If I only had

     I have to admit I was not always good with money. The truth is, I squandered a vast fortune before I was jolted to my senses.  IN just one example I spent a considerable amount of my income to buy a really nice van. Yep, you got it, a van. Ewww, a van, how exciting!  I had convinced myself that if I had this van I could do some great stuff for my family and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. The payments were astronomical and when it finally came to doing I had little left to buy fuel.  It was comical and very sad. I had convinced myself that if I had this van all good things would happen.

      I am sure we all have examples of what we could buy or find, or have and then we'd be happy.  We are capable of incredible mental gymnastics to justify almost anything. Perhaps that is the seed of the devil.

      What I have come to know however is that God is clever enough to give us whatever we truly need to be happy inside ourselves. In fact, being happy with who we are as individuals is what will make us truly, truly happy.  One step further then, when we share who we are and share what we have, we are happier still. 

       It took me quite a long time to realize who I am. Thankfully, in that process of accepting who I am and loving myself I realized how wasteful and useless it was to accumulate 'things', to live beyond one's means and to let myself be guided by Madison avenue  rather than Jesus whom I had always claimed was my savior. 

        Not much more to say. You can write your own script for this with your own examples in life.  When you do share who you are and what you have, you discover it is much more than enough and you enrich everyone around you.

Mark 6:30-44

30 The apostles gathered around Jesus, and told him all that they had done and taught. ³¹He said to them, ‘Come away to a deserted place all by yourselves and rest a while.’ For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat. ³²And they went away in the boat to a deserted place by themselves. ³³Now many saw them going and recognized them, and they hurried there on foot from all the towns and arrived ahead of them. ³⁴As he went ashore, he saw a great crowd; and he had compassion for them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd; and he began to teach them many things. ³⁵When it grew late, his disciples came to him and said, ‘This is a deserted place, and the hour is now very late; ³⁶send them away so that they may go into the surrounding country and villages and buy something for themselves to eat.’ ³⁷But he answered them, ‘You give them something to eat.’ They said to him, ‘Are we to go and buy two hundred denarii^* worth of bread, and give it to them to eat?’ ³⁸And he said to them, ‘How many loaves have you? Go and see.’ When they had found out, they said, ‘Five, and two fish.’ ³⁹Then he ordered them to get all the people to sit down in groups on the green grass. ⁴⁰So they sat down in groups of hundreds and of fifties. ⁴¹Taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven, and blessed and broke the loaves, and gave them to his disciples to set before the people; and he divided the two fish among them all. ⁴²And all ate and were filled; ⁴³and they took up twelve baskets full of broken pieces and of the fish. ⁴⁴Those who had eaten the loaves numbered five thousand men.