Abundance
an extremely plentiful or oversufficient quantity or supply:
(an abundance of grain.)
overflowing fullness:abundance of the heart.
Advent is here.
The season where we look at and forward to the remembrance of the coming of baby Jesus and the anticipation of the return of Jesus.
While having a conversation with a friend, we spoke about suffering. Suffering with a chronic illness. We pondered being comfortable with suffering. As a Black Christian who has been decolonizing her faith, deconstructing as well wrestling with concept of denominations. Decolonizing , deconstruction and wrestling have lead me to a deeper relationship with God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit. It seems the Church wants us to believe suffering is right of passage, especially allotted to my people and gender. I write about race, gender and Jesus, and you may be offended by it; so be it, I am not the writer for you. As I stated earlier, suffering in Christianity is taught as a lot in life, I must bear it as a Black person (to some we were predestined as Black people for slavery and systemic racism), a woman and now as someone who is disabled because a chronic disease.
Back to the discussion I was having with my friend, suffering. We thought about how much of our comfortability with suffering had to do with the politics of Christianity. Was this another way of controlling the masses? Yes, there is suffering in the Bible, yes, it is part of life but it should never be used as a crutch or a weapon of suppression. You know what else is in the Bible? The theology of abundance. It starts when God speaks the earth into existence, continues in the Garden, it’s in the blessings God hands to his people (read the books of Prophecies), and for me, it is Jesus Christ.
The person I was having the discussion with brought up abundance. Why don’t we as Christians ever walk in the fullness of abundance? That the two of us Christians with a chronic illness should not walk out the suffering 24/7, instead, we should be focusing on the abundance given to us as the daughters of Yahweh. As we were speaking, a conversation from almost 11 years ago came to mind. It was with a gentleman who used to go to my recent church, Michael. Michael was on a spiritual journey. He used words and theological arguments that I had never heard of in the churches I went to previously. Google was my best friend after a conversation with Michael during this time. He was hyper focused on God’s abundance. He wondered why we didn’t cultivate God’s abundance as modern Christians? I gave his question a moment of pondering and continued on with life. God wanted me to dive into this aspect of Yahweh’s character and blessing, I wasn’t ready. My belief is, it is time now and I am ready. My beautiful and sweet friend brought it up almost a month ago and I haven’t stopped thinking about it. Sooo…. I decided to write about it for Advent.
What does this have to do with Advent? How are you remembering Jesus through the theology of Abundance? Well, isn’t Jesus Christ, Emmanuel the summation of all things abundant scripturally? He is freedom, He is healing, He is reconciliation, he redemption, He is restoration. His Holy. Spirit is comfort, kindness, joy, peace and love.
Recently, I left my church, one of the reasons was I needed to refocus on Jesus….The everything of Jesus Christ. I am a woman without a church home. Yet, God has been guiding me: the conversation with my beloved friend and with a Rabbi I found on Twitter, Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg. Through her weekly newsletter, I have created my own version of the practice of Examen. Bear with me, I am in a serious place of reevaluation. Who am I in Christ? Because my God, knows me, Yahweh, knows I wrestle with every aspect of El Roi.
This is what Rabbi Danya wrote about wrestling:
It’s OK to be in the struggle, in the wrestling. It’s OK not to be in a set and settled place with regards to God and God-related things. It’s certainly OK not to have all the answers, for pete’s sake. The beauty is in the wrestling.
We all struggle, and the struggle is holy.
Wrestling, grappling with God is sacred….
Jacob wrestled with a man. Jacob is a man. Jacob was left alone, and then he finally began to face himself, began to struggle, began to grapple with all of the realities about who he is, who he has been, what he has done, who he has harmed — to finally look at that cauldron of shame instead of pushing it down, down, down yet again. To bring it up to the moonlight. To face it, at long last. To give it access to air. He could not give himself permission to relent until he had finally reached the place where he was able to finally, finally, bless himself. Offer himself something true. Give himself a new name, after so many years of buried self-loathing. To find a new way to see himself, a new possibility for entering old dynamics. Even if he didn’t emerge from the grappling unscathed. For this, too, is a way of facing God.” The Grappling
I want to face God, face Jesus, face the Holy Spirit. Last season of Lent, I looked at it through the lens of Joy. This Advent I am wrestling with God to see Yahweh’s abundance. So, the next three Sundays I am looking at God’s abundance through love, grace and faith.
For me to be a Christian is to examine God through everything I have gleaned myself or someone has pointed out to me.
Welcome season of Advent! Welcome season of wrestling! Welcome season of abundant God.
Verses:
Ephesians 3:20 — Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us.
Psalm 23:5 — You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.
Deuteronomy 30:9 — The Lord your God will make you abundantly prosperous in all the work of your hand, in the fruit of your womb and in the fruit of your cattle and in the fruit of your ground. For the Lord will again take delight in prospering you, as he took delight in your fathers.
Exodus 34:6 — The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.”
Quote of the Week
Choose joyful abundance in your heart and be unbounded, free, and relaxed. Be relentless with your choice and you’ll make your mark. Amy Leigh Mercree
Song on Rotation
Prayer for this Week:
Let nothing disturb you,
Let nothing frighten you,
All things are passing away:
God never changes.
Patience obtains all things
Whoever has God lacks nothing;
God alone suffices. — St. Teresa of Avila
