I learned a new word last year. I teach SAT vocabulary, and in general like words. I get excited reading about the word of the year or which words got added to the dictionary. Learning new words isn’t new to me.
But last year I learned the word scarcity, from my friend Esther, and suddenly my world made more sense that it ever had.
Scarcity is the idea that there is not enough. And scarcity is a lie. There is enough. There is always enough.
But more often than not I operate in the realm of scarcity. A few ladies I really respect got agents and book deals; things I want. I got jealous, I got scared. What if I don’t get to do the things I dream of, things I believe God has called me to?
There isn’t a scarcity of platforms, of book deals, of agents. I will walk the path God has for me, not because there is not enough to go around, but because this is the abundant path for me. There is enough.
My weight creeped up on me this semester. I don’t weigh myself regularly, but my pants started getting really tight and it occurred to me to check in. One look at my eating habits and I knew the problem. Scarcity.
I eat like there is never enough. If it is delicious I won’t stop till it is gone. When will I get it again? What if I don’t? Just one more bite. What if someone else gets to it first? This is crazy. CRAZY! All the best food I have eaten lately I made. I can make it whenever I want. There is enough. Absolutely enough for me to abstain and not miss out on anything.
I stress myself out on a regular basis making very minor decisions, like which groceries to buy, which present to pick, which route to take. Usually, these decisions are such that there is no wrong answer, all answers are acceptable, and yet…yet I am pulling out my hair and beating myself up because, THERE IS ONLY ONE RIGHT ANSWER AND OH MAN I MADE THE WRONG ONE AND COST US (three minutes, six dollars, absolutely nothing) AND IT IS ALL MY FAULT. Scarcity of perfect choices. That isn’t real.
Scarcity is a lie, and I am not believing it anymore. I am choosing to believe that there is enough. Of everything. Of time and talent and book deals. Of good food and friendship. Of anything God has for me. There is enough.
So go to hell scarcity. Your lies aren’t welcome here. I am resolved.
Abby Norman 
Thank you for this. I struggle with some of those very same “perfect decisions” that might cost us time or money or SOMETHING. I’ve been wavering on my One Word for 2014. Perhaps it is “sufficiency” or some variation. Be gone, scarcity. Be gone.
I need to hold to the truth that Jesus is sufficient. I am not. I cannot rely on my sinful self; I rely on His Holiness.
This – “I eat like there is never enough. If it is delicious I won’t stop till it is gone. When will I get it again? What if I don’t? Just one more bite. What if someone else gets to it first? This is crazy. CRAZY!” – I totally do this. This made me laugh.
One of my caseload kids told me “Ms Laura, did you know that God told it to snow because he knew the kids would want a snow day?.” I LOVED it. But then I also realized how I didn’t really believe it, and why not? Why is it so hard for me to believe that God would give me snow days this week because he knew I needed it? I go to scarcity…because somewhere I think that I have to save pieces of God for others and take less for myself. I love your word this year. It’s going to be epic for you, friend.
Major sympathy. I’m realizing more and more how often I come from a place of scarcity. It’s almost scary how embedded it is in our culture.
Yes. All the advertisements, the way we phrase things, everything is served with a side of “there isn’t enough to go around”
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Had never thought about scarcity in this light – what a revelation. It is a lie I fall for in many areas of life. As you pointed out in one of your other posts on scarcity, it is really doubt that God is enough. I stumbled on to your site through the BlogHer list WordPress shared. Look forward to reading more.