Abundance Is Our Birthright

I am so blessed and grateful to be sitting here in my home watching the sunrise on Lake Murray. It's Sunday and a bit chilly this October morning. Sundays are special in several ways. They represent a fresh start on a new week. They also offer an opportunity for me to join good friends and fellow Christians in Sunday School and worship services at Chapin United Methodist Church. In worhip, I thank my creator for the abundance of blessings we enjoy.

Over the years as we have lived in different places, Ed and I have worshipped at different churches. They have each blessed us in a special way and taught us lessons about God, life, and ourselves. Regardless of the pastor or the message, however, the recurring theme has been how abundantly blessed we are. As a result of being blessed, our duty is therefore to be a blessing to others.

As I read the story of the great patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in Genesis, I realize that abundance was their birthright. These men and their families had challenges to be sure. Sometimes they made wise choices and sometimes not. Regardless, God continued to bless them and stay true to his covenant promise to bless them and make them as numerous as the stars in the sky or the sand on the shore.

Here we are, four thousand years later, and these blessings continue from one generation to the next. Like the patriarchs, we have challenges in life. And often our challenges are similar to theirs. As families we deal with sibling rivalry, jealousy, alienation, forgiveness, and reconciliation. As nations, we deal with war, peace treaties, immigration, and trade agreements.

The beauty of all of this is that the same God who made a covenant with Abraham seeks to make one with us. We may think we live in a different time with all our technology and so we do. But all we experience today was made possible by the one God who set everything in motion by His powerfully spoken word.

As we approach this Sunday with all of its abundance, let's take the time to recognize and offer thanks to the creator who makes it all possible. Abundance is our birthright. Our grateful stewardship of this abundance is our response. We have been freely given so that now we can freely give.

May you enjoy all the abundance, peace, and joy that you were created to experience.

Sandra Hayes
Prosperity, South Carolina

You Are A Genius

As I ponder the scope of being created in God's image, it occurs to me that we are all geniuses. Webster's dictionary defines genius as the protective spirit within a person from conception. These words surprised me and gave me pause to meditate on their meaning. I thought of Psalm 139:13-14, "You are the one who put me together inside my mother's body, and I praise you because of the wonderful way you created me. Everything you do is marvelous! Of this I have no doubt."

So what makes me concentrate on the idea of your being a genius? Well, it has to do with confidence and worthiness. Knowing as I do that you are a genius, totally capable of achieving the purpose you were created for, does that affect your feeling of worthiness and confidence? To me, this says that you have within you everything necessary to accomplish your goals. Of course the next question is, "how do I set goals that I know are in line with God's will for my life?"

Whatever God gives you a passion for, He will provide the means for you to achieve. This means if you have a passion for becoming a pastor, you can achieve it. If you are passionate about government service, or medicine, flying airplanes, or business, you can become successful at it. Will it be simple and easy? Probably not, but simple and easy are not what we are discussing. We are discussing genius. If you study great people in scripture and outside of scripture, they were all geniuses in some way. They had a passion to accomplish their life's dream. Rarely, if ever, was it easy.

Some Biblical names that come to mind are Jesus Christ, Paul, Abraham, Moses, King David, Daniel, Ruth, Noah, Jonah, Elijah, and Jeremiah, just to name a few. Non-biblical people who come to mind are Abraham Lincoln, Mother Teresa, Martin Luther King,Jr., Thomas Edison, Christopher Columbus, and George Washington Carver. There are many more I could name and that is a good thing. These geniuses are famous. There are also many names that I do not know. Does this mean that non-famous people are not geniuses? Of course not. Many people have accomplished their life's passions and not become well-known.

The tragedy does not lie in not being famous. The tragedy lies in having given up on one's dreams and passions before they were accomplished. In our Disciple II class this week, we have been reading about Abraham and Sarah in the Old Testament book of Genesis. Abraham and Sarah were already past child-bearing years when God called them to leave their home in Ur and establish a nation in Israel. They had no children at that time and the land was already occupied by other people of different religions. It really is an interesting story with the main characters taking matters into their own hands because they didn't believe God could do what He had promised. In spite of some poor decisions on their part, which caused some unneccessary hardships, they were successful in achieving the purpose they were called to and which they were passionate about.

The point here is that genius is not rare but rather common. Ever since Adam and Eve, people have been misled into doubting God's purposes and promises. From this moment forward, I challenge all of us to acknowlegde the great power of our creator who made us like Him, not to be Him, but to be His representatives on earth. As such, He gave us all the abilities we require to make our passionate dreams become real. And before we were born, He covered us with His protective spirit. I pray you now believe and are empowered by the fact that you are a genius.