“In My Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you?” John 14:2

Whenever I browse on social media, I see people attempting to portray an abundant life. Sometimes people share their most recent family photos. Sometimes I see dog owners posing with their pets. Other times, I see the most recent fashion ads to purchase anything you could imagine. I see people advocating for the topics and movements closest to their hearts. I see pitches from industry gurus offering the best advice from career advancements to tips for building businesses. At our disposal are images of the most glorious mansions, vacation destinations, and locales that can only be dreamt. There are emphasized ideals of beauty, with hair and makeup, nails, and accessories, all in our reach by simply double tapping. To someone unfamiliar with life as we know it, they’d assume that we have it all.

But there’s something about the description above that makes me just a little uncomfortable. It’s not the fact that I may not presently have everything described in my current possession (although sometimes I truly do wish this). It’s also not the typical rebuttal, “people only put up the most positive aspects of their lives”, that we always come to when discussing social media. The part that makes me the most unsettled is the notion hiding just beneath the surface that often goes unseen.

I sometimes get the feeling that even with all the positivity we portray, that somehow, most of us, if not all of us at some point, are in disbelief that an abundant life truly exists and that it is even really attainable.

How is it that I’ve come to this conclusion, you ask? Well, it’s not simply from our habitual action of posting the most pleasant things in our lives. On the flip side for our contrarians who purposely present alternate realities for the “less fortunate”, whether depicted as the single mother with just a few kids too many, or the “third-world” that many of us will never see in-person, or even the harsh reality of the big I’s and little you’ s that we seem to never get enough of in our current societal disposition to only slightly tip our perspective in favor of the oppressed. It’s really none of these things that makes me take a break from social media and to gain my bearings in the private recesses of my own mind. It’s what lies in John 14 verse 2:

“In My Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you?”

Every single time I’ve heard this verse, something inside of me becomes just a bit off balanced, and it’s not because this verse is often recited at funerals. It has nothing to do with Jesus’s words to us. It is simply the unstated doubt that He’s speaking to in this piece of scripture.

In this simple rhetorical question, Jesus takes on the gigantic feat of advocating that the life intended for us is not a mirage. He is speaking to our human disposition to doubt what God says.

Now, what is it about this verse that makes me feel that way? Let’s talk about it below.

Begging the Question

Do you ever get the feeling that Jesus is trying to convince someone of this house with many rooms? In one of my classes, I have been teaching students the forms of arguments. When discussing logic, while it is good practice to explain to someone the various ways that they may support a premise, or something held to be true, it is also important to let someone know how arguments may fall apart.

In this verse, it is so interesting to me that Jesus decides to “beg the question”. Begging the question is a fallacy, or a belief that is based on an unsound argument. When someone begs the question, they are “assuming the truth of an argument, or proposition to be proved, without arguing it” (Oxford Dictionary).

In verse 2, Jesus begs the question of the statement -

“In My Father’s house are many rooms.”

This statement is held as the truth in this case. It is Jesus’s premise. Next, in proper form, Jesus should have continued with his argument in making statements that justify the premise that we just identified. But instead, Jesus does not take the opportunity to prove that the statement is the truth, but rather, He justifies the statement by asking another question, a question that does not logically support His claim.

I love it because He did this all on purpose. It was no mistake. He meant what He said.

In His question, Jesus shows authority and asks us,

“If it were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you?”

This question has nothing to do with whether the premise is true or not, but instead, it has everything to do with whether we deem the one asking the question to be credible. In other words, do we trust that if Jesus said, “In [His] Father’s house are many rooms”, that this is the truth? Do we believe that there is a house with many rooms? Is Jesus telling us the truth, or is He lying? This is His main reason for begging the question.

He is alternatively saying, ‘by knowing me, don’t you know my words to be true?’

A Need for Reinforcement

It is always amazing to me how the Bible deals with the reality of our doubtfulness. This one single verse illustrates why I feel it is necessary for me to take extended breaks away from the mainstream. In my opinion, I feel that sometimes, all the attempts at portraying a life without lack only illustrates the fact that somewhere inside, we feel the need to reinforce the idea of abundance. And we do so by telling the world how great our lives are.

Now critically, I understand that there are blessings that show the favor of God in our lives as testaments of His goodness. Yes, we’ve got that one down. But if you take a moment to slow down and consider whether all of the postings, ads, Instagram stories, and videos are truly edifying the presence of God in His abundance, then I think most of us can settle on the conclusion that the majority of these vignettes of an “abundant life” are actually devoid of Him.

A lot of the time most of the depictions we see have nothing to do with God.

And this is why I have to take a step back, because I feel at times, there is a need for us to validate our idea of an abundant life over and over again, to our detriment, since we do not always center those abundant lives around God or His specific goodness.

And as a believer who is trying their best to place Him at the center, mainstream media can be a distraction that poses a challenge at my attempt, my devotion, and my efforts to seek God’s truth for my life. Being a constant witness of riches and glory without God is empty, heavy, and limiting. We cannot have an abundant life without God (John 15: 4-5).

And therefore, I believe Jesus took the time to reinforce His statement by begging the question of His character and His integrity. He was getting at our sinful habit to do it ourselves by removing God’s goodness as the center of our abundant lives. He ultimately knew that eventually, since we often set our hopes, dreams, and security on things that fade away, that can be broken, or stolen, He needed to comfort us in this way before our minds went completely left (Matthew 6:21). Because, you and I know that as comfortable and as stable as things often seem, it is understood that circumstances change, and so does the quality of our lives.

Is our idea of an abundant life the truth, or just like social media, the feeling of being in abundance is fleeting and at times superficial, while in need of reinforcement?
What exactly is our definition of abundance?

An Abundant Place for You and Me

To answer the provocative question from up above, my understanding is that if Jesus felt the need to reinforce the promise of God’s many rooms, I think we should probably pause and take a look at what we consider the rooms to store.

Is it a bank account with 6 zeroes? Is it the relationship that we see in movies or on someone’s IG? Is it to become a mogul by 25 years, and having a following of half a million on Twitter? Is it beating the odds that your family faced growing up and recreating standards for a perfect life without dysfunction? Or is it the need to feel impenetrable, where nothing touches you and you’re able to exist all on your own?

Let’s look at verse 1 of John 14. It says,

“Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe in Me as well.”

I think that this verse answers all our questions of what an abundant life (many rooms) will entail. Jesus encourages us to not be troubled. I believe He is letting us know that we while we may face trouble, we should not be troubled.

As He goes on, He affirms our belief in God as our basis, and while we believe in the Father, we must also believe in the Son. And while we may have trouble, Our Father God has many rooms. He’s promised us an abundant life with Him. In other words, our abundant life is not dependent on what it entails, instead, it is dependent upon Him being in it.

So my question here is, with all the positive things we display as depictions of our lives, either superficially or in our minds, is our idea of abundance real, or should we consider the “negative” things as part of an abundant life where we wouldn’t need assistance in believing in its reality?

Indeed, an abundant life is not a life without struggle. It is not a life without pain. It is not a life without strife.

But believing and resting in Jesus’ promise in verses 1 – 2, I am hopeful and encouraged that the things we sometimes place in the space of the many rooms provided by God, the reality of such rooms is that they are filled with more than what we presently see, think, or can imagine. They are filled with His spirit, with His grace, and with abundant blessings in mind. The rooms are filled with His glory.

And so, I am happy knowing that I can spend this life allowing God to show me and introduce me to what His intention is of an abundant life and all that it entails, struggles and all. I am hopeful knowing that Jesus’s intention is to go and build a place for me with these things in mind.

In Abundance