“Abundance”
We remain hunkered down here at The James Company. We find ourselves reflecting on those steadfast values that now come to mean all the more to us. Abundance is one of those values.
I have come to realize the importance of healthy spiritual breathing. As I inhale, I take in all that God’s creation offers to be fully alive. I breathe in God’s abundance. I breathe in God’s amazing grace and generosity. As I inhale in this way, my deepest being pulsates with God’s gifts of faith, hope, and love.
As I exhale, it feels only natural to share God’s gifts of faith, hope and love with all of creation. As I exhale, I find myself collaborating in the redemptive work of Jesus Christ… proclaiming and teaching, serving and sanctifying.
Yet, I admit, it is all too easy to find myself slipping into a spirit, not of abundance, but of scarcity. Amidst my fear and insecurity, I find myself spiritually clenching my fist, tightening my grip upon what I perceive to be scarce resources. As my trust in God slips, my spiritual breathing experiences a shortness of breath. I struggle to fully breathe in God’s abundance. I struggle to take in God’s call to be generous.
It is during these stretches of doubt and uncertainty that I am called to trust in God’s promise of abundance. Even when the world around me is chaotic and unnerving, I am called to live in a spirit of God’s joy. And I am reminded that giving is a source of joy… that the gift I give away will bring far more joy than the gift I keep to myself.
This morning I caught an interview with Ai-jen Poo, https://onbeing.org/programs/ai-jen-poo-this-is-our-caring-revolution/. I was captured by her optimism as we evolve toward our future, not of scarcity, but of abundance.
Ai-jen Poo said: “I think about the love, the capacity for human connection, for generosity of spirit, no matter how much or what you have or don’t have – that we have, right now, within each of us, every single thing we need to be a part of creating a beautiful future. And we have been living in a time of such scarcity and austerity and zero sum. Everything about our politics is zero-sum. That is not what we were meant for, as human beings. Our inclination is to be connected and to care. The era of zero sum is coming to an end. And what is our future is one of abundance.”
May we be Easter people, proclaiming God’s hope and abundance to all.
Be well everyone!
Fred Stoltz, Program Director
The James Company
Phone: (414) 690-3426
Email: fstoltz@jamescompany.com
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