Freedom VS Scarcity

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On this red, white, and blue weekend- I am feeling particularly in sync with the holiday and particularly free.  I am taking in "space"--  Space to be, space to take in, space to behold from a place of stillness and receptivity.

As I think of what stands in the way of this freedom on a regular day, smack in the middle of normal life - the idea ofscarcity comes to mind as my enemy.

I have been soaking up Brene' Brown's (2010) research recently.  In her book The Gift of Imperfection,  she quotes:

"...that thought of not enough occurs to us automatically before we even think to question or examine it. We spend most of the hours and the days of our lives hearing, explaining, complaining, worrying about what we don't have enough of....We don't have enough exercise, work, weekends, money, thinness, smarts, beauty, education, success, friends, time, sleep...  We go to sleep burdened by those thoughts and wake up to the reverie of lack...
What begins as a simple expression of the hurried life, or even the challenged life, grows into the great justification for an unfulfilled life. "

And I love the antidote--sufficiency.  Not grandeur and lavished, un-boundaried indulgence...sufficiency.  And it's not a quantity.  It is a quality.  Abundance isn't measured by amount or number...if that were so it would be unattainable. We have a predisposing we are all subject to:  once we have _____ (fill in the blank) we find something else in deficit.

Psalm 39:4-7
Amplified Bible (AMP)
4 Lord, make me to know my end and [to appreciate] the measure of my days-what it is; let me know and realize how frail I am [how transient is my stay here].
5 Behold, You have made my days as [short as] handbreadths, and my lifetime is as nothing in Your sight. Truly every man at his best is merely a breath! Selah [pause, and think calmly of that]!
6 We are merely moving shadows, and in all our busy rushing ends in nothing.
7 And now, Lord, what do I wait for and expect? My hope and expectation are in You.

Thus, we are the opposite of free.

Until we pursue a quality, not a quantity in our inner being that is satisfied and sufficient.  Satisfied is choosing a mindset of sufficiency.

It's not time management, money allocation, or the latest life organization advice. Finding freedom and room to breathe is not really adjusting anything out the outside.

In Ann Voskamp's (2010) words: " I don't really want more time, I want enough time...I just want time to do my one life well."

I adore her solution to scarcity and her invitation that is an equation that equals freedom= slow, thankful, present living.

"Like the God-Man counting His too few loaves and not enough fishes..."Jesus then took the loaves,
gave thanks, and distributed to those who were seated as much as they wanted" (John 6:11, emphasis added)
Gave thanks...I'd never considered those two words, the bridge words there in the middle, the crossing over that took the not enough and made it enough.  Gave thanks. 
Jesus embraces his not enough...He gives thanks...and there is more than enough. More than enough! Thankfulness always proceeds the miracle.  And who doesn't need a miracle like that every day?" (Voskamp, 2012)

When we click our eyes upward and focus on our Source, rather than the quantity before us, we see clear.  There is enough-and if there isn't?  We know God's character as unmoveably Good and Faithful, and with our eyes adjusted upward, His promise to multiply our loaves and fishes will unfold in that miracle of his Goodness every time.  That is where the real freedom starts.

Like Jeanine Allen (2011) says when we risk our lack in the hands of an unseen God, it is the most predictable way to experience God's presence. And how about that for freedom?

“The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free,to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor."

So, reconsider this freedom holiday:  what makes you feel the most free is what eliminates scarcity and exposes you to the One who has no bounds.  It is first adjusting of your vision, not your outsides--I'd love to sit with you, wipe our vision clear and pursue this freedom with you.    

Allen, J. (2011) Anything. Thomas Nelson. Nashville, TN.
Brown, B. (2010). The Gifts of Imperfection. Hazeldon. Center City
Voskamp, A. (2010)  One Thousand Gifts.  Zondervan, Grand Rapids, Michigan 

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