When I was growing up my mom wasn’t good at judging how much food to make for a meal to serve everyone. It tended to be there were no leftovers. Once, we had some people over for dinner, and served them on china plates that had no ridge anywhere, they were extra slippy. Mom put the spaghetti on plates in the kitchen, and we brought the plates out to the dining room. For a couple of plates, the spaghetti slid off the plate to the floor on the way to the dining room. After eating one serving of spaghetti, one of the guests asked for another serving. But there was no spaghetti left.
For many years I looked at that story as a tragedy. We had a guest from Switzerland come over, and we couldn’t feed him enough. For many years when that episode came to mind, I believed it was a story about scarcity.
But now I look at that story and I see it’s positive. A guest from Switzerland came over and loved Mom’s spaghetti so much that he wanted more! It must have been good. And nobody starves in America. We must’ve found something else to offer him, even if it was Cheez-its.
The positive version is more like what happened. Our Swiss guest came over several more times for dinner. We must have figured out how to have two servings of spaghetti for him.
In life we often have a scarcity mindset rather than a “God provides abundance” mindset. Do you live your life thinking, “I’m about to run out, I gotta keep what I have, because there’s not enough.” Or do you live your life thinking, “There’s more where that came from!”
Advertisers want us to think we don’t have enough. Life will be better if we correct our scarce situation and go purchase some abundance. They tell us to buy, buy, buy, because we don’t have what we should have. They would have us think we live in scarcity, and we always need to get more stuff. BUT If you have ever moved, you know that you pack box after box, and wonder, “Where in the world did all this stuff come from?” It wears you out, going through everything you own: what to keep, what to toss. It wears you out packing and moving so many truckloads full of stuff. Then comes unpacking and trying to figure out where to put it all. We have abundance!
Recently college students went back to school. And unfortunately, some came with scarcity thinking: “I might never get to party again if I don’t party now.” So, because some students are afraid of missing out, they go out and party in large groups. The reality is there will be an abundance of their young lives where they can party. But because they go out and break the rules, it can mean the whole college has to shut down and go home. Scarcity thinking can make things scarcer!
If you do not believe the scarcity mindset is real, remember the toilet paper run of 2020? I still don’t understand how a virus that affects the lungs, caused the greatest run on toilet paper in history! Years from now history teachers will teach that Covid 19 was the great deadly diarrhea virus of 2020. Why else would we buy all the toilet paper? And there was never an increase in need for it.
When we listen to the news, we hear bad news mostly, there is a scarcity of good news: we have the worst unemployment since the Great Depression. The news is mostly bad. But there are some feel good stories, such as a couple from Ohio got married in August. They couldn’t have the reception they planned. Rather than ask the caterer to refund the cost of food, they asked the caterer to bring the food to a homeless shelter for women and children. The bride and groom got married, and that day, the bride in her wedding dress, and the groom in his tux, served the food cafeteria style. The couple enjoyed seeing all the smiles, everyone feeling so happy. And the food was enough for several days for the shelter residents. It’s a wonderful story of abundance.
Wherever Jesus went there was abundance! At a wedding feast where they ran out of wine, Jesus turned water to wine. When the sick couldn’t get well, Jesus healed them. When his friend, Lazarus, had died, Jesus raised him from the dead. When the people were discouraged that they couldn’t meet the demands of the law, Jesus proclaimed the good news of God’s love. Jesus lived with an abundance mindset, not a scarcity mindset. Jesus came so we might have abundant life.
In the gospel story from Matthew 14:13-21, Jesus feeds the five thousand. Right after John the Baptist is killed, Jesus heads out to a lonely place to grieve. Then a crowd shows up. Jesus could have sent them packing, saying he needs his alone time. But in verse 14 it says, “When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them and healed their sick.” Jesus thinks abundantly: it’s ok to cancel his alone time. He will have more time with God in the wilderness in the future; he can take some time out to be with the crowd and heal the sick.
