“True abundance is not something you are able to quantify or touch.  It is a spiritual experience where less becomes more.† ~JMeyer
Alaska Trip – Day Four
Ketchikan, Alaska, we have arrived!
Obscure/Relevance Topic: Â Abundance
As I walk to breakfast for some early morning spiritual and physical nutrition, I’m reminded of abundance.
Ketchikan, Alaska…home of the reality TV show, “Alaska Bush People.”
Abundance came to mind as I noticed two other cruise ships docked at our port.  My mind began to have a scarcity committee meeting; “How will this little village be able to handle thousands of visitors from these cruise ships?  What a busy mess this day is going to be.â€
Then I paused and looked at the mountains surrounding Ketchikan and I took in a deep breath of the vast beauty of the picture before me and I was overwhelmed with the feeling of abundance.
Abundance is a state of mind. Â I know people living in abundance who have very little. Â I know people living in scarcity who have more than 99% of the people in the world.
The world tries to trick us into thinking abundance is about things.
My morning devotion for this day centered on God’s word from the book of Joel 2:25:  “And I will restore to you the years that the locust has eaten.† I’ve often referred to the five years I lost in my life during the 1980’s as the locust years of my life.  My decisions represented the locusts and they nearly ate me alive.
On August 9, 1987 I began a journey of restoration. Â A restoration that helped me recognize God’s view and man’s view of abundance are in conflict.
Man says; “Get it before someone else does.” Â God says; “There’s plenty for everyone, share it and there will be even more.”
A couple of minutes after converting scarcity to abundance I observed an eagle flying majestically above Ketchikan. Â A picture that will forever be etched in my brain. Â A picture I would have missed if I had not chosen to see the day in an abundant way.
Put God first in all you do and abundance will be yours…Jesus fed five thousand people with five loaves of bread and two fish. Â (Matthew 14:13-21)
View from our boat plane heading to Misty Fyords.
BTW…the small village and miles of forest around Ketchikan made us feel as though we were the only people there.  I’m certain I would have felt differently if I would have allowed myself to stay where my mind started in the morning.
Scarcity is the devil’s point of view.  Abundance is God’s point of view.
Which point of view do you see the world from?
Highlight of the day: Â Misty Fjords National Preserve…breathtaking and significantly more abundant beyond my previous picture of abundance.
P.E.A.C.E.
Philippians 4:11-13, “Not that I was ever in need, for I have learned how to get along happily whether I have much or little.  I know how to live on almost nothing or with everything.  I have learned the secret of living in every situation, whether it is with a full stomach or empty, with plenty or little.  For I can do everything with the help of Christ who gives me the strength I need.† (NLT)
