Abundant Life

These darn coyotes.
It was on the front page of the paper yesterday - and the brief synopsis you ask?  The city won't do anything, us doing anything would be illegal and so we just need to watch our animals closely.  Here's my brief gripes with that:
1.  I have no animals, I have children.
2.  And quite honestly if a stupid coyote hurts my child, then the city agency that's afraid of PETA is going to have a much bigger and ferocious beast to battle.
I get it - we are encroaching on animal's land as our population gets bigger.  We need to make allowances for them, even if that means they are attacking people's beloved pets and leaving them for dead.  If we have a problem with it, we should just build a bigger fence.  At least that's what I'm hearing from the general public in regards to this story.  But coyotes are predators - they aren't meek, gentle animals.  They are conniving and rabid and they want to eat.
This whole issue with the coyotes has collided with the other issue at the core of my heart right now - and the verse that keeps coming to mind is John 10:10 (NASB)
¹⁰"The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly."
 I'm so frustrated right now with our culture.  It seems that everywhere I look excuses are being made for the "thief," and all things related to him.  Our society has even begun to look at these things as acceptable, commonplace, expected instead of seeing them as disgusting, vile, ugly and sinful as they are.  Even Christian's, and the one's who I would say really are Christians not just in title, have a nonchalant attitude regarding these things.
Why?  Don't we understand that the thief doesn't want our lives to be abundant and amazing?  These lies that so many of us are buying into hook, line and sinker are counterfeits of the truly amazing life that has been offered to us.  These things are distractions - nothing but smoke in mirrors so that the "thief" can take our abundant life that we could have and replace it with a life of brokenness, hurt and pain. 
I used to think rules and boundaries were highly overrated and really in the grand scheme of things, just fun killers.  And then something happened.  My youth pastor's son who I love as a little brother was five at the time and he was riding his bike in the driveway.  He had his helmet on because he followed the rules and always wore it.  The sun was setting and right at dusk when the sun shines right in your eyes, a girl turned the corner in her car abiding by the speed limit on the street.  She saw movement so she swerved - except the movement she saw was Cameron and her swerve was into him.  She pinned him with her car and drug him across the street.  Cameron broke his femur bone and wore a full body cast for about two months - but he lived.  Had she not been following the speed limit or had he not been wearing his helmet, both two rules that we can find burdensome and ridiculous, Cameron may not have made it.
In the same way, when I tell my children to not run into the street or stand up in the cart at the grocery store, it's not because I want to ruin their childhood and take every ounce of fun away from them because I delight in them having boring childhoods.  Quite the contrary!  I don't want them to get hit by a car, fall and crack their heads open - end up dead.  I want them to enjoy life - and I would love for them to understand that the rules that Dave and I have in place are so that they can the best life possible.
Are you living an abundant life or have you fallen for the tricks of the "thief?"  Are you staying true to the standard of beauty you have in your spouse, or is the Thief changing your standard of beauty to that younger, less responsible version?  Are you staying pure before marriage or are you falling for the deception that sex before marriage isn't going to hurt?  Are you finding natural highs in things that are positive or are you deciding that what the thief is offering to you is the only way you can find release and escape?
God gave us boundaries and rules so that we could experience freedom and fullness within those things.  Sometimes we fall for the lie that no rules, no boundaries is where the real freedom is.  But I promise you, if you are playing on the line, seeing what will happen if you step your toe on the other side of those God given boundaries, just wanting a little taste - You will fall prey to the thief, whose job is to steal kill and destroy.  There is no freedom in that.
Live life abundantly - without fear, shame or worry.  God had promised us that - and He is faithful to His promises.
As for the coyotes - I've been fielding a lot of really great ideas to eradicate them...:)