21 October 2008

of abundance

We are swimming in abundance.

The stock market is down about 632%, house prices are nose-diving, we are mired in war in the middle-east...

The sky is falling, right? Wrong.

We live in a land of incredible abundance. There is enough. Of everything. We do a pretty terrible job of making sure that everyone has enough in our land. The evidence is only a few miles away in the line forming outside of the shelter. But the reality is that we have enough. I mean, have you walked down the aisles at a grocery store recently? They keep getting bigger because we keep getting more and more options. Even if we are pinched financially right now due to exterior conditions, we are downsizing to ground beef from steak or to Hamburger Helper and Spaghetti-O's from Outback and Chili's. We are overfed as it is. Maybe a little contraction is needed.

And there is nothing wrong that. I hear more rubbish in my office about tanking 401k's and the price of gasoline... WE LIVE IN THE RICHEST COUNTRY IN THE WORLD.

While we grumble about having to bring a sandwich to work (again), 1.4 Billion people in the world today cannot afford even that. If they saved all week, they might be able to afford to put a bit of meat in between two slices of bread. Because 1.4 Billion people in the world live on less than a dollar a day.

$1.

1,400,000,000.

Souls. Hearts. Human beings created in the image of God. Count the zeros again. How many children sleep hungry tonight? How many mother's cannot take in enough nourishment to even produce the milk that her baby needs so desperately? How many will reduce themselves to informal slavery in sweatshops and sexshops just trying to find enough to survive to live the horror again tomorrow?

We are so ridiculously blessed. And this wealth ensnares us. We get caught in the cycle of covetousness and we find ourselves so deeply unhappy because of what we lack, because of some perceived scarcity.

We can decide today to remove ourselves from that world of scarcity. We can be sources of abundance in our workplaces, schools, and churches. We can be compassionate to the hurts of others, but unrelenting in our message that there is enough to go around and that we are indeed blessed beyond our wildest imagination. We can quietly make this holiday season about others. We can choose to practice Jubilee. We can choose to joyfully redistribute the wealth that has been dropped on us so abundantly.

If nothing else, we can recognize our abundance. And raise our eyes in thanks.

2 comments:

  1. Amen my friend! Shannon

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks Brother we can Thank God for
    our Blessings and I have been really blessed by your Blog, hope you read my e mail on that and my Comments on Steph

    ReplyDelete