I’m continuing a series of short pieces on abundance (this is the third, click through to read the first two: In the Garden and Sowing and Reaping).  Sunday evenings and Monday mornings can often be a time of anxiety for me as I worry that I, we, won’t have what we need for the week ahead.  What are you needing as you head into this week?

*   *   *   *  *  *

God has given us another crazy idea for the summer – the idea of hosting a meal every week in our home, providing a main dish and, more importantly, a place for people to be.  This is the seed. 

But I worry so and fight against planting it.  Money feels tight this summer as we whittle down through our savings, each withdrawal advancing the date at which I’ll need to return to paid work.  I argue with God endlessly. 

“There won’t be enough,” I tell God.  “How can we feed others when I feel, weekly, the pressure of feeding my own?” 

But God won’t be cowed and keeps pushing the seed of the idea gently and firmly into my palm.  “Just plant it,” God says, “See what happens.  Isn’t it possible there’s more to this than what you can see?”  I finally let go and drop the seed into the ground to see what will come of it. 

*   *   *   *  *  *

I head out to the grocery store to prepare for our first dinner.  I am resolved to make a sweet potato and black bean dish, minus the chicken to cut the cost.  Despite having consented to plant the seed, I am distracted by the weeds of doubt that crop up dense around it and remain unsure that I’ll have what’s  needed to water it. 

As I rush through the store, pinching my pennies, my little white envelope of cash labeled “groceries” peaking out of my purse, I kid you not, I hear this over the loud speaker, “Hello, Giant food customers, Rotisserie Chickens are now buy one get one free, that’s right, buy one get one free, as long as supplies last.” 

The message is so clear, it might as well have been the voice of God.

I stop where I am in the aisle, still counting the cost of chicken, then turn and head toward the rotisserie stand.  There are two other women there, pulling in their harvest of half-price chicken, their unexpected good fortune.  I’m trying hard to hide it, but I know God’s laughing at the fun of it all, at my exasperatingly slow ability to get the message that abundance, not scarcity, is the norm in God’s kingdom. 

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