Justice For Our Neighbors' Judy Kading is ministering at the southern border, and blogging at Immigrants Speak from the Border
A relative who passed years ago, was born during the Depression. She saved many items. In her basement she stored stacks of plastic containers from Dream Whip and other food products. Even though her daughters gifted her with good quality Rubbermaid items, she couldn’t stop keeping those various Cool Whip containers!
Have you ever known someone for whom the glass is always half empty and never half full?
Here at the Holding Institute in Laredo, Texas, we are experiencing the high temperatures of summer—104 is easily reached on a daily basis. Because of that we keep the air conditioner running all the time, but this is not without controversy! There is one school of thought that at night the thermometer needs to be turned up and a competing school of thought that it is better to maintain the same temperature 24 hours a day. Says one of the ministers, “We have money to pay for this expense and we want our volunteers and refugee clients to be comfortable.”
Different people even have slightly different ideas about how much to place into the travel bags that are given out. Some people are the conservers who think we will run out, so we must be careful not to be too generous. Others think that the point of being given all these items is to use them for our sojourners and that we can always ask for more.
Scarcity or abundance? Use now for the purpose given or save for later for the purpose given. I think of UMCOR making the distinction between a warehouse where items are to be stored and a depot from which items are to be shipped out to those in need.
“The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill and to destroy. I have come that they may have life and that they may have it more abundantly.” John 10:10
Let’s think about what abundant life means for all of us. I enjoy a very abundant life in many ways. I want that for everyone. Do you?