Abundance and scarcity

AS is the word of the day, but it’s the acronym AS: Abundance/Scarcity.

Just in the United States, we spend:

  • $39 billion with a b on major league sports,
  • $103 billion with a b on our pets, and
  • $110 billion with a b on our lawn care.

People are welcome to spend as much as they desire on Fido, but let’s stop pretending there’s not enough money to address our local and national problems. The Bible teaches, “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

I’ve been taught my whole life that we make time for what’s important, that we find a way. We have the abundance of resources in the nation to solve our problems, yet it’s so easy to hide our light and our money and our love.

We may feel that when the glass is only half full we need to protect what little we have left from “those people.” Half empty leads us to hoard, mistrust, ignore, vilify, and close our minds and our hearts.

When will our neighbor, those people, become our treasure: the 90-year-old stroke patient, the foster child, the refugee, the disaster victim, the caregiver who doesn’t make a living wage? We have the abundance to address our problems, but we have a scarcity of will to address our problems.

LSC’s vision remains firmly rooted in John 10:10, “I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.”

Let’s pray and strive to live in this world of abundance. Let the light shine.