Spirituality at Work: January 2009

True Abundance

By Woodeene Koenig-Bricker

“This year I resolve to make all my deadlines.” 

I’m sure that’s the resolution that my editor would like me to make and it is a good one.  But I prefer to make resolutions that I know I have a fighting chance of keeping.  I mean, when it’s January and you’ve already blown the resolution before you made it, there’s not really much reason to make it, is there?

So this year I’m going to make just one resolution that I hope applies to my work life and my personal life.  “In 2009, I resolve to focus on abundance.”

Now I’m aware that sounds a teeny bit new agey, like something out of the best-seller The Secret.  Focus on abundance and all your dreams will come true!  But remember that Jesus said: "I have come that they may have life and have it more abundantly." John 10:10. Clearly Jesus wasn’t talking about buying a new car every year or two, wearing couture fashions or vacationing in 5 star hotels.  I’ll admit those things are nice, but in the end even Manolo Blahnik heels (the shoes worn by the girls on Sex in the City) are just an expensive way to cover your feet and a new car depreciates the moment it’s driven off the lot.

This past year, especially as the economic situation became bleaker and bleaker, I realized that true abundance isn’t having all  I want, but having all I need to fulfill God’s will in my life.  For the first time, I understood why the saints, in the midst of material deprivation and suffering, could call themselves richly blessed.  They knew that real abundance is measured by intangibles: love, caring, sharing, self-worth, happiness and hope. 

So that’s when I decided that this year I’m going to turn my attention toward, to use a cliché, counting my blessings.

So, since I missed the change to resolve to meet all my deadlines, I want to use this overdue column to share with you some of the things that have happened since I made my real New Year’s Resolution.

First, I have experienced material abundance.  Okay, so my treasure ship is still in dry dock, but on a small scale, I have been given unexpected financial/material blessings.  Two examples.  My bank charged me an annual fee for something has been free in the past.  I would have paid it, but it was $90.00 and that was quite a bit for me right now.  So I called up my banker, mentioned it to her and she said, “Oh, no problem.  You’ve been a good customer.  We’ll reverse the charge immediately.”  And she did.

Second example.  My mother, who is in a nursing home, has many of her possessions in a storage unit.  I finally got my garage cleaned out so that I could bring them to my home (to sort and redistribute.  Shhh…don’t tell Mother.)  The problem?  I don’t have a vehicle big enough to transport them. So I called someone with a pick-up who has done heavy yard clean up for me in the spring and fall and asked how much he would charge.  “Are you going to have me do your spring cleaning?” he asked.  When I said yes, he replied, “If you can give me $50 on credit toward the spring cleaning, I’ll be happy to move your mother’s stuff for free.”  Abundance!

Second, and most important, I really am more at peace despite the scary times than I have been in a long time.  My bank account may be low, but as I turn--force might be a better word--my heart and mind to look for the ways God is taking care of me, I realize that God really is taking care of me.  Granted, it’s a lot easier to focus on lack rather than abundance, but if it were easy, I wouldn’t need to make a New Year’s resolution, would I?

In the coming months, I hope to be able to share with you some of my adventures in abundance.  I’m looking forward to this being a great year…no matter what happens. In the meantime, I’m counting my blessings.