Faith Reflections

The “Scarcity Assumption”

The man shuffled into Starbucks, his hand grasping the left hip pocket-area of his trousers, pulling up the left leg of his worn slacks, making it a full three inches shorter than the other. His coat collar was hunched up around his neck. The man seemed a foreigner among the latte drinking, laptop using customers that populated the shop. Moments later he made his way back out the door, having acquired a free glass of water. He took a seat at one of the small tables outside.

These are times of scarcity, and this man was wearing a wardrobe of scarcity. His is a place we don’t want to be. Scarcity is scary and in one way or another it scares us all. Jobs are scarce, money is scarce, solutions to our varied problems are scarce, time is scarce, and almost everything we could want seems to be scarce.

I feel the gnawing anxiety of scarcity at the beginning of each week when I stare at a blank legal pad of paper knowing that by Friday I need to have several such pages filled with notes from which to write the weekend message. I am wondering, more than anyone, what I will end up saying! I don’t like scarcity.

Parker Palmer writes about the “scarcity assumption” we often entertain. We begin to assume there’s going to be a scarcity of whatever we need for life to be good. Palmer states, “The irony, often tragic, is that by embracing the scarcity assumption, we crate the very scarcities we fear.” (Let Your Life Speak, p. 107) The fear of scarcity can be a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Here’s the thing – if we believe in God, seek to be His person, and accept the fact that His intentions are good for us then should we be living with a pervasive sense of scarcity? I don’t think so. God has unlimited resources and that should color our world. Let me rapid fire three Biblical texts.

“And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 4:19) “Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured in your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.” (Luke 6:38) “They will celebrate your abundant goodness…” (Psalm 145:7a)

I saw a well-dressed young businessman step out the door and give a cup of coffee to the man sipping his glass of water. The young man then came back in and took his seat in front of his laptop. “Did you just buy that guy a cup of coffee?” I asked. “I tried to, but they gave it to me,” he said, nodding to the guy behind the coffee bar. Apparently relieving scarcity is catching!

I’ve decided to believe that there’s not as much scarcity as I often allow myself to believe there is. I’m going to give up my “scarcity assumption” and assume I can count on a God of abundant provision! You too?

Waiting On God

I don’t like to wait and I can’t think of anyone else who does either.  The “waiting room” at the doctor’s office definitely has a negative connotation.  What I’m reminded of is how God also has us wait for Him.  Why?  Why does it seem that I’m waiting for God to catch up with my plans?  I should know better, after all, He’s perfect and that means He has perfect timing.  God’s never tardy!

That means His causing me to wait for Him has more to do with me than with Him. Maybe circumstances have to line up, maybe I need to change in some way before He will act.  When we wait in a doctor’s office we read old magazines or listen to someone else cough.  God certainly wants me to do something more productive with my time while I wait for Him!

Lord, what do you want to teach me, to show me or in what way do you want me to change while I wait?  “Our soul waits for the Lord, he is our help and our shield.” Psalm 33:20

When God Plays “Mom”

Our granddaughter and her mom

I’m a dad and a grandpa and I’ve tried to be good at both.  But when that little one gets hurt there’s no one like mom to take away the pain.  Few images project comfort more than a mother holding her hurting child.  A mother’s arms can dry tears like nothing else can.

God is our Heavenly Father, but that doesn’t keep Him from playing “mom” when we need Him to do so!  “As a mother comforts her child, so will I comfort you.” (Isaiah 66:13)   That’s how Jesus referred to the Holy Spirit, as the comforter!    God’s a great many things for us but I for one am glad that He is also Comforter!

Persevering Beyond Raking Leaves

Diann and I spent about 9 hours total yesterday raking leaves from off the lawn, under bushes & trees, off the roof, and from along the fence.  It seemed overwhelming when we started, but we stuck it out and it’s done.

“Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.” (Galatians 6:9)  The verse isn’t talking about picking up leaves, but of carrying out God’s intentions for us.  But like raking leaves, it takes a lot of perseverance to see His will for us unfold.  Join me in persevering today!

Soul Shape

I love exercising!  I could sit and watch people exercise all day!  Seriously, as important as staying in physical shape is, I’m more concerned about keeping in spiritual shape.  How can I stay in “soul shape”?  Good question.  ”Training your body helps in some ways, but serving God helps you in every way bringing you blessings in this life and the future life, too.” 1 Timothy 4:8

The Detours of Life

Here’s a quote that I believe is true, though I have a difficult time living up to it: “A truly happy person is one who can enjoy the scenery while on a detour.” How can anyone be happy taking a detour?

