Dear friends,
When our children were growing up, we, like most families, employed key phrases to help us navigate turbulent times. When feeling stressed, we would declare “I’m being flexible!” as both a warning and an aspiration. When needing space physically or emotionally, we would call “time out“ and the topic had to be immediately dropped. And, when the green-eyed monster of envy reared its ugly head, we said, “When you compare, you always come out behind,” because few of us compare ourselves to those with smaller houses, older cars, and less robust 401(k) plans.
If there's one theme throughout Jesus’ ministry, it is how he transformed his follower’s focus on scarcity into an experience of God’s abundance. Unfortunately, many of us never experience a sense of true abundance. So, what are we to do?
Anne Lamott has a novel prescription— “I know that if I feel any deprivation or fear, the solution is to give. The solution is to go find some mothers on the streets of San Rafael and give them tens and twenties and mail off another fifty to Doctors Without Borders. Because I know that giving is the way we can feel abundant. Giving is the way we fill ourselves up.”
That's not always easy— especially in a world that is more convinced of scarcity than abundance. Yet it is important, and it begins by being able to notice our abundance, to recognize and give thanks for what we have, especially since most of us have more than two coins sacrificially offered by the woman you can read about here.
This weekend, we’ll explore the freedom and joy we can find in generosity, in living with an awareness of God’s abundance. We’re fortunate to have Molly Smerko, our Pastoral Resident for Education, preaching at our 8:45 service, and I’ll be preaching in the others.
I look forward to seeing you, either in-person or online.
Warmly,
Bob Henderson
