Abundance isn’t about material gain, it’s a mindset that recognises the Divine everywhere, most especially in the simple.

This was a thought that I had this morning. It seems pretty simple when I read it back to myself.

Abundance is an interesting word and in the intoxicating messaging of some it’s about material gain and ‘faith’ is a way to get it. In such thinking abundance becomes relative and could be summed up in one other word – ‘more’. Abundance has become a message of material wealth that’s just a bit more than what we currently have and then we exercise ‘faith’ and employ methods to get that little bit more without ever really getting there because abundance is still just a little bit more.

I want to rethink abundance. Here I’m not talking about a dictionary definition, I’m talking about how we understand it in thinking about life, faith and God. In Luke’s writing about Jesus he recounts Jesus telling a parable (Luke 12:13-21). In Luke’s account the crowd gathering around Jesus were trampling on one another. Jesus begins by speaking to his disciples (12:1-12) and then a demand comes from someone in the crowd and Jesus responds sharply and opens up with a story about a rich fool. The demand was from someone who wanted Jesus to make the person’s brother split the family inheritance with him. Jesus’ response should have challenged the person asking and that person’s brother (both desired more – one wanted to hold on to it and the other wanted some of it):

Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of material possessions.

I work with TEAR Fund, an aid and development organisation supporting other organisations working within communities around the world burdened under the weight of injustice. If abundance is about material gain then abundance in their lives is extremely limited. If anything they’ve taught me that abundance is actually something completely different.

What if abundance is about less rather than more? What if, in a world where bigger seems to be better and gain is the aim, it’s about simplifying our lives rather than heaping them up in a chase to get that bit extra? You see, simplifying enables us to see more in less. Having less and simplifying enables us to savour what we do have and to be thankful for both the big and the small in all things.

There’s a great spiritual discipline I’ve mentioned before – the Prayer of Examen. The whole idea of the prayer is to pause at the end of your day, before sleep, to look back and see where God has been – look for the fingerprints of the Divine. The practice gives us time to pause and see how much we have to be grateful for no matter what our circumstances or the measure of our material wealth. It can help us see the glimmers of wonder even amid our sometimes chaotic existence. It cultivates a sense of abundance because it enables and encourages us to see with eyes of gratitude and thankfulness rather than eyes of want.

Cultivating simplicity along with a habit of pausing and reflecting helps us realise the abundance we already have and share no matter what our circumstances and it challenges the soul destroying drive for ‘more’. These are things I am a long way off having deeply embedded in my own life, but when I do engage them, life feels a whole lot richer.