How much is enough?

As I write this, I’m preparing my sermon for this coming Sunday. The gospel passage is the “feeding of the 5,000” from the 6th chapter of John. As is often, the story makes me wonder “How much is enough?” in my own life and living.

If there is not enough of something, people could have trouble. Not enough money means you might have creditors hounding you. Not enough food might mean lots of complaints. I have in my office a baby food jar with a few grains of rice and a few dried beans – the average daily food in some Third World countries. And in one scenario presented by Henry Kindall and David Pimentel in a journal of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, there is, "...little hope of providing adequate food for the majority of humanity by 2025-2050." It is almost frightening to think that there might not be enough to go around when the children in our nurseries are raising their families. Not to mention, the scarcity of drinkable water that some ecologists are now forecasting as 76% of our population moves to coastal areas.

On the other hand there are people that enjoy much more than enough to get along. Lottery winners have enormous amounts of money to spend, but winning can create considerable problems as well as financial security. Lottery winners find it psychologically hard to accept that their winning is a completely random event. They tend to see it as their "achievement," the result of them being special. Lottery winners also often see long-standing friendships disintegrate when friends feel that the winners should share their money more readily. And winners, when they do help their friends, tend to impose demands and conditions that friends resent. Even as old friendships collapse, winners often fall for foolish schemes and swindles.

I guess you could call that way more than enough. This is especially true in light of the fact that an individual, according to the 2012 federal guidelines on poverty, has an annual income of $11, 139 or less before taxes. There are countries in the third world where it would literally take decades for a family to make the equivalent of our poverty level income.

According to the old saying, enough is enough. When you have enough of anything, it means you have an adequate supply. If it is money, it means you have sufficient funds to pay the bills. If it is food, it means you have an ample amount for the number of people who are going to eat. One look at me and anyone can see that I for one certainly have an adequate supply of food!

How are we doing as stewards of God’s gifts? Where do our resources go? How well do we share God’s gifts with others?

How much is enough?

Peace and love,
Pastor Garry