The Lies of Scarcity

When most of us talk about scarcity, we're not being honest.  Or at the very least, we are misnaming things.  Think about your friends, co-workers, yourself.  How often do you hear things like:

--I really want to but I just don't have time for ...

--I can't...

--There isn't enough ....

--I wish I had more...

-- We need....

--Not until...

The list goes on, but you know what I'm talking about.  It all sounds like we're pretty empty and exhausted.  But I don't think we are.  I don't think things are as bad as we make them sound.  So where's the disconnect? 

 My theory is kind of two-fold.  Before we get into that, a few disclaimers: I know that there are exceptions to everything I am going to say.  I also know that sometimes, realistically, the language of scarcity is also the language of truth.  But what's actually true and what we sometimes tell ourselves don't always match.  First, those phrases of scarcity sound an awful lot like excuses.  Most of the time, if you want something, you will make it happen.  You will stop wasting time, start shifting things around, and make it happen.  If you're not, it's probably because you don't really want it.  When we tell ourselves we can't do something because we don't have time/money/energy to do it, we're usually not being totally honest.  The truth is that usually we are choosing to spend that time/money/energy on something else.  We have a remarkable amount of control over those three things and when we're honest with ourselves, what we'll probably see is that it's not that we don't or can't, it's that we are choosing not to.  The truth is that we do have enough of everything, but we are not always comfortable with our choices about how we are spending what we have.  So what's the big deal?  It's that we create a false sense of scarcity when we blame the fact that we aren't prioritizing well on the illusion that we don't have enough.  

Scarcity makes us feel empty and anxious.  "We never have enough."  "We need more."  "If only, if only, if only."  It's a language of barriers, and barriers make us feel trapped.  So if you're feeling empty, you have to ask yourself what's filling your time.  Where are you pouring your energy?  When there's an imbalance, the problem isn't that you don't have enough-- God gave us all that we need-- the problem is that you're spending it wrong or talking about it wrong.  If you're pouring and spending on things that don't replenish you, of course you'll feel a sense of scarcity.  If you tell yourself you don't have enough rather than telling yourself that you have choices, of course you'll feel trapped! 

The answer is to decide how you are going to spend your minutes and dollars and kilowatts of soulfire and then OWN IT.  If you can't own the decisions you're making, maybe that means you're making the wrong ones.   If, instead of owning your decisions, you are saying you don't have enough for what you want, you need to take a critical look at yourself.  Why aren't you being honest with yourself about what you're choosing to do?  And if you don't like what you're choosing, what are you going to do to change your choices?

If you're feeling empty, do something that will fill you up.  Not sure what will fill you up?  I bet if Christ is at the center of it, you'll feel better.  If you can't walk away from something you just spent your time on and say "Yeah!" then it's time to evaluate whether you should choose to sink your time that way again.  A good question I like to post near my desk or work space is: "Is this what you really want to be doing?"  It helps me avoid some of those glazed-eye web-content-binges or foolish e-windows-shopping-sprees.  

I'm tired right now, so I don't think I'm giving these ideas the quality of thought they deserve.  I do have grading to do and one last essay to write.  But those will take longer and be less fulfilling if I work on them in the state that I am in.  I can try them in the  morning when I'm refreshed because I have time, plenty of time, if I don't waste it.  I need to be careful myself and watch how I talk about time and energy.  It's not about how much I have, but how and where I spend it.  Granted there are times where we relinquish some of our control to our children.  No one chooses to lose sleep over crying kids and then be unable to think clearly the next day.... but generally, we are in control.  We are blessed beyond measure to have the time and money and energy that we need.  God has given us the grace for this day and He will fill us with the goodness and love that make all things possible.   All we have to do is choose them.