All the time I’m on a detour I’m wondering how many miles out of the way it will take me. I wonder if I could have gone through the “Road Closed” sign anyway because they’re doing minor repairs, not major construction. I think about going on detours back home and about the fact that I often know a shorter detour — through a housing development or whatever. There’s probably such a short cut in this case, too, but I don’t know the area. It annoys me that there’s probably such a short cut and I don’t know about it.

I often have my camera with me when I travel, because I take lots of pictures, but when I’m on a detour I’m not enjoying the scenery and am in no mood to stop and take pictures. The detour has already put me behind schedule, and as a male driver I lose points for that — so I lean forward, gripping the steering wheel, wishing that the detour was over, and missing all that’s good and beautiful around me.

We experience detours other than when we’re driving. Life’s filled with detours. Few — if any — of us feel that we’re exactly where we want to be in life.

The reality is that we’ll never find any measure of happiness in life unless we come to the point where we can find the good in the place in life we now find ourselves. I gain strength from the conviction that God’s always known we would be exactly where we are right now. It’s not caught Him by surprise as it has us. He has a plan! His destiny for us is in the detours!

“Your path led through the sea, your way through the mighty waters, though your footprints were not seen.” (Psalm 77:19)

On Big Shoulders

A boy on his dad’s shoulders, what a secure looking image.  ”The eternal God is your refuge and underneath are the everlasting arms.” (Deuteronomy 33:27)  Here’s hoping you join me on riding on the shoulders of God today!

Fall Seeds Spring to Life

I was walking through the woods behind our place Monday afternoon, looking for pictures to take. I glanced down and saw all of these little seeds sticking to my bluejeans. I was only a couple of hundred feet from a cornfield where there’s acres of corn with golden ears on each stalk, each with row upon row of kernels. The day before I had photographed a milkweed going to seed. Seeds, seeds, seeds all over the place! Fall is the time for seeds!

Fall is when we watch most plants die, producing seed that, in most cases, also looks dead. I like what author Parker Palmer, who I’m now reading, says about fall. “Autumn is a season of great beauty, but it is also a season of decline: the days grow shorter, the light is suffused, and summer’s abundance decays toward winter’s death. Faced with this inevitable winter, what does nature do in autumn? It scatters the seeds that will bring new growth in the spring – and scatters them with amazing abandon [like on my bluejeans].” Palmer then brings home the point. “In my own experience of autumn, I am rarely aware that seeds are being planted.” (Let Your Life Speak by Parker Palmer, p. 98)

Most of us don’t have to look far in the past or maybe we need only look near at hand in the present to see an area or areas of our life where things are declining, dying or even dead. The fact is, things are not always going well for us. It comes easily to see only the negative when our lives are not thriving in some predetermined way.

The season of fall reminds us that decline can be good. It’s the season when seeds are planted in abundance for new life to erupt in spring. Palmer calls this “autumn’s paradox of dying and seeding.” We are to believe that God can do the same with our “autumn” experiences.

Jesus used this imagery when describing His own “autumn” experience of having to die on a cross. He hinted at the tremendous good, for us, that would result from this dying. “I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.” (John 12:24) And we call His day of dying “Good” Friday! Any experience or situation that is not producing current positive results, maybe even painful and negative results, is also producing seeds of future good that will find their season of spring, if we have the faith to believe it to be so!

I’m a Link Between the Holy & Human?

“Do what I say, not what I do” is how we try to get out of taking responsibility for our actions.  We may be smart enough not to use the phrase, for it incriminates us, but I’m thinking we still practice it.  And yet we don’t want it said of us “the walk doesn’t match the talk.”

I just read the words of the great apostle Paul to the Christians at Corinth.  He told them, “Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ.” (1 Corinthians 11:1)  These would be strange words for me to say to someone today.  Still, I believe this should be the goal for me today, to feel comfortable with people following my example in attitude, speech, and behavior as I seek to follow the example of Christ.  A tall order, but dare I aim for anything less?  I can’t imagine what it would be.

If anyone seeks to be a serious follower of Jesus then anyone following the example of that person is heading the right direction, right?  I see it as a chain, not a human chain but a divine/human chain.  There’s my holy God, then there’s myself, trying to be more God-like, and then there’s the person who isn’t as serious about God, or is having some serious issues with relating to God.  I’m the link, the link between the holy and the human.  “Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ.” Wow!  What a way to define my day!  Lord, help me to be a link between you and someone today!

A Two-way Relationship

It amazes me that the God of the universe created we humans in order to be in relationship with us.  What I need to remember, then, is that a relationship is a two-way street.

Though He’s all powerful He will not impose a relationship on me.  He wants me, but I have to want Him as well.  “Draw near to God and he will draw near to you,” the book of James says in 4:8.  Facing a busy day I need to remember that!