Abundance & Poverty

Yesterday after dinner, I was reading Strength for the Journey, a collection of sermons by Peter J Gomez. One of the sermons is titled (Faith) "Does it Work for You?", and its text is "I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly." (John 10:10)
As I read, I was distracted by the statistics I had been given regarding literacy. My mind wandered, and I thought, "If 20 people were trained to teach 100 people in the villages and towns to read and write, then..." I began to do the math in my head, and I wondered if it was possible to teach thousands of people to read. As I got ready for bed, I threw my head back and dropped one drop of medicine from a tiny vial into each eye. About a year ago, I was diagnosed with early stage glaucoma. With first stage detection and medication, my prognosis is very good. While eye clinics have been established in West Africa in recent years, glaucoma goes largely undiagnosed and untreated, leading almost always to blindness. I am blessed to have been given the gift of sight, and the enjoyment and empowerment of reading. I have been given a defense against blindness, and I have been given so much more. I am thank-
ful for the health, food, and economic security that I have been given. I am most grateful for what I am learning in this post-war country about true abundance. It is not about anything that can be given to us or taken away by the world, it is about what God gives us, and gives us to share. It is the Peace of Christ that passeth all understanding. That is God's abundance.

Lord, May I see more clearly with my heart, to know and do your will . Amen.