Moving from Scarcity to Plenty
Mark Nepo reminds us of an old story: "A young man [is] freezing on the side of the road in Alaska. He's hitching a ride to Miami. He's so cold he can barely hold up his handmade sign. After a long wait, a friendly trucker stops and says, 'I'm not going to Miami, but I'm going as far as Fort Lauderdale [the city just north of Miami].' Dejectedly, the young man says, 'Oh,' and turns the ride down. This folk myth of our modern culture warns us against our want for perfection…”
Nepo asks us: “How often do we refuse our fate under the guise of holding out for the right thing? How often do we turn down the path presented like a gift because it's not exactly what we're dreaming of? How often do we hold out for the perfect partner, the perfect job, the perfect house? How often do we martyr ourselves to some imagined ideal? How often do we lose sight of what we're really after, insisting on all or nothing, when there is so much abundance?”
This week, we are starting a new series: Six Stone Jars, where we focus on the economy of Jesus rather than the economy of the world. In our time, it would be easy to believe there is not enough of anything. Not enough land, not enough jobs, not enough healthcare, not enough room in our hearts for people who are different. While it may be true that our politics embody a world with not enough compassion, not enough empathy, and not enough care, we might miss what there is more than enough of so many things. How might we be transformed as we look around and see not scarcity but plenty? How can we see something new when we let go of the notion that perfection is the goal? How will we embrace the opportunity to work with the world as it is instead of only seeing things as it could be?
God of abundance, we thank you for the infinite ways there are to do good. When we find ourselves looking for that “perfect” thing or way of being, restore our vision for the world to notice all the many paths we can take toward restoration, wholeness, and goodness. Transform our understanding so that we can focus our attention on the plenty that surrounds us.