Spiritual Reflection after Election Day

Hi.
I try to keep this blog lighthearted and funny, and try to keep any "heavy" subjects out of it. Today I can't help but share this with you.
I receive these daily e-votionals through my church (UCC - coincidentally the same church as Obama's) and this one really struck a chord with me. It's been a rough few months...we're all stressed and stretched thin. This campaign has been draining on all of us. But really, it's about what we have, not what we don't have. So whether your candidate won last night or not, revel in this great advice. I know my greatest blessings are the ones I sit and watch sleep at night. And the ones whose Cheerios I must sweep off the floor. And the guy snoring next to me in bed. And all the rest of my family too. And that goes for friends as well.
When I look at all I'm surrounded with, I feel very very wealthy.
Sorry to get so sappy on you, maybe it's turning 35 that's doing it to me....

Wednesday, November 5, 2008

Abundance or Scarcity?

Bible Excerpt from Psalm 128Your wife will be like a fruitful vine within your house; your children will be like olive shoots around the table.

Reflection by Martin B. Copenhaver

So much of our scripture is a celebration of abundance. The first chapters of Genesis are a song of praise for God's generosity. With each act of creation, the divine refrain is, "It is good, it is good, it is very good." And it pictures the Creator saying, "Be fruitful and multiply." It is what Old Testament scholar Walter Brueggeman calls, "an orgy of fruitfulness."
Many of the Psalms, including the one for today, survey creation and catalogue this abundance in loving detail and with joyful thanksgiving. Then, in the Gospels, Jesus multiplies loaves and fishes so that there is more than enough for everyone. At a wedding feast he turns water into wine, and more wine than could be consumed at a dozen weddings.
These highly symbolic stories speak of God's abundance. There is enough, there is more than enough. That's the biblical narrative. But the narrative by which we are tempted to live is another story entirely, a story of scarcity, where there is never enough. In fact, we are tempted to define enough as, "always something more than I have now."
In spite of all that has happened in recent months, we still live in the most prosperous country in the history of the world. Do you live out of a sense of abundance or scarcity? That may be an economic question, but certainly it is a faith question.

Prayer
O God, when I count your blessings, they are numberless as the sands, so I confess that I don't always get very far with my counting. So I simply thank you for sharing your abundance with me. Amen