Getting More Out Of Life

Jesus said in John 10:10 "I came that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly." It seems that more people are just existing from day to day rather than getting the most out of life. As the story goes, many years ago there was a circuit riding preacher that would go from Church to Church on horseback. During the summer months he would take one of his kids to go along with him. On this particular Sunday, he was going to a new Church. Having never been there before, he wasn't familiar with how they took care of the visiting preacher. Upon arrival, the Church's only Deacon showed him the collection box and told him that people would drop their offering in as they arrived and that at the end of the service all that was in the box was his. So as to be a good example for his son, the preacher reached into his pocket and pulled out a quarter and dropped it into the box. All seemed to go well and the preacher waited until everyone had left before going to the collection box to receive his love offering for making the long trip out there. As he reached in, to his disappointment and surprise, all he got was the quarter that he had previously dropped in. They mounted the old horse and as they began to head on back home, the preacher - being human - began to grumble about how he had come so far and preached so hard and all he got was just his own quarter back. Then came these words of wisdom from his young son, that spoke volumes. "Dad, if you had put more in you would have gotten more out".
Sometimes we come to church with so much of the world situation on our minds and we just sit there, only to go home thinking I sure didn't get much out of the message today. Or we go through the day, traveling in our rut of an existence, and come to the end thinking another day has come and gone. Try putting a little more into life. Don't just experience life, let life experience you.