Across the Pastor’s Desk by Katelyn Rakotoarivelo

 

Enough. Am I enough? Do I have enough? These questions often plague us.

In her book “The Soul of Money,” global activist Lynne Twist writes, “For me, and for many of us, our first waking thought of the day is ‘I didn’t get enough sleep.’ The next one is ‘I don’t have enough time.’ Whether true or not, that thought of not enough occurs automatically before we even think to question or examine it … Before we even sit up in bed, before our feet touch the floor, we’re already inadequate, already behind, already losing, already lacking something.”

Do these thoughts sound familiar? Unfortunately, they are all too familiar for many. Our default is to jump to what we lack, jump to what we haven’t done and to let our “not enough” define who we are. We also live in a society that encourages constant assessment of what we have and don’t have, and of comparing everything about our lives to others. This all gives us a vision of scarcity and focus on ourselves.

But this vision needs to be stamped out. This way of thinking harms our relationships with one another and harms our own well-being. It places stumbling blocks before us as we seek to live as people of God, called to generosity and caring for one another.

In Acts 4 we hear about the community of the early church: “Now the whole group of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one claimed private ownership of any possessions, but everything they owned was held in common. With great power the apostles gave their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all. There was not a needy person among them, for as many as owned lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold. They laid it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to each as any had need” (Acts 4:32-35, NRSV).

Rather than this vision of scarcity, we ought to have the vision that those early apostles had — that God provides life abundant, enough to meet the needs of all. Now this is not an easy task, for it requires re-examining our relationships with time, money and possessions both individually and on a global scale. But it is this vision of enough for all that God calls us to, the life that God intends for us.

Pray this week for God to help us to be of “one heart and soul” and to guide us to meet the needs of all. Pray this week for God to be your first thought in the morning, for your first instinct to be gratitude. Pray this week for God to transform hearts and minds. God provides life abundant, enough for all as each has need … but we need to steward this abundance as God intends, not as we desire.

Katelyn Rakotoarivelo is a pastor at Concordia Lutheran Church of Pickerel Lake in Albert Lea.