• Several years ago I read a book that has shifted the way I look at life. It’s called, “Simple Abundance”, written by Sarah Ban Breathnach ( bän-BRÄN-äk).
• Principle of Simple Abundance is this: You already have everything you need to be truly happy. It’s inside you. It’s a gift. And it’s already yours.
• Most of us, myself included, often have trouble living that way. We can’t see how much we have because we’re always looking at what we need: More satisfying, better paying job, new car with that fresh new car smell, house that has all the bells and whistles like they have, a dream vacation to Europe, or Disneyworld, or perhaps as someone recently paid millions to experience, a trip to the space station. And if only we had these things, then we’d finally be happy. Then we’d finally be satisfied. Then we’d finally be fulfilled.
• Many of us live life seeing the glass half empty because that’s the way our society has taught us to see it. I won’t ask how many of you got up at the crack of dawn and went shopping on Friday to get those door buster specials that would finally make your life complete. I won’t ask because truthfully, I was one of them. But I draw the line at 5 a.m. on Friday morning. I’m not like those people we saw Thanksgiving night at 8:00 camped out in front of Best Buy with their tents and sleeping bags waiting for who knows what. I do wonder though if they managed to get what they were looking for. Did they get what the really needed? And did it make them happy?
• Just suppose, instead of living life with the glass half empty, we began to see it as half full. Or maybe more than half full. Maybe it’s filled to the brim, or even spilling over. Just suppose we began to live life not from a place of lack and need, but from a place of abundance. Maybe our story would go something like this story from the book of 1 Kings.
• It’s a familiar story. Most of us have heard it before. It’s the story of Elijah the prophet and the widow of Zarephath.
• Once upon a time, Elijah found himself traveling through the enemy territory of Sidon when he comes upon a widow gathering sticks by the city gate. It’s clear that she is a poor woman, scraping together what she can to get by. It’s also clear, judging by the fact that she owns a house with an upper chamber even, that at one point she was much better off than she is now.
• But the famine has been severe, times are tough, and she more than most has cause to be feeling the lack of abundance, the lack of even the basics. She knew what it was like to be one of the haves, and now, at least it appears, she has not.
• Still, God has drawn them together for a reason. Elijah, in a very polite, roundabout way, asks her first for water to drink, and then for food, knowing all the while there isn’t much food to go around.
• Like Elijah, the woman too knows she doesn’t have much. She’s gathering sticks to make a fire to make a final meal, there’s only enough for one more. And then she and her son will be done.
• How easy it is to see the lack of abundance in this story. How tempting it must have been for the woman to hoard the few scraps she has to herself. After all, shouldn’t she look out for number one and forget Elijah and his needs. “Charity begins at home,” isn’t that what they say?
• But this woman, this widow is coming at this from a different place. Yes, she’s a realist, she knows there isn’t enough. But she’s also a person of faith, and she knows that if God promises enough there will be enough.
• And so she shares her food. She shares the food that would only last one day, and lo and behold, it lasts for many days.

• It turns out that this woman who was so lacking in the basic necessities had an abundance after all.
• You see, simple abundance doesn’t come from things without, what’s in the cupboard, the garage, or the checking account.
• Simple abundance comes from within
• It comes from a spirit of gratitude: giving thanks for all you have. And that means all
• From the big things like family and a roof over your head
• To the little things like a hot cup of coffee on a rainy Saturday, or blueberries on your cereal at breakfast, or the gift of another day to live and love.
• A spirit of gratitude leads us to simple abundance.

• It also comes from a spirit of faith: trusting that God knows what you need, whether it be bread for today, a paycheck to provide shelter, or a shove in the back to get you going when you stall. A spirit of faith leads us to simple abundance.
• And it comes from a shift of attitude: From the attitude of scarcity to the confidence of abundance. From the endless litany of I need, to the grateful prayer, I have…
• Simple abundance doesn’t come from the things around us, it comes from within.

• Dietrich Bonhoeffer knew this: He was a theologian in Germany during WWII who opposed Hitler’s regime. At one point he escaped from Germany and was offered a teaching position at Union Theological Seminary in New York. Instead, he chose to return to Germany to assist in an underground seminary for churches opposed to Hitler. He was arrested, and eventually executed. It would have been easy to see the scarcity in his life. But shortly before his death he wrote these words: "What is happiness and unhappiness? It depends so little on circumstances; it really depends on what happens inside a person." That’s simple abundance.
• When we come from a place of abundance, rather than a place of deficit, we find ourselves freed to share our abundance with others. Like the widow of Zarephath, we can share what little we do have, because we recognize that the fullness in our souls doesn’t come from the possessions we own. Like the man living in the Appalachian hills of Tennessee. A church was running a clothing drive and this man called for a pickup. The church workers drove up to a falling down shack and saw an old man standing on porch. As they got out of their car, the man took off his own jacked. “I received this several years ago in clothing drive, now I want to give back.” The church workers could only see the need. Yet the man was living a life of abundance.
• Yet one more story. A fable perhaps. Once there was a wise woman who found a stone of great value one day while washing in a stream. Perhaps it was a diamond, or a ruby, or some other valuable gem. Who knows? But the next day a stranger came to her and asked her for a bite of food. As the woman opened her sack to find a morsel of bread, the stranger spied the valuable stone. “May I have that instead?” he asked. And to his surprise, the woman agreed. At first, the man was elated, finally he had something which when sold would meet his needs forever. But soon enough he returned to the woman. To her surprise he gave her back the stone. “I know this stone has great value,” he said, “But I’m returning it to you in the hopes you will give me something of even greater value. Give me instead what you have within you that enabled you to give me this stone.”
• The story ends there, but we know what she had within her. It was Simple Abundance.

In this season of Thanksgiving, may God grant us clear vision to see the abundance in our own lives, and generous hearts to share out of our abundance with those we meet. Amen.