Abundance: When Do I Have Enough?

Connect

As you talk together and gather, consider this question: What have you encountered about yourself and your view of money most during this series?  Is there anything that is changing in you?

Pray

Last week we looked at the question of “Trusting” together—Where does God rank?  When we think about the question of abundance, I welcome you to continue on the question of Trusting, or invite the group to consider whatever measure they wish to share about this week.  Make sure you pray together and for one another:

Passionate: Where did I see God today?

Accepting: How am I building diverse relationships?

Invitational: Who am I connecting with God’s family?

Trusting: Where does God rank?

Active: How am I engaged with God’s work?

Reflect

We could go in a variety of directions this week.  Perhaps these two frames of thought will help. 

First, Pastor Kevin quoted David Zahl, who wrote a book called Seculosity.  In this book, he talks about the problem in our culture of enoughness. 

Check out this video to see a one-minute visual description of the book’s ideas (and ignore the push to buy the book): https://vimeo.com/317348604 (1 min video)

Here’s a quotation that wasn’t shared on Sunday that really gets at the heart of enoughness:

“Performancism is the assumption, usually unspoken, that there is no distinction between what we do and who we are…Performancism holds that if you are not doing enough, or doing enough well, you are not enough” (6).

Discuss together: How do you feel the pressure of “doing enough” in your life today?

Second, the idea of abundance vs. scarcity was the main direction of Sunday’s sermon. 

Check out this video interview with Bill Cavanaugh, author of Being Consumed as he describes the way we participate in the economy (5 min. video)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vh22rJpL7zM: William Cavanaugh Interview

-Here are a couple main points from the video:

“The world we live in doesn’t lead to freedom, but to isolation.”

“I don’t think autonomy is real freedom.  Real freedom is not being disconnected from other people, but being connected to other people.”

Consider looking at this quotation from Being Consumed:

“Scarcity is the more general hunger of those who want more, without reference to what they already have.  Economics will always be the science of scarcity as long as individuals continue to want.  And we are told that human desires are endless…We desire because we live.  The problem is that our desires continue to light on objects that fail to satisfy, objects on the lower end of the scale of being that, if cut off from the Source of their being, quickly dissolve into nothing.  The solution to the restlessness of desire is to cultivate a desire for God, the Eternal, in whom our hearts will find rest” (90).

How are you convicted to look at the world from a perspective of God’s abundance?

-Is such a view possible?  Or is it just naïve?