Enough

A personal question.

How much is enough? I realize it is a personal question—one that I cannot answer for you or you for me.  It’s a question we are well served to ask ourselves.

We are about as privileged as anyone can be. We live in beautiful homes, we have excellent medical care, virtually every fruit, vegetable and meat is available and affordable in our grocery stores, we have access to restaurants galore, and we can and do travel most anywhere. The list goes on and on.

My belief is we pay a heavy price for being privileged.  If we are not careful, our hearts can grow hard. We can become more selfish as we strive to protect what we have. We can become fearful that we might lose our money, which is what we mistakenly believe protects us.  

We can become more judgmental and less compassionate. We use society’s standards in judging what is good and excellent rather than God’s standards. We miss out on the wonderful feeling from seeing the grace of God poured out boundlessly on those in need. Often, we forgo the privilege of being on God’s “thy will be done” team. And we never really find out whether God will be there for us until we face death.

Everyone everywhere needs to have enough. But, what if I have twice as much as enough, or three times as much or twenty times as much? Wouldn’t my excess help others in desperate need?

An instance that has profoundly impacted me. Some years ago, when Carole and Howard Hovde were living in Kerrville, they drove to San Antonio to purchase a piece of furniture Howard wanted for his office. While in San Antonio, Jack Willome took them to see the new center being built on the West Side of San Antonio by Freddie Garcia for men and women recovering from addiction. Carole and Howard decided they would rather help the recovering men and women than have the furniture. They returned the furniture and gave the money to Freddie’s ministry.