Sunday, November 18, 2007

To Have Enough

This week I've been thinking about what it means to have enough.

So what is "enough" and how do I know when I've got it? How do I say, "that's enough" and be satisfied. In Latin culture when you are full at the end of a meal, you do not say, "I am full." Rather, you say "I am satisfied." I read an article in the newspaper about how the price of food has risen significantly in the last year. What a normal family could count as "enough" just 12 months ago, may not be enough today. I called the local food bank to work out details for a youth service project I've been working on and they said that this year our county has a significant need for donations of all sorts.

It is easy to say, "Well, they should have known better and managed their money better and not complained so much." But we'll never be in their shoes. We hear the endless list of welfare needs or we look at our own pocket books and think of all the sacrifices we are already making and it is tempting to just say we can't do any more.

But what if this year we did things differently? What if this year we suspended all, and I mean ALL, judgment and we dug a little deeper to give up one of the special things WE want (or that we want for our children ) in order to give something special to someone who does not have enough, regardless of why they don't have enough?

I suppose they wouldn't call it sacrifice if it didn't pinch a bit.

2 comments:

I stinketh not!! said...

Sometimes te only way you can help is by serving. I try and buy things for can drives, but I haven't seen alot of donation boxes around. Thank you for always having great thought provoking comments.

Natalie said...

A great line of thought for the holiday season... My kids love to put quarters in the Salvation Army's buckets at Walmart... I always have to make sure I've got change! It's a little thing, but they are learning ~