In Dec.1973, Johnny Carson was doing his Tonight Show. He made a joke about facing a shortage of an important staple. “You know what’s disappearing from the supermarket shelves? Toilet paper. There’s an acute shortage of toilet paper in the US.” The next morning, many of the 20 million people who watched him on TV, went out and bought all the Toilet Paper they could find. By noon, most of the stores were out of stock! People panicked and hoarded. Carson later had to apologize for scaring the public.
We see the same thing happen when there is a hurricane on the way. Home Depot runs out of batteries, plywood, and generators. Publix runs out of caned items and water.
We hoard stuff because we are afraid things are going to run out. The fear of not having enough makes us hoard. That behavior comes from what psychologists call, the scarcity mindset. The thinking that there wont be enough to go around. It may be justifiable during a crisis like a hurricane, but there are people who live their entire lives with a scarcity mindset.
It is not just limited to hoarding more than they need or will ever use. It is deeper than that. It is a way of thinking. They see life as having only so much, as though there were only one pie out there. And if someone were to get a big piece of that pie, it would mean less for everybody else.
People with scarcity mindset have a very hard time being genuinely happy for the success of other people. Jealousy is the biggest sign of scarcity mindset. You are jealous that others have more money than you have; you are jealous that others drive better cars than you do; that others live in better houses than you live in. A person with scarcity mindset would be very stingy with money. They won't give it away to help others, because, they think if they give it, then they won't have enough. They will be very reluctant to give compliments.
Years ago, I lived with a scarcity mindset. I used to be jealous of friends who lived in bigger houses in gated communities. I will compare my small house with thin walls and cheaper doors and one car garage, with their big houses with sturdy walls, expensive doors, and a three car garage. I was jealous that their driveway can accommodate six cars while mine is barely wide enough for two. I was not generous about giving compliments to my friends.
At the end of the day, scarcity mindset only made me sad and depressed. When you are sad and depressed, nothing goes right, you are devoid of joy you are good for no body. Life becomes tiring and tedious.
That is when I began to think about the principle of abundance, which is a lesson I learned from observing the earth and the universe and how they operated. I began to look around and I realized that planet earth is filled with abundance. Earth doesn't operate from a scarcity mindset. Everything you will ever need, the earth has in abundance. When you wake up in the morning, have you ever worried about not having enough air to breath?
Have you ever said to yourself:
There are billions of people on earth, they are going to use up all the air, and there won't be any left for me.
No, wherever you go, there is plenty for you. You don't have to take it with you, (unless you have COPD) there is an abundant supply.
Get outside your house and look up...the sky is vast and abundant. Go to the beach and look at the ocean, the waters are abundant. There are 2 million species of animals on earth, There are 99 thousand species of birds and 30 thousand species of fish, 82 thousand specifics of reptiles and 950 thousand kinds of insects. There are 297 thousand varieties of plants and trees on earth. So the earth is huge and abundant.
We humans have replicated that abundance through our creativity and innovation. Do you know how? Visit a Walmart Super Center or a Super Target, or Publix Supermarket. We call them Super for a reason...they are flowing with abundant supply of everything you will ever need. There are 387 types of breakfast cereals available. There are 193 types of soups...There are over 150 types of beer. I did a google search. That is just 3 items.
Every Saturday morning I go to BJ's to drop off my son for work. And I walk around the isles of this humongous store looking at the stuff displayed. It is a mesmerizing experience of variety and abundance. I make that experience into a prayer. If humans can create all that, how much more awesome and abundant is God.
I remember visiting the Coors Brewery in Golden Colorado. They produced 45 thousand barrels of beer in 2015. Each barrel is 300 bottles which means they produced 13.5 million bottles. It was a mind boggling experience being in the middle of that beer factory watching thousands of bottles and cans traveling non-stop thru those conveyor belts,..an amazing display of abundance. That is just one brewery and there are more than 4000 breweries in the US alone.
If you want to experience abundance locally go to a Cheese Cake Factory...and watch the mountain of food that is placed in front of you..
The point I am trying to make is that there is abundance all around you...If you don't see it or feel it, it is because you have a scarcity mindset.
As Wayne Dyer says, abundance is not something we acquire, it is something that we tune into. So there is abundance on earth...do you have abundance in your life? Do you feel abundance in health and wealth? Do you feel an abundance of love for the people around you? Do you feel abundance of compassionate and joy? It all starts with an abundant mindset.
How come the earth we live on has abundance and we earthlings don't? What is wrong with this picture?
How do we tap into the abundance of the universe that is all around us? Jesus promised his followers an abundant life. The very purpose of his coming on earth was that. He said: “I have come that they may have life and have it abundantly (Jn10.10). How do we experience that abundance that Jesus promised? I found the secret to abundance a few years ago. It was a huge awakening and it changed my life. I found it in a story called the Tale of Two Seas..the sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea.
