Faith & Insight: More than we bargained for

I'm looking at gas prices and feeling very old. Here's why: When I was 14 we all had mini-bikes with lawnmower engines. On Saturdays, we could ride from our houses with a quarter in our pockets, ride for hours, and stop for gas and a candy bar all for a quarter. When my dad filled up our '52 Mercury he got stamps, drinking glasses, a straw sun hat, air in the tires, a check under the hood and a clean windshield, all of this while someone else pumped the gas for about 30 cents a gallon. When was the last time you left a store and they offered you more than you paid for?

It seems like life is more expensive every day and instead of getting more for our money we get less.

I'm afraid there's no going back to "the good old days" but that doesn't mean there isn't hope for getting more than we bargained for because of Jesus. Jesus said, "I came that you may have life and have it abundantly." Have you ever heard this? Did you know it applies to everyday living? It does!

Will Jesus lower gas prices or pay our rent? Not directly, but he will fill up the greater emptiness in us that comes from feeling like we can never catch a break.

Jesus wants to give us an abundance of more than we are asking for. C.S. Lewis put it this way when he wrote, "We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased."

The apostle Paul spoke of Jesus as the one who gives "exceedingly abundant more than we ask or think." We will discover more than we bargained for when we take Jesus at his word and explore what it means to walk with him in every facet of life. And there are churches all over Carson City with people and pastors waiting to help you experience this.

• The Rev. Bruce Kochsmeier is the pastor of First Presbyterian Church of Carson City.