“The thief comes only to steal and
kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.”
(John 10:10 NIV)
I stopped
in my tracks and took a double-take. There, in the cereal aisle of a small-town
grocery store, I saw a man pushing a cart stuffed with packages of toilet
paper!
The COVID-19
pandemic had exposed fears in most unusual ways. Not only was tissue flying off
the shelves, but soaps, sanitizers, chicken, frozen potatoes, and canned goods joined
the migration. Americans suddenly faced a mass shortage of rations they were
accustomed to enjoying in abundance. Shortage took on a new and frightful
meaning for me.
I
experienced scarcity firsthand when I visited my Compassion International child
in Peru in 2007. I was humbled and honored to meet Mario and his mother and attend
the school/church projects there.
On that
flight to South America I recalled a musical-mission trip to the Dominican
Republic with First Baptist of Pensacola in the early 1970’s. As their choral accompanist,
I served in a medical clinic during the day and played in concerts at night. The
Dominican Republic trip was my introduction to third-world poverty.
My husband
joined me on a Compassion tour in 2009 to visit Darwing, our sponsored child in
Managua. Nicaragua was less commercialized than Peru and strikingly more
humble. Believers lived in flimsy cardboard boxes with leaky tin roofs and shifting,
dirt floors, protected only by their sturdy faith.
During the
coronavirus pandemic I decided to shrink my store of possessions. I replaced
paper goods with washable, cloth items. “More of Him and Less of Me” took on a
new, personal meaning.
I will let
go of things in order to get more of Jesus, in Whom there is no scarcity. I
hope you will, too!
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