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Posts Tagged ‘Happiness’

Abundance Thinking or Scarcity Mentality?

Posted in Disappointment, Gratitude, Happiness, tagged , , , , on May 20, 2014| Leave a Comment »

“So don’t worry about these things, saying, ‘What will we eat? What will we drink? What will we wear?’  These things dominate the thoughts of unbelievers, but your heavenly Father already knows all your needs. Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need.” Matthew 6:31-33 (NLT)

So often it’s our past memories that dominate our present reality.

I was raised by two loving parents who had known the hardship of growing up during the Great Depression years in the USA. Even though my parents were loving, caring and generous people, being their only son I developed something of what I now recognize as a “scarcity mentality.” This term is being used by observers and researchers in Western, developed countries where consumerism and materialism dominate our cultural mindset.

A scarcity mentality says that there is only a limited amount of resources around, so you’d better act now and act fast to beat the crowd to the resources and get “enough.” Unfortunately, the “enough” extends not only to material needs such as food, drink and clothing but also to unmeasurable commodities such as recognition and self-worth.

I have lived outside the USA for many years now but when I return I am shocked by all the adverts which constantly bombard me. They entice me to urgently “act now before it’s too late!” They exert constant pressure on me to get in on the latest bargain.

In my formative years I was taught very early about the value of saving – even down to the scraps of paper that could be useful for grocery shopping lists!

Thrift is a wise value, unless it begins to dominate your life and lead to hoarding! We have that in our family too!

We enjoy the good things that material wealth provides, but no matter what we have we never seem to have “enough” of whatever we acquire.

This may be the downside of the materialistic age in which we live. Marketers and advertisers, some of whom are even my friends, make a living by exposing us to new opportunities for improving our quality of life. It turns dark when we begin to grow dissatisfied with who we are, what we have and bemoan our circumstances in life.

Jesus taught His followers, of which I am one, to be focused on the spiritual realities of His Kingdom and trust Him to meet their daily needs rather than seeing them as the focus of their lives.

I now think He’s trying to tell us that God is a God of abundance and the King will meet our material needs as we trust Him and follow His leadership in our lives.

This does not guarantee that we will all be fabulously wealthy or live lives free of pain and suffering. It does however, require a completely different mindset from the culture around us.

I have discovered that once the scarcity mindset takes hold, it’s very difficult to shift into an “abundance” mentality. If you’ve been taught that there’s a limited supply of God’s resources it leaves you fearful that you will lose what you have and will be forced to scrounge around for the scraps under the table like.

I don’t believe that God ever intended for His children to live with this mindset – even in times of hardship such as the Great Depression or a recession, such as what we have experienced in recent years.

When I live out of my scarcity mentality I’m blind and ungrateful. Blind to the abundance of God’s grace, love, mercy, kindness, generosity and provision. I’m also hesitant to consistently show gratitude to God for the riches that He has lavished upon me in every area of life.

Recently a friend was talking to me and was highly complementary of my family. It’s also a gift of abundance when a friend can point out the riches we have which we can so easily take for granted.

It is possible to move from a scarcity mindset to abundance thinking but it will take a radical and intentional shift in our focus.

Don’t let the mindset of the culture around you rob you of the joy that comes from being grateful for all the blessings God brings your way. In our moments of greatest honesty we have to admit that His abundance always comes through.  

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Happy at Christmas – The Influence of the Inner Life

Posted in Christmas, Happiness, tagged , on December 8, 2012| Leave a Comment »

“But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.” –  2 Corinthians 4:7 (NIV)

Genuine happiness seems to be an elusive commodity these days. Seems it always has been.

Now that the holiday season is upon us expectations are high again this year that the festive season and the New Year will bring happiness to us all. The rush is on to get decorations up, cards in the post, gifts purchased and then try to enjoy the process in the midst of it all.

I don’t know about where you live but in my neck of the woods the traffic is slow and the shops are congested. The economy is bad, the experts tell us, but you can’t see it while walking through our local mall. The shopping frenzy seems more intense than ever.

I just wonder when it’s all over in January if we’ll be a happier lot. I doubt it.

I’ve been doing a lot of serious thinking about happiness in recent years. It might be because I found a few years back that despite the fact that I had just about everything a man could want, I wasn’t a particularly happy individual. I’m sure my friends thought that I was a reasonably happy man from all outward appearances. However, when I was alone, it was an entirely different matter.

When a close friend started talking about exploring the “inner world” I really didn’t appreciate what he was saying so I started probing it more for myself. I discovered that each of us really lives in three “worlds” or perhaps “dimensions” might be a more accurate term.

The first “world” is our own personal  world comprised of what we think and how we feel. In this world we have ultimate control, for the most part. We can choose where to focus our attention at any given time. The second “world” is our environment around us and all that it comprises. Over this “world” we have influence but probably little, if no control. But the third “world” is the eternal world – the one that exists beyond our senses and has an eternal dimension. The eternal world is there whether we acknowledge it or not and ultimately we must all face it’s reality.

Because we exist, we live in each of these three dimensions.

The glory of the Christian world view is that God, who is the personal Author and Creator of everything, broke into our physical realm and invaded our planet. Jesus, God’s Son has come and we celebrate His coming – especially at Christmas. He came to reveal God the Father and shows us the way back to Him.

If given our permission Jesus will enter our  “inner” world and will connect it with the “eternal” world. This is what the Apostle Paul alludes to in the verse referenced above. The follower of Jesus is but a temporary vessel physically but is indwelt with an eternally valuable treasure.

Our world is obsessed with temporary “treasures.” In a consumer-driven society we live by the principle that as we acquire more, our internal happiness gauge will gradually increase. But ultimately it results in being enslaved to a system that will never fully satisfy.

Many think that the hero of Christmas is Santa Claus who will bring everyone the gifts that will give them happiness if they’ve been “good enough.”  But the true hero of Christmas is Jesus Christ Himself who offers us a quality of life that is real and available apart from all material possessions and pressing problems.

This Christmas, as always, God is seeking a permanent dwelling place in our inner world. When His indwelling light shines through us maybe this dark world will look a little brighter to those around us. Maybe that’s what Christmas – and true happiness – is really all about.

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