Living well can so often be confused with materialism. When actually, a life well lived has nothing to do with money, power, or popularity.

Rather, Jesus reminds us that He came so that we can have an abundant life – a life free from the burdens the world tries to place upon us.

This freedom from Christ empowers us to live well – to eat well, rather than hurried and cheaply. To drink well, rather than on the brink of dehydration. To love well, rather than selfishly, and to think well, rather than swarmed with anxiety and paranoias.

The thief comes to kill, steal, and destroy all these things, while fooling us to believe the false treasures of this world is how we discover the mystery of living well.

Let us not be fooled but receive the rest God promises to give and quit chasing the fools gold of this world.

The true gift of living well does not come from what we can collect outside, but springs from inside us as God transforms us from within – changing how we perceive, receive, and engage life.