ABUNDANCE VS SCARCITY, as it relates to my weight…and other things in life….
Embracing ABUNDANCE creates a mental posture of freedom to choose good things that are healthy, energizing, even medicinal. Bob, don’t dwell on what you “can’t” or “shouldn’t” eat. Instead, practice awareness of all the amazing things that are whole, that you can and will choose. Imagine savoring the taste and flavor and texture of goodness as you make good choices from your mental posture of abundance and freedom.
To focus on SCARCITY, what I tell myself I can’t or shouldn’t have, creates in my mind a vacuum for that very thing. And without consciously knowing why, I am so drawn to that thing RESPONDING TO A DEMANDING URGENCY that convinces me I must have it, and have it now!
So, scarcity thinking invariably leads to bad choices. Ultimately, as a result of the FATIGUING MENTAL PROCESS of debating good vs bad, and, frequently, IN SURRENDER AND SENSE OF FAILURE, giving up and giving in, and choosing badly.
So, why does it seem so hard at times to see the abundance God has placed before us? And why does it seem so natural to focus on what we don’t have and seem to want so much?
The tension between ABUNDANCE and SCARCITY dates back to the Garden of Eden. Adam and Eve. In an environment of perfection– of beauty, and splendor and abundance and freedom — hand-crafted by God Himself, where Adam and Eve could enjoy the pleasures of married love in the mornings and personal fellowship and communion with God in the afternoons…….Perfect surroundings, perfect provisions, perfect bodies, perfect sex, perfect worship, perfect freedom……..BUT, God said, there’s one thing you must stay away from. (Oh, the seduction of scarcity!)
All this is yours to enjoy Adam, Eve. This one thing, however, is off limits. You can’t have this. If you do eat this — you will begin to die, and ultimately you will die. Don’t do it. Don’t hurt yourself. Now, enjoy yourself!
Sadly, we know how that ended. Satan seduced them with a question, that produced a thought, that created a doubt, that resulted in a step away from the truth, away from God, that produced the emotions of guilt, shame, fear, that resulted in separation, that had — and continues to have — devastating results. I know this by experience, and so do we all. It’s a very well-worn path we walk, or are tempted to walk, every day. And it always begins with a thought and a distortion of truth.
Sometimes we get so far down that path that the alternate reality we have created for ourselves makes it hard to remember what really is TRUTH. And we learn that all the things and people and money and position we try to fill the scarcity hole with, only makes the hole bigger and more demanding, and more impossible to fill. And that sounds like a bad thing. But, if we really are learning the futility of this, it means God is calling us back to Himself, and that’s a very good thing.
As we celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, I leave you with a small sampling of Scripture that speaks of God’s abundance to us-ward.
John 10:10 (Jesus said) I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly. –KJV
Colossians 1:19 For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him (Jesus), and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross. –NIV
Colossians 2:9 For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, and you have been given fullness in Christ, who is the head over every power and authority. –NIV
You really can THINK2BWELL……