Finding the Pony; A Full Embrace of Abundance

Our load will be lightened and spirit renewed when we delight in the fullness of life.

We have become such a people of more, bigger and better...quickly tossing aside treasures of yesterday in favor of today's bling. Our sense of lack has obscured the presence of incredible abundance surrounding us.  It gets pretty ridiculous.  Someone I know owns a perfectly good, late model smartphone, but is champing at the bit to spend nearly $1,000 for the newest release. Really. We seem to be chasing headlong after some distant pleasure that, when finally obtained, provides such transient comfort that we must start the pursuit all over again. I'm reminded of the story about two little boys being tested by a psychologist:

A researcher took two subjects, an eight-year-old privileged boy and an eight-year-old marginalized boy, placing them in two separate rooms.  The wealthy kid was seated among dozens of brightly wrapped gifts and the poor kid was enclosed with great ceiling-high piles of horse manure.  When the scientist returned to see what was happening two hours later, he found the boy with the presents wandering around his room with the carnage of opened presents strewn about.  When asked what he was doing the child replied, "I'm bored.".  Arriving in the second room, the researcher found an eight-year-old throwing horse manure all over the place.  When asked what he was doing, the child replied, "Hey mister, with all of this horse manure, there has to be a pony in here somewhere."

We can do better than this. We are better than this.  Our own great privilege will be revealed if only we could take a personal and corporate inventory.  We will surely rediscover that the cup runneth over.  In fact, there is so much extra that we could probably never be without. God has given us an abundance of love that we might do good for those who struggle and suffer.  He implores us to appreciate what we have and to share our rich blessings.  Jesus and every prophet make this clear.  Now is the time to embrace our abundance. It is delightful. Look. There is a pony in there after all.

Loving the Back Roads

“All journeys have secret destination of which the traveler is unaware.”

Martin Buber

The experience of being lost is bewildering and can be frightening. We find ourselves in unfamiliar places without a good frame of reference. There is an overwhelming desire to get information and regain our bearings. Fear can intensify to such a point that even the directional cues such as the position of the sun are confusing. You wander so far off the path that you have no idea where you might be. The fear and disorientation turn into panic. We pray that someone will find us.  Where is that GPS when I need it!

There is seldom a time when being lost is a pleasant experience for most of us. Some people, however, seem to relish the whole thing. My Dad and his brother Bob were two of those people. They loved to “take the scenic route” and were delighted when the adventure resulted in getting (what seemed to be) hopelessly lost. The announcement from the front seat of the car that we were veering off to the road less traveled was not usually well received. Highways gave way two-lane roads which ultimately led to dirt roads in the country, one lane mountain byways.  We found remote villages that no stranger had visited for several million years.

These guys were undeterred by protests from helpless wives and children. Their enthusiasm only became greater as we dropped deeper into the abyss. Dad and Uncle Bob didn't believe that there was any such thing as being lost. We always found our way back home or to our ultimate destination. We were never eaten by wild animals, nor did we freeze, nor were we found starved to death in our car. They taught us a valuable life lesson. Being lost is a state of mind. It is one that my cousins and I have assimilated pretty well. 

There is so much to learn and so much to see. We can take the safe road and move from destination to destination if we want. But in so doing, we will miss all the great things that are off the beaten path. Life deals us plenty of blows. We are often windswept and thrown off course. We can choose to be lost and helpless or we can embrace the experience and dive into the excitement of the “scenic route”. 

Today I will love a road less traveled.

Photo by David Marcu on Unsplash