Abundance Abounding

So I have meant to publish a blog on my wonderful Wednesdays at Caritas Village.  Since my main responsibility is to serve lunch at Caritas, I even set myself up for a clever (or corny) title...with one my last blog's title being "...and Ketchup."  Get it Caritas (restaurant) and Ketchup (Catch up!) Haha!! But that only works if I post a blog about Caritas, which didn't happen.  But here is another jewel from Theological Reflections that talks about the abundance I see around me, especially at Caritas...I hope y'all enjoy :)

Mark 8
A Meal for Four Thousand1-3 At about this same time he again found himself with a hungry crowd on his hands. He called his disciples together and said, "This crowd is breaking my heart. They have stuck with me for three days, and now they have nothing to eat. If I send them home hungry, they'll faint along the way—some of them have come a long distance."
4His disciples responded, "What do you expect us to do about it? Buy food out here in the desert?"
5He asked, "How much bread do you have?"
"Seven loaves," they said.
6-10So Jesus told the crowd to sit down on the ground. After giving thanks, he took the seven bread loaves, broke them into pieces, and gave them to his disciples so they could hand them out to the crowd. They also had a few fish. He pronounced a blessing over the fish and told his disciples to hand them out as well. The crowd ate its fill. Seven sacks of leftovers were collected. There were well over four thousand at the meal. Then he sent them home. He himself went straight to the boat with his disciples and set out for Dalmanoutha.

　
ReflectionWhen I think about abundance, I immediately think of Caritas Village. I have thoroughly enjoyed every Wednesday I have spent serving there making friends with the volunteers, staff, and guests, as well as every meal I have shared there with friends. At Caritas, I feel abundance abounding. People from the neighborhood and beyond come to sit down, pause, and share a meal. I heard the joy of children upstairs on my first day celebrating the end of the school year, their accomplishments, and advancing to the next grade or graduating from elementary school. In every conversation with Charlie, I am once again reminded of just how quick, intelligent, witty, and charming one person can be. I share in Kay’s excitement as she prepares to teach a class on basic sewing skills. I serve lunch to the flirtatious Romeos, a group of older single men or widowers who meet every Wednesday, with a smile at the laughter and community they bring into Caritas. I am humbled by the other volunteers’ and staff’s gentle kindness to me when I give a wrong answer to a customer or get confused with an order or today, knock over a stack of clean plates in a crowded kitchen. The sounds of piano lessons going on above my head in the late afternoon sing their happiness throughout the Village. I witness Onye’s easy generosity and sharing of abundance as she instructs me to make some peanut butter crackers and turkey cheese rollups for some neighborhood kids wandering in after lunchtime. At Caritas, I rarely hear scarcity mentioned, and when I do, scarcity never seems anxious but instead is an indication of the blessing of having many people walk through the doors to share in the abundance and neighborhood common good already present.
I also felt the kingdom of abundance at Manna House. Working in the Clothing and Shower room last week, I was quickly inducted into the Manna House operations. Here, everyone has something to give. In order to provide a clean change of clothes, Manna House asks guests to turn in their dirty clothes after showering and changing to be washed and cycled back to the shelves and given away again. Though I didn’t get to spend time in the backyard sharing in coffee and games, I imagine guests and volunteers intermingling and sharing laughs and smiles as they played checkers or chess. Manna House embraces the abundance business that a house of hospitality can exist through the goodwill of guests who trust and leave their worn outfits behind, the love of faithful volunteers, and the occasional donations that keep the electric bills paid and the coffee pots full.
To me, being in the abundance business is partly in rethinking the questions we ask, like we have talked about in this group many times. Not questions that focus on scarcity like “What are we lacking?” or “What do we not have enough of?” or “What can we get out of this?” or “How do we fix our problems?” but questions like “What can we do with the abundance of life, community, and generosity already present in this place?” and “What kinds of dreams do we have for this place?” God has gifted these neighborhoods, these cities that others might view as suffering from scarcity, the gift of God’s children created with shining eyes and creative hearts and willing spirits. Part of our responsibility as servant leaders is to learn from the feeding of the four thousand and not ask, like the disciples, a question that focuses on scarcity, “What do you expect us to do about it?” but to answer Jesus’ question, “Do you have bread?” eagerly and live into the imaginative possibility of what we can do when we start to be in the business of abundance.
I am convinced that God is willing to gift abundance into our lives and into our neighborhoods, but we must carefully and attentively watch for abundance where the world see scarcity in order to receive it. I must commit to making the journey from an attitude associated with the kingdom of scarcity to a mindset of abundance daily, hourly, every moment in order to live into it. So how do I feel right now that I am receiving and living into the divine gift of abundance? When I remind myself that I have more to learn about God’s grace and goodness from other people than I could every hope to possibly teach, I choose the divine gift of abundance. When I slow down from a busied or worried pace of trying to do it all and begin to seek deep relationship, I choose the divine gift of abundance. When I am anxious about nothing and pray about everything, I choose the divine gift of abundance. When I take Sabbath seriously as God-ordained rest for the purpose of sustaining and reinvigorating creative holiness, I choose the divine gift of abundance. Abundance is already around us, and it is life-giving. May we as humble leaders continue to choose this divine gift for the common good and the glory of God.

Grace and Peace,
Amanda