Limitless Resources

Is the world I live in one of scarcity or abundance? The answer to the question has much to do about almost every decision I make. The threat of scarcity tells me that whatever I have, like my own life, is limited. Nothing is ever enough. There is not enough money, enough food, enough love. The abundance enjoyed by another is always at the expense of myself and others because the world is governed by scarcity. Thus I must fight; I must wrestled to gain whatever I can and cling to it till death wrests it from my cold, dead fingers. - Father Stephen

We do view everything here on earth as “limited” – water, oil, gas, food, land, money, time, even the air we breathe. We can’t even imagine a resource that is limitless. And yet Jesus offered the woman at the well such a resource:

"Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life." – John 4:13,14

God commands us to love, forgive, show mercy, and give of our material possessions, because he will keep supplying us with all that we need. We don’t have to hoard and ration and stock the pantry. He will never run out. The source of this goodness and life isn’t a lazy trickle of water coming out of a dry, Texas canyon in August. No, it’s bubbling up and overflowing the rocks and cracks. It is cool, refreshing and life-giving to plants, animals and people. We can’t drink fast enough to slow down the speed with which it gushes forth. Then why do we withhold forgiveness and love from others? Why are we stingy and possessive of the articles we claim as “ours”? We will never be able to exhaust God’s resources. Whatever others take from me is taken from the abundance that God pours into my life. It will be replaced and multiplied a hundredfold!

"Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you." Luke 6: 37, 38