Half Empty or Half Full?

Glass-Half-Empty or Glass-Half-Full.  Which one are you?  Psychologists can tell a lot about you from this one simple question.  If that is true, that we all fall on one side or the other to some degree, then it is reasonable to postulate that we are actually hard-wired to this kind of dichotomous thinking.  By nature we see the world either from a perspective of scarcity or a perspective of abundance.

I don't deny it, I am definitely in the Half-Empty camp.  I have often said that I expect the worst hoping to be pleasantly surprised.  This outlook is reinforced by current culture.  The only place I can think of where less is more is Weight Watchers and similar groups.   When was the last time a commercial urged you to put less food on the table, to pare down your closet, to keep your old car and repair it?  Bigger and newer are better and will make you happy, will even make you into a better person.

I am somewhat comforted by the passages we looked at last Sunday on the feeding of the 4000 and the feeding of the 5000 (Matthew 15:30-38 and Matthew 14:14-21).  I find myself in good company. In addition to being exhausted, the disciples share my fear that there will not be enough.  Enough what, you ask?  Enough anything - food, money, clothing, shoes, time... enough Jesus.  The list goes on and on.

But, Jesus shows the disciples that there is enough.  He doesn't chide them, he accepts the humanity of their disbelief.  (Can you hear me sighing in relief?).  Jesus simply asks what they have, blesses it, then tells them to distribute it and they actually gather left overs!  No recriminations, no accusations of insufficient faith, no I-told-you-so's.

Barbara Brown Taylor offers the possibility that when the baskets of food were passed, the people who had food with them were so moved that they shared what they had, replenishing the supplies.  Whether it is because of a miracle that Jesus performs that magically replenishes what is used, or because each one partaking also shared what they had available isn't really important.  The bottom line is there was a miracle.

The message I got this week is two-fold.  First, What is important is how you approach any problem - in fear and doubt, waiting for God to take care of it, or with confidence and faith, acting purposefully. Jesus' actions show me that I do not have to change my nature, it is normal to see life from a perspective of scarcity.  But, I shouldn't let that perspective keep me from action or from seeing the possibilities.  The second message I got this week is that  we have the power, we are able to solve whatever problems we face, no matter how overwhelming they seem.  With God there is always more than enough.