Enough

My wife has had this written on our chalkboard for quite a while now. It is from the band Joseph's cover of "Everybody Wants to Rule the World."  They added these lyrics towards the end of the song, and I've been reflecting on these words a lot lately (that, and it is right by my bookshelf full of school books, so I've been in that part of the apartment a lot with end of semester looming!).

There is this idea of the "Theology of Enough." It is the idea that God has provided our world with enough for everyone. There are a lot of verses to back up this idea. The Exodus story and God providing food and water to the Israelities in Sinai. Shane Claiborne also points to the Lord's prayer and the instruction to pray for our daily bread. He writes, "After all, to pray for tomorrow’s bread contradicts the Lord’s prayer, as Jesus prayed for today’s bread. Neither should we pray only for “my” bread: it is not enough for me to have bread while others go hungry, so we pray for “our” daily bread." He also mentions 2 Corinthians 8:14-15 and the call of mutual providing of needs between communities.

I prescribe to this. A God who loves the world would provide for the world.

But wait. "How can this be? Not everyone has enough."

You're right. Not everyone has enough. But it isn't due to there not being enough, or even that people are too lazy to have their needs met.

We have this disposition to have a zero-sum mindset as humans. We are concerned that we won't have enough. We collect, and gather, and keep until we can feel satisfied that we have enough. However, we often don't stop with the enough. Perhaps we don't think about how much we actually need. Or, even worse, we often let our drive to gain enough for enough be hijacked by greed.

Greed keeps us all from having enough.

This is not the way of Christ.

It seems obvious, but here in America, we are often guilty of it. We say things like, "Why would I help? They need to take care of it themselves." Or, "Why would I give? How do I know they won't just take advantage of me?" Or, "They are just lazy. Get a job." Or, "I work hard for my money, why would  give any of it away?"

This is also not the way of Christ.

We are called to take care of our neighbors. To provide for one another's needs.

That is not to argue that making money, or making sure we ourselves are taken care of, is wrong. However, we have to take another hard look at what is actually enough.

We also have get rid of this prevailing mentality of "me first." Too often we think if we try to meet the needs of others, we won't be able to meet our own needs. We've got to get rid of this strict individualism and instead look around and figure out what is best for the community, rather than what is best for just us.

I know I can be guilty of this too. I've had my greedy moments. I've had times where I haven't done enough to help those around me. Before anyone thinks, "This is a bunch of hippy stuff," let me share a story from a more traditional background:

There was once a farmer who grew award-winning corn. Each year he entered his corn in the state fair where it won first prize. One year a newspaper reporter interviewed him and learned the farmer’s strategy for growing winning corn. What was it? Simply this: the farmer shared his seed corn with his neighbors. “How can you afford to share your best seed corn with your neighbors when they are entering corn in competition with yours each year?” the reporter asked. “Why,” said the farmer, “don’t you know? The wind picks up pollen from the ripening corn and swirls it from field to field. If my neighbors grow inferior corn, cross-pollination will steadily degrade the quality of my corn. If I am to grow good corn, I must help my neighbors grow good corn.”

We can all have enough. We all can provide for one another. We can take care of one another. It will take a lot of hard work to get there though. I'm not sure 100% sure of the concrete ways it can be done. I'm a preacher, not an economist. Maybe it is with the help from individuals, charity, the private sector, or the government. Maybe it is a combination of some or all of these sources. But, I do know we can start by looking up, and doing all we can do, both big and small, to help meet one another's needs. Trust that the God that has brought us this far will provide a way for us. Make sure we all have enough. Put our greed and our fear of scarcity away.

If we turn our hearts to God, and follow the way of Christ in our generosity, it can be done. God's justice can be done here on earth. We can all have enough.