In the land of Israel, there is a river called Jordan..the river where Jesus was baptized. The Jordan river runs from North to South. On its way south, it flows into the sea of Galilee. Now the Sea of Galilee is a body of water that is clean, serene and blue; It is thriving with life, both in it and around it. There are all kinds of fish in that sea. That is where the future apostles Peter and John were fishing when Jesus called them. There are all kinds of plants and grass and flowers all around the sea of Galilee. It is brimming with abundant life.
About 80 miles down south is another sea..It is called the dead sea. Do you know why it is called the Dead sea? Because it is dead...there is no life in it or around it. Obviously there is no fish in that water. No vegetation around. The water is salty and thick you can float in it. There is no life guards around dead sea, because you cannot drown in it even if you try.
Do you know why the sea of Galilee is alive and abundant and dead sea is dead and empty?
In the case of sea of Galilee, the water flows into it, nourishes everything in it and round it, and the water flows out. In the case of the dead sea, the water flows into it and is stuck there. Dead see takes in the water, but it doesn't give it away. It cannot, because it is the lowest point on earth. 1400 feet below sea level. It doesn't have the energy or mechanism to share its water. It gets stuck and saturated and dead. When you live with lower consciousness such as scarcity mindset, poverty consciousness, victim mentality, anxious feeling, you won't give anything away.
What are you like? Are you like the sea of Galilee or are you like the dead sea?
If you want life and energy, and abundance in your life, be like the sea of Galilee. Let the blessings that flow into you, flow out of you.
That is the meaning of the song we sing every Sunday. Praise God from whom all blessings FLOW... we don't sing: Praise God from whom all blessings “come.”
So the blessings in our lives are supposed to flow...but often they don't because of our scarcity mindset. People believe that they aren’t enough… good enough, pretty enough, successful enough, that they don’t have enough.
“If you want love and abundance in your life, give it away”- If you want something, give it away. If you want love, give love, if you want peace, be peaceful, if you want joy, be joyful. I know it sounds counter intuitive, but that is the secret. You only get to keep what you give away.
Before I learned the lesson about the abundant universe, it was very hard for me to give compliments or feel truly happy about the success of others. Then I realized that when others have happiness and success, God is not taking it away from me to give to them. God has plenty go go around.
I realized that instead of having a stingy spirit, if I have a generous spirit, blessings will flow my way too. That is why Jesus said: Give and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over will be poured into your lap (Lk.6:38). But in order for blessings to come to you, you have to give it away. Before more water can flow into it, the sea of Galilee has to let the water already in it, to flow out.
So, give, like you know you will never be without...whether it is money, compliments, compassion, love, forgiveness,. There is no reason you ever have to feel like there is not enough to go around. The vast, unending, unfathomable universe exists purely to manifest more and more creation through our being.
Jesus proved that thru the miracle of feeding the 5000. You know the story. One day there was a large crowd of people listening to the teachings of Jesus. It was getting late in the evening. The apostles told Jesus: “Send the crowd away so they can go to the surrounding villages and find some food and lodging.
Do you know what Jesus said. He said: “You give them something to eat.” And the apostles replied: “We have only 5 loaves of bread and two fish...5 loaves and 2 fish for 5000 people...impossible..the apostles were thinking from scarcity mindset. They wanted to keep those 5 loaves and 2 fish for their dinner. They didn't have an abundant mindset.
But we know what happened. Jesus asked the crowd to be seated in groups of 50 each. Then the story says, Jesus took and blessed the loaves and fish and gave to them and they all ate and were satisfied. The story doesn't say how it happened. People think it was like bread and fish falling from the heavens.
I think this is how it happened. In those days, when people went to listen to teachers, they packed food with them. There were no McDonald's or Burger king those days. Every family would pack enough food for the the members of their family. Jesus inspired them to open their lunch bags and share...when 5000 people opened their lunch bags and shared what they had with everyone around them, there was plenty to go around and then some. We see this at potluck dinners every time. There is an abundance of food when it is shared. The story says,”the disciples picked up 12 baskets full of broken pieces that were left over....abundance.
So the universe is abundant. The planet we live on has everything in abundance. If only we share what we have, there will be plenty for everyone..
Always remember that when we give something to others..be it money, compliments, love, compassion, forgiveness, it is not like we are deducting from what we have...we are only channeling it through us. We give so that we can receive; we empty ourselves, so that we can be filled again.
Think of yourselves not as a CONTAINER but as a CONDUIT through which the blessings of the universe keep flowing....
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