Scarcity or Abundance?

It is just one thing after another.

There are moments when the demands of life seem to overwhelm the available resources. It feels as if there is never enough to go around. Life seems set up to cause us to experience scarcity as the essential nature of existence.

So we scramble to accumulate just a few more resources. If only we had a little bit more, we would be up to the job. The temptation in the face of perceived scarcity is to rush to acquire more and hoard what we have.

Jesus said, “one’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.” (Luke 12:15) Acquiring more will never bring us to abundance. As soon as we get a little more, the task grows bigger, our expectation increases.

Abundance is experienced on a completely different plane. Jesus spoke of “an abundance of the heart.” (Luke 6:45) He pointed to an inner experience of abundance that no external circumstance could ever diminish.

When we experience inner abundance we discover that “A good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over,” has been “put into your lap.”

This abundance is never discovered by accumulating and hoarding. Abundance is only experienced by giving. “The measure you give will be the measure you get back.” (Luke 6:38)

We do not need more of those things we experience as scarce in order to be fully alive. Fullness of life resides in the human ability to choose that which is most truly rich, deep and real about what it means to be human.

When Jesus was asked for the key to life, he repeated the same word twice; he said, “Love.” (Luke 10:27) Only love unlocks abundance.

Life provides an endless supply of love. Love never runs out. The essential nature of existence is love. As we live in love, abundance multiplies. We know ourselves to be the recipients of an overflowing resource of the only gift necessary for true life.

We can always love and the more we love, the more love we experience. The more we live in love, the more we experience ourselves as fully and abundantly alive. There is no longer scarcity; in love life is full.