Wednesday, June 08, 2011

Enough - but not more!

Exodus 16:21 "So they gathered it each morning, a each person according to what he could eat, and when the sun got hot, it would melt."

The book of Exodus tells us that the Israelites were fed with "Manna" during their 40 year sojourn in the wilderness. This was food that appeared each morning as "a thin flaky substance, thin like frost on the earth" (Exodus 16:14). I have no way of knowing whether this is a well constructed parable or a daily miraculous magic moment. But the one key teaching carried in this story is the challenge to the people to take only as much as they needed.

Each person had sufficient for that day. But if an individual tried to accumulate more than could be eaten that day - the hoarded food became rotten. And here is the challenge of human life here on earth: that there is sufficient resources for everyone - if we use only what we need. But when we take more than we can use, then life becomes rotten!

Rotten living is visible where some live in opulent homes while many live in shacks. Rotten living is where a few mine owners get fat while the workers in the mine are starving. Rotten living is where some earn more money in an annual bonus than the majority earn in a lifetime.

Join me as I commit my life to resisting and opposing rotten living. And work with me in creating a world where we share our resources.
Sent via my BlackBerry

1 comment:

roygbiv said...

James 1 has been teaching me the same thing. I had better listen. Thanks for the words.