Jesus teaches and heals a long time. His disciples notice that it’s dinner time, and there is no food. “Send the people away,” say the disciples. Jesus says, “They don’t need to go away.”
The disciples say, “We have here only five loaves of bread and two fish.” We just have a little boy’s lunch. The disciples believe in scarcity. Jesus knows what God can do, and says, “They do not need to go away. You give them something to eat.”
Then Jesus not only feeds the crowd. He treats them to rest. He has them sit down on the grass. Have you ever eaten on the run, or eaten while driving in a car? Jesus doesn’t do that. He says, sit down, be our guest. This is the rest that God gives. When we rest in God, rest in his provision, we experience how the Lord provides abundantly. Jesus gives thanks to God for the bread and fish. Even when the disciples think God didn’t give enough and there’s a scarcity of food, Jesus believes in thanking God for whatever he has provided, no matter how little. The disciples hand out the food. It turns out there is an abundance! There is more than enough! Nobody leaves hungry.
It is a beautiful thing to imagine this moment. Imagine you are there, sitting on the grass, chatting with people around you, and a miracle unfolds. You are treated to an all-you-can-eat dinner, at no cost. And you look around and 5000 people are smiling, happy and full. There is enough for everyone.
God provides abundance. I believe there is enough food to feed the world. There is enough work for all. The only reason desperate poverty exists is sin. We believe in scarcity: there’s not enough, I have to look out for me. We don’t create that world of abundance God provides when we believe in scarcity. Feeding the world takes faith in the abundance God can provide, so that God’s kingdom will come, and there will be a world where all have their needs met.
Right now, our economy needs help; it needs us to move away from a scarcity mindset. People who are doing ok financially, might be tempted to hold back and spend less money. It is very hard on small businesses that are struggling to keep going if we think scarcity. We all thrive on abundant thinking.
There is enough for all. We can open up our hands and give and share and help others out and support small business, when we trust in God’s abundance. God has more where that came from!
There is enough, and more to come! Another way we give in to scarcity thinking, is sometimes we don’t think we are enough. I am not good enough, or smart enough or talented enough. As if God blesses some people, but not me. Jesus says to you, you are worth so much more than sparrows, more than the flowers of the field which are here one day and gone the next. God will provide for you. God loves us all! You are God’s child, God never gives up on anybody. Jesus believed in the least: he healed the lepers. Jesus believed in the lost: he spent time with the woman at the well. Jesus spent time with sinners: he went to a party of tax collectors. Jesus even believe in the religious leaders he argued with. He believed in them and called them to turn to God. Jesus was friends with one of the religious leaders: Nicodemus. Jesus believed in everyone. He offered healing, food, forgiveness, and love in abundance.
Consider the Great Depression. So many people were living on a little, things were pretty scarce, but still they helped out someone else with food. They didn’t hold back. That’s an abundance mindset: There’s more where that came from! It’s God thinking. It helps us all to thrive.
God believes you are enough, and there is enough in the world for all, because God provides abundantly. It’s up to us to believe so much in abundance, to believe so strongly that there’s more where that came from, that we’re not afraid to share, we’re not afraid to support businesses, we’re not afraid to move forward. God provides and will always provide. We don’t need to worry, because God holds us and the future in his hands.
My homework for you this week is to ask yourself: “What is my abundance?” Is it things, talents, or your supply of toilet paper? If you have a big stash of toilet paper: isn’t God good? If you don’t have much toilet paper, no worries because there is toilet paper in the stores and more where that came from! Give God thanks for your abundance!
God is a God of more. He doesn’t hold back; he gives us blessing upon blessing. Sometimes our thoughts go to scarcity: I am not enough, there’s not enough. We forget our God will supply all our needs. God is able to bless us abundantly, so we can bless others. Let us step out in faith, because God has given us blessing upon blessing, and there is always more where that came from! Amen.
September 6, 2020
Maureen Duffy-Guy's blog 