life in abundance

Today's sermon in my church was about Jesus saying that he came so that "they might have life, and have it in abundance."

First, let me get this out of the way: "life in abundance" is a scary phrase for me. If I can hardly handle life to the half-full, or life to the ten percent, how on earth would "life in abundance" be a promise that could get me all excited? Nobody wants MORE of something they can hardly handle even a little bit of.

But it also made me ask, "yes, but do I know ANYONE who has life in abundance?"

Sure, many people seem to have it all together, but generally that's just until you get to know them. I can't think of anyone of whom I would say, "now there's someone who has life in abundance."

There are several possible explanations:

1. Jesus didn't mean this life, he meant the next life.
2. There are people who have "life in abundance", they're just not in my social circle.
3. I'm so lost that I don't even know "life in abundance" when I see it, and there's people all around me who have it but I'm either blind to it or seeing it but not cognizant of what it is I'm looking at.
4. Jesus might have come to give people life in abundance, but he pretty much failed at the task.
5. The whole thing is bunk.

Did I miss any?

On a somewhat related note, I've always said that human dissatisfaction stems from having desires that are not being met. I'm not saying that having all your desires met equals satisfaction (it could well be a lose-lose situation), but no one has ever shown me any dissatisfaction that couldn't be boiled down to "I want Reality A, but I get Reality B".

I'd go so far as to say that even the greatest human suffering can be seen as a degree of dissatisfaction. Of course that is a very disrespectful and understated way to define it, because it makes it look as if it's just a difference of degree between deepest human misery -- death camps and all that -- and the spoiled child's "I wanted vanilla, not strawberry".

I don't want to make light of human suffering. But I can't think of it in a way that makes it NOT a matter of degree. That's not necessarily disrespect. To say that you saw a big spider and to say that Jupiter is a big planet is also to use the word "big" about two things that are not remotely the same size.

So if unfulfilled desires cause dissatisfaction, then what is the road to satisfaction? I see three options:

1. get rid of your desires. No more desires, no more unfulfilled desires, no more dissatisfaction.
2. fulfill your desires. No more unfulfilled desires.
3. Learn to desire only the things you already have. Again, no more unfulfilled desires.

All seem to be impossible to me, although I'll accept the possibility that there may have been monks and saints who achieved number 3 (which is just the somewhat easier variant of number 1).

The way I see it we're stuck with dissatisfaction, and the only thing we have a semblance of control over is to what degree we accept it, and to what degree we try to drown it out.

I'm pretty sure Jesus didn't mean "life in abundance" as meaning the same thing as "life without dissatisfaction". What he DID mean is something of a mystery to me.