The threat of shortage and scarcity has existed for as long as people have lived on the earth. There is always someone in need of food, water, energy, money, time.…nothing is ever enough for everyone. This constant spinning wheel has led us through four industrial revolutions. First, we used steam power to mechanize the production of food crops in large quantities. Then, we made transportation faster and more efficient so that we could move our large stock of goods to where there was a shortage or scarcity. In the 1950s, we discovered that our bodily strength was not enough to get us the desired results. So, we pursued a third industrial revolution to help us automate production processes and move towards digitization. A few decades later came the era of the Internet and renewable energy. We wanted to communicate faster and make our production processes cleaner. I think we are living in the fifth industrial revolution but this time, it is about making as much money as possible. It’s almost as if we are chasing a moving bus and everyone is looking to fill up their own pockets because there is never enough money in the system for everyone.
These revolutions have shown me that no matter how wealthy and technologically advanced we become as a society, there will always be something in short supply. One of those things is money. Even Jesus said, “The poor you will always have with you…” (Mark 14:7). Here is some context on what led Jesus to make this statement. Jesus was dining with his disciples in a friend’s house when a woman came in with an alabaster jar of very expensive perfume. She broke the jar and poured the perfume on his head. Some of Jesus’ closest friends (a.k.a his disciples) were murmuring to one another saying “Why this waste of perfume? It could have been sold for more than a year’s wages and the money given to the poor.” (Mark 14:3-9 & Matthew 26:1-11). In today’s terms, the perfume would have cost approximately $40,000 to $50,000. The disciples were somewhat saying there was not enough money to go around (scarcity, shortage) but the lady had so much and she was somehow “wasting” it. I would be mad too, haha, but we can see that the idea of resources being in limited supply has and will always exist.
In Stephen Covey’s book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People he defines the scarcity mentality as people seeing life as one finite pie, so that if one person takes a big piece, that leaves less for everyone else. Isn’t that true for us today? This is the reason we are constantly looking for ways to multiply our food, recycle our water, save up for rainy days, and gather as much of those resources as possible before other people in the system do. It is also the reason why so many of us have given up trying to build wealth and live a life of abundance. Especially in Christian circles, people hide behind an incomplete understanding of scripture to push the narrative that scarcity and financial struggle are synonymous with faith. Have you ever heard someone justify their lack of motivation to invest in wealth by saying “Money is the root of all evil”? Well, the right scripture is 1 Timothy 6:10 “For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.” Other scriptures that are often misquoted are:
Proverbs 15:16
“Better a little with the fear of the Lord than great wealth with turmoil.”
Proverbs 28:6
“Better is a poor man who walks in his integrity, than a rich man who is crooked in his ways.”
The common theme I see in this is not that God would prefer Christians to be in lack. Rather, there is an emphasis on the way we acquire money, the mindset with which we regard it, and how we allow money to shape our character and turn our hearts from God. Imagine that you were the biological child of the wealthiest man in the universe, would you spend time worrying about what you would eat tomorrow? I guess not, unless you were estranged from your father who is your source, or you simply did not know that you could ask for food, and it would be provided. Think about this 2020 statistic that showed 1.1% of the world’s adult population owns 45.8% of the world’s wealth. Doesn’t it surprise us that even in our world of scarcity, some people own a large piece of the pie Stephen Covey talks about? Just take a look at our culture today. The wealthy set societal trends, influence our lawmakers, and even what we are allowed to believe or not believe. We have seen cases where a simple tweet from the world’s wealthiest man drastically affects the stock prices of multinational companies. So, money is a tool that provides security and gives us the power to make choices that are not controlled by the biases of others.
You might be wondering who created the pie. “The earth is the Lord’s, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein” (Psalm 24:1). Dear HH Circle, we cracked the code: God owns the resources! The very things we spend our lives chasing after and live in fear that there is not enough to go around. How is it that God says “I have given you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food.” (Genesis 1:29) and yet we struggle to make a living and provide for our loved ones? How do people manage to get a bigger piece of the pie and leave very little for others to share? The question is not whether or not Christians should desire wealth but what is the purpose of wealth from God’s perspective? Like Miles Munroe once said, “When purpose is not known, abuse is inevitable”. God will not create resources and deprive his very own children from benefiting from them. He tells us in his word “But remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth, and so confirms his covenant, the oath he swore to your ancestors, just as it is today.” (Deuteronomy 8:18). This means the true source of abundance is not our daily hustle and bustle, but the Almighty himself. However, most of us choose not to ask the owner of the mines where to dig, how to dig and what to do with the proceeds.
I find it more disturbing that the phrase “as poor as a church rat” has become deeply ingrained in our language. Does it not bother Christians that our lives do not even reflect God and his abundance? We should have enough to invest in our ambitions and the dreams of our families, to fulfill our own needs and the needs of others, and to share and make a positive impact on a world that sorely needs kindness. But how do we cultivate this abundance in a world seemingly programmed for scarcity? The road from scarcity to abundance starts with a shift in perspective. We start by tearing down the myths that suggest a life of faith is incompatible with financial freedom. From this point on, we will dive into Biblical principles on overcoming the scarcity mindset and stepping into a life of abundance!
Until next time…
Bye