To have an abundance of something is to have more than you need. The official dictionary definition of abundance is “to have a very large quantity of something”. This idea of abundance I believe stretches beyond the ideas and lessons in “prosperity” that we are often given. Which, for me, can be challenging to swallow sometimes. Prosperity teachings can often sound prescriptive and dependent on our thoughts/beliefs/actions. “Do these things and you will experience this…..just believe this and you will get that….if you don’t have it….you are not doing it right”. Abundance, like gravity, is an abiding principle within universal laws. It is the reality that there is an unlimited source of everything we could ever need and could ever want. Always present. Always available.
Now I know what you are thinking, because I am thinking it too. If that is true, then why do we so much lack in the world? We can’t sit in our little spiritual bubbles and ignore this fact. There are so many in our world that don’t have enough. The little sneaky point in this is that doesn’t mean there isn’t enough. The systems and frameworks, beliefs and ideals, and the drive of rugged individualism, capitalism and competition, have dampened our experience and awareness of abundance. We don’t have to look any further than the natural world to see there is a perfect and unique system that support life. It is constantly moving, constantly supporting, constantly maintaining and sustaining. This is the truth of Abundance. Abundance does not play favorites. It doesn’t say…”hey got that degree then here is a truckload of abundance….hey you work super hard….well then abundance for you….have the right whatever….here is a big bucket of abundance for you!” That is not abundance’s MO. Instead, this is often our MO. We have created barriers, blocks, and huge sink holes sometimes that get in the way of the awareness and actualization of the truth of abundance.
So abundance says “hey…I am already here…you don’t have to do anything….say anything….be anything”. The more we lean into this awareness, this understanding that often seems like a lofty idea or belief, the more we can begin to create and move in ways that abundance would have us move. This feels alot like community….alot like caring for those around us….alot like creating systems and frameworks that support the awareness of abundance for all of us. There is more than enough of everything that we could think of, and once we unleash this awareness in new and powerful ways, the result will be more than we could have possibly imagined.
Rev. Ryan