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.