The Myth of Scarcity
Sunday,
November 4, 2009
Rev. Janice Palm
Matthew 6:25-27; Philippians 4:6-7
After seeing all the foods, the Knick Knacks, Christmas decorations, linens, collectables and other stuff collected over this last year and distributed throughout this church building during this past week, and after seeing all the folks coming and going with much of the stuff, we might agree that scarcity IS a myth!
Even in this world of over abundance, conversation is often dominated by what we don't have and what we want to get. No matter whom we are or what our circumstances are, we often navigate through conversations about what there isn't enough of.
Let me share a little from Lynne Twist's book The Soul of Money; she says it best.
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 it's true or not, that thought of not enough occurs to us automatically before we even think to question or examine it. We spend most of our lives hearing, explaining, complaining, or worrying about what we don't have enough of. We don't have enough time. We don't have enough rest. We don't have enough exercise. We don't have enough work. We don't have enough profits. We don't have enough power. We don't have enough wilderness. We don't have enough weekends. Of course we don't have enough money ever. We're not thin enough, we're not smart enough, we're not pretty enough or fit enough or educated or successful enough, or rich enough ever. Before we even sit up in bed, before our feet touch the floor, we're already inadequate, already behind, already losing, already lacking something. And by the time we go to bed at night, our minds race with a litany of what we didn't get, or didn't get done, that day. We go to sleep burdened by those thoughts and wake up to that reverie of lack.
This mantra of not enough carries the day and becomes a kind of default setting for our thinking about everything, from the cash in our pocket to the people we love or the value of our own lives. What begins as a simple expression of the hurried life, or even the challenged life, grows into the great justification for an unfulfilled life. It becomes the reason we can't have what we want or be who we want to be. It becomes the reason we can't accomplish the goals we set for ourselves, the reason our dreams can't come true, or the reason other people disappoint us, the reason we compromise our integrity, give up on ourselves or write off others.
This happens in the inner city or the suburbs, the world around, when we live with scarcity as an underlying assumption. Do you recognize yourself in any of this description?
Perhaps many of us do not think in these exact ways or say this kind of a mantra exactly. But we all are impacted by the desire to be more and have more that is created by the forces in our society, around us.
As I read that excerpt from The Soul of Money could you relate to those many aspects of lacking? Could you feel your anxiety/unrest rise as you heard each area in which there was not enough? The enticement is to relieve that anxiety by filling that perceived deficiency. The difficulty comes when we find the deficiency is never filled. The desire is never satisfied. The anxiety then never goes away. We end up moving on a treadmill never coming to an end wanting, needing more & more.
With that mind set of scarcity we are constantly looking to acquire whatever. And some of us get in way over our heads.
Adam Hamilton, a pastor of one of the largest United Methodist Churches in the United States several thousand folks lifts up that socially and spiritually we are suffering from two different kinds of ailments. Most of us have been affected in various degrees to one or both of these ailments. Affluenza is the first: there was a special on this some time ago on PBS; it's the constant need for more and bigger and better. Affluenza. Technological changes help feed the progress of this disease. Here's a concrete example of that. Do you realize that in the last thirty years the average home size in the United States has increased from 1660 to 2400 square feet; the number of acceptable garage stalls has increased from one to two to three. Today there is an estimated 1.9 billion square feet of self-storage units now holding all the stuff that won't fit in our homes. The second disease is credit-itis the idea that we can have something now and pay for it later. Credit-itis exploits our self-discipline and feeds our Affluenza. At one time we purchased items when we could afford them. If we didn't have the resources we put things on lay away before we took something home. Perhaps the only items we purchased and used before we had the entire sum for the purchase was our home and our automobile. For those big ticket investments, we borrowed the money. To help put things in perspective further, hear this: a bit more than a decade ago the average credit card debt was $3000; now it's over $9000. Mortgages have gone from 15 to 20 to 30 and now some are even as for fifty years in length. Many have second mortgages so that they can buy more, while they go deeper in debt. Twenty five years ago, on average, a person saved 10 % of one's income. Now, on average, a person spends 101% of one's income.
Now, does that make us anxious/uneasy?
But Jesus is saying to us that life is not about food, and the body is more than what it will wear. Do not be anxious or worry about what you will eat or what you will wear (and I will add what you have or how much you make). Look to the birds of the air; consider the lilies of the field. They neither toil nor spin yet they grow. God seeks peace for our lives. God seeks satisfaction and comfort. Jesus is saying there is a better way.
There are several assumptions to the myth of scarcity: there is not enough to go around, more is better, and that's just the way it is. If we act under the assumption that there is not enough to go around our lives become driven by acquiring so we or our loved ones won't be left out of the benefits of having it all. Acting under the assumption of scarcity, more is never enough. No matter how much one has there is always a sense of not enough. The attitude that more is better leads us to define ourselves by how much we have and to judge others by how much they have. Finally, with an attitude of that's just the way it is' offers no way out of a rat race of acquiring and owning. It justifies greed and prevents us from really, truly looking at ourselves and our relationship with money and possessions.
The letter to the Philippians turns us to what is important rejoice in the Lord. Again we hear: Do not worry/do not be anxious. And the peace of God which passes all our understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
We are meant to find our security in God, but our compass too often is miss-set and we look instead to amassing things and wealth. Our ruler for measuring success is too often miss-marked. It no longer is used to measure success by how we love one another and love God. Instead success is experienced and measured by how much we have or how high we are in some sort of corporate model. After all that is a part of the American Dream. That consuming desire diverts us from not only being a part of bringing the kin-dom of God here on earth but robs us of joy and makes us slaves to material gains.
But some of us perhaps aren't worried about mounting debt; our concern is in knowing how much is enough, how current do I need to stay technologically; how much do I need in order to live out the rest of life? And so we save as much as can; we make as much as can, and, yet, we are anxious, is this enough? And we rob ourselves perhaps of the joy of bringing the kin-dom of God through our generosity.
How do we free ourselves of worry about having enough so that we might spend wisely, save wisely, and give generously so that no matter what we do we are acting in consort with God's intentions for our lives?
Life is not about our accumulating wealth or things. Those kinds of things do not bring contentment and security. But rather, Jesus says, a successful life is about loving one another and God deeply. How can we realign our lives so we are in tune with this? How can we live into not being embarrassed because we just don't have anything to give because we have these debts?
Perhaps it is as simple as asking for help from God. Perhaps it is as simple as asking each day of God, Help me to be the person you want me to be today. Take away the desires that shouldn't be there, and help me be single-minded in my focus and pursuit of You. It's as simple as a smile or saying thank you, God. Each facial expression, each phrase spoken, each prayer said can change one's attitude. Let's invite God to be in our lives and so God guides our lives.
Christ will work in us as we seek that help and try to find how God might be moving us. As Christ works in us we can begin to sense a higher calling one toward simplicity and faithfulness and generosity. We begin to look at ways we can make a difference with our time and our talents and our resources. We can begin by seeking good financial practices, we can free ourselves from debt by turning our desires around. So then we might be able to be in mission to the world. The key to financial and spiritual freedom is found in simplicity. With the help of God we can simplify our lives, and silence the voices that are constantly telling us we need more. With the help of God we can live counter-culturally by living below, not above, our means. With the help of God, we can budget keep track of what we need and what we spend. We can build into our budgets the money to buy with cash instead of credit. With the help of God, we can build into our budgets what we need to be able to live generously and faithfully.
With the help of God, we will come to know that we have enough.
