduce someone to the Gospel in a way that wrecks everything they thought they knew about themselves. I want to be a part of the next generation never hesitating to stand up and join hands in prayer before they eat at a fast food restaurant, leaving others in shock at what they just experienced.

I want to write something that leads other husbands and fathers to not only read their Bibles but to take God’s Word everywhere they go as if it’s their favorite sports app or Facebook messenger. I want my life to be so full that my daughter proudly tells others over and over again as an adult, “Other people know Jesus better because of something my daddy wrote.”

What about you? What will people say while eating chicken and coleslaw when it’s time to put you in the dirt? Please don’t tell me you want them discussing whether you were half full or half